Custom Amp and Guitar Stands:

In my continued search for new, custom designed equipment and accessories to add to my gear, I stumbled upon these two products; a NEW quality Amp stand for the professional guitarist called the Ampendage Amp Stand and the exquisite, custom wood guitar stand from Take a Stand.  I’ll tell you all about the Ampendage Amp Stand first, then we’ll move onto Take a Stand.

Have you ever had trouble hearing your amp at gigs? Are you subjecting your audience to a too loud and/or bright sound?

Then the Ampendage may be for you…

For years, guitarists with only small stages to play on, and with backline only setups (i.e. no PA system), have struggled to get a good guitar sound for both themselves and the audience. Often the amp is placed on the floor and facing the back of the guitarists legs; and he isn’t able to hear it clearly over the drummer's clatter and the rumbles from the bassist. And turning up the amp's volume and/or raising the treble EQ is not always the best option – he may hear himself a little better but the audience may find the resulting loud, piercing guitar tone a little too much to bear! So, various manufacturers have created devices to either angle the amp so the speaker is pointing upwards or to raise it off the floor so that the guitarist can hear it himself.

Ampendage is one such company that makes a stand that both raises the amp off the floor and angles the speaker upwards so it's pointing at your head. Good for you, good for your audience. The Ampendage comes as several black MDF boards flat packed that you assemble yourself. Assembly takes around 15 minutes and although it's not collapsible once built, it's not too big or heavy to inhibit its cartage in your car. Although primarily aimed at 1x12 combos, it can also hold 2x12 combos and the height puts a combo's controls readily to hand without having to reach downwards.

In use, it greatly improves what you hear so in effect improves perception of your playing for you, your band and the audience. It even comes with a carry handle that stops your amp sliding off the stand. Priced at $59.95 (plus shipping and handling), the Ampendage amp stand may just be the kit that keeps everyone and you happy about what you play. Good stuff!

Specs:

12" high  |  14" wide  |  12.5" deep

Amp standing surface 11" 

Weight – 8.4lbs/3.8kgs

Able to hold a load of up to 300lbs

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Now we move onto;

The Handcrafted Hardwood Guitar Stands

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection when there is nothing left to take away.”      -Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Our wood guitar stands are created as fine furniture – meticulously designed to be structurally sound, aesthetically beautiful and flattering to your guitar and its surroundings.

• Solid hardwood - no plywood or particle board
• Safe for all guitar finishes
• Custom designed to your specifications
• Secure and stable
• Patented designs - D610835, D628830

At Take a Stand, we believe your guitar stand should enhance and complement your instrument. Whether your guitar is custom made, vintage or simply your pride and joy, discerning players appreciate the quality of our guitar stands. Take a Stand wood guitar stands are handcrafted using the finest hardwoods with wood trim accents, precision machined metal and genuine leather. As a gift or for yourself, they are dramatic artistic statements.

         

                     SM Guitar Stand                              WM Guitar Stand

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Selects

We often look for special and exotic woods that aren't part of our standard wood choices. Sometimes it's by chance, a customer suggestion, or simply a request. Either way, below you will find some very interesting guitar stands that are produced in limited quantities. Let us know if there is something that interests you. We may have the stand in stock or we can create one specifically for you.

We have other exotic woods in stock like wattle (Australian wood similar to koa), chechen rosewood, figured makore, bubinga, santos mahogany, quarter sawn sycamore, rosewood, curly cherry, curly walnut, flame birch, and others.

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SM Design Guitar Stand in Curly Eastern Walnut

We found this very special board of eastern walnut amongst a pile of regular walnut. It's got spectacular grain and figure. Fortunately we've been able to find more of this wood from alternate sources and is available with an additional charge of $75. The pictured stand is an SM with ebony binding and metal feet. The center binding on the base is a unique design with an alternate strip of curly walnut. The feet and metal hardware are powdercoated with mirror black. The stand is complemented with black leather wrapped supports.

SM Design Guitar Stand in Wenge

This stand was requested by our good friend and fantastic luthier, Jason Kostal. Wenge is a tropical wood, dark in color with a very interesting grain pattern. Ebony binding was added to the stand to give it a somewhat more refined look. To match the ebony binding, mirror black hardware and black leather was added to the stand.

WM Design Guitar Stand in Ziricote

Ziricote is a beautiful wood found in a small part of Central America. It exhibits wonderful grain patterns and is denser than rosewood. Like cocobolo and rosewood, it is fairly heavy and polishes to a beautiful finish. The wood used for this stand was found while searching for other woods at a local exotic wood supplier in Long Island. It was a very rough board when purchased, so it was an incredible surprise when it first emerged from the planer in the shop.

SM Design Guitar Stand in Quartersawn Sycamore

We recently discovered sycamore while shopping for other woods. Sycamore is a beautiful wood with wonderful varied grain. Check out the close-up shot of the wood to get an idea of the grain. The stand shown here has bubinga edge binding and bubinga inlay on the base. The hardware is pewter powdercoat. We were pleasantly surprised to see that Batson Guitars had a gorgeous sycamore guitar at the recent 2011 Montreal Guitar Show.

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If you find these guitar stands rather unique, and like pieces of furniture that would blend well with the décor of your home, you’ll love them.  However, unlike the Ampendage Amp Stands, these guitars stands run between $325.00 for the WM Design with No Options, to as high as $600.00 for the SM Design with options like metal feet, etc..

I hope you find this post informative and as interesting as I did.  It’s amazing what kind of custom products are available for the beginning all the way up to the professional guitarist.  And it is important to note that they are offered at many different price points as well, so that we can each invest at the level we are most comfortable with.

Have a wonderful weekend and be sure to give your kids a big hug and kiss to show them that you love them.

Until next time;

Musician By Night