Stay Music stands

[Morrissey]

I haven't seen much chatter here about Stay Music brand stands. Who has them? Positive/negative reviews? I'm curious in particular about the "Piano" model. I assume it is sturdy but the column is so... upright.

 

 

CLONK

[Stokely]

I checked into them when I was considering 3-tier options. I currently have a spider pro and love it, but adding a 3rd tier to it would not work for me (height, and also you'd have to remove the top, which eliminates one of the huge benefits of the thing)

 

That pic looks odd, I'd say the angle may not be that straight-up. Then again, that is a slightly different stand than the ones I was checking.

 

Interested to see what you find out, sorry I can't actually help!

[Dave Bryce]

I have one of the piano models. It's easy to set up and break down and I quite like the footprint...but it's not very sturdy. Whatever keyboard I've put on it has wobbled too much when I play it, even when I play lightly. Heavy keyboards are especially wobbly.

 

I went back to my Apex column. It's much better in this respect.

 

dB

[ajstan]

I tried the two-tier piano version at standing height and it was too twisty with just a single NS3-HA88. It looked super cool in red, and the cable management was terrific, but I returned it and went with a K&M 18880. I think the single-tier version of the stand for seated playing has less movement. The column is not completely vertical as the picture would suggest. It is angled away from the player.

 

EDIT: Here's a photo of the stand with a 40lb NS3 set to a height for playing while standing. The greater distance from the fulcrum at the base would lead to more twisting than if it were set lower for seated playing. There was minimal bounce to it.

 

Wish I would have taken a side picture to better show the angle, but if placed against a wall, the point of the base would be able to get no closer than 2"-3" from the wall before the top of the column touched the wall. From that, I would estimate a 6"-8" angle distance from the base to the top of the column.

[richforman]

VERY happy with my 2-tier Stay column stand and I swore by the Spider Pro for years before getting it, now I don't miss that one at all. This one's much more lightweight for transport, and boasts very quick/easy setup/breakdown. Cable management system is better than on the Spider Pro (and I always mentioned it as a good feature there; here it's even better). The reason it's better is that you can just take that little rubber clip off momentarily then clip it back on over all your cables that you're running under it it, rather than having to individually run each one under the permanently mounted corresponding clips on the spider pro. Another advantage over the spider pro, you set the tiers at the height you want them and can keep them there forever (on the SP, you have to basically draw the desired locations on the column with a sharpie in order to get the tiers back to the same height position next time.) It's less expensive to purchase and comes with its own specialized carrying bag included, whereas with the Spider Pro you have to spend an extra 50 bucks for that. I've placed my Korg Kronos, Roland Fantom X7 and Yamaha MOXF8 in different pairings on the two tiers and don't have any stability issues at all.

 

 

[MathOfInsects]

I also use the Stay 44--the two-tier "Piano" series--and find it so stable as to wonder if maybe they tweaked the design after those who say it wobbles, complained. From a physics standpoint, I actually don't know how the current version could be unstable, since it would seem to be more and more stable the heavier the load you put on it.

 

In short, I love this stand. Basically no time involved in set-up, a cool cable-management system, dead sexy, light, and convenient. I am going to order the shorter one for one-board gigs.

 

I find the bag more of a hindrance than a help and just take it commando with the legs in my gear bag. One of my favorite recent purchases, all things considered.

[Stokely]

VERY happy with my 2-tier Stay column stand and I swore by the Spider Pro for years before getting it, now I don't miss that one at all. This one's much more lightweight for transport, and boasts very quick/easy setup/breakdown. Cable management system is better than on the Spider Pro (and I always mentioned it as a good feature there; here it's even better). The reason it's better is that you can just take that little rubber clip off momentarily then clip it back on over all your cables that you're running under it it, rather than having to individually run each one under the permanently mounted corresponding clips on the spider pro. Another advantage over the spider pro, you set the tiers at the height you want them and can keep them there forever (on the SP, you have to basically draw the desired locations on the column with a sharpie in order to get the tiers back to the same height position next time.) It's less expensive to purchase and comes with its own specialized carrying bag included, whereas with the Spider Pro you have to spend an extra 50 bucks for that. I've placed my Korg Kronos, Roland Fantom X7 and Yamaha MOXF8 in different pairings on the two tiers and don't have any stability issues at all.

 

 

Very interesting *looks over at the multiple sharpie marks on my Spider Pro*....the weight has been something I dislike about the Spider, cable management I haven't really had an issue with either way.

 

I did buy the Spider Pro bag and frankly it's not very good...already mine is fraying badly, and it's really thin. I got it mainly for ease of carrying though. In retrospect I should have just bought a speaker stand bag, those are more sturdy and around the same size.

 

I also had to do quite a bit of customization to the mic stand adapter to make it worth a darn...new bolt, some reinforcement of the bolt on the underside, and a padded washer. Not exactly difficult work, but out of the box the mic stand adapter was terrible. I didn't change out the plastic head piece though (K&M sells a metal one, it's not cheap) as the washer and nut on the underside helped make the whole thing more rigid. I say all this to wonder how good the Stay mic stand adapters are. I love not having to bring (and inevitably forget) a separate mic stand!

 

 

 

[nursers]

I had a quick hands on with th Stay stands at NAMM and although they LOOK a little flimsy (particularly compared to the Spider Pro which is a damn tank), it felt sturdy when I put my weight on it.

[drawback]

 

I"d rather see Stay sustain pedals, myself.

 

[El Lobo]

I use the Stay single tier slim keyboard stand. I like it because it's very lightweight and packs into a slender canvas bag. It takes up less stage real estate than my table stand. I wanted this stand because I play standing up (double on sax) and i needed a stand that goes high enough. My main negative about it is that it's hard to position my volume/swell pedal under it, but I manage to make it work. It's pretty stable but if you're at the same level as the audience and somebody walks by it, they could accidentally hit the keyboard and potentially knock it sideways. They couldn't do that with the table stand.

[cphollis]

I've been happy with both of mine. I have a single-column, two-tier one (in Nord-like red) that can get a little flexy if I get too aggressive, and dual-column, single-tier one I use for acoustic gigs. They appear to be well-designed, good looking and ridiculously light.

 

I also have a two-tier Spider Pro. Also good. A bit more stable, a lot heavier, sort of neutral-looking on stage.

[tucktronix]

I have the single-column 3-tier.. Kronos X 88 bottom tier, Nord E5D middle, Subsequent 37 at the top. Been gigging with it for about 2 yrs now and I love it.. very study

[Six-string-man]

I saw one in a store, I don"t know what model it was, but I can assure you that it was completely vertical. The lower arms were empty, and the top arms were holding a Moog sub 37 at sitting height. Not a lot of weight I know, but it was totally stable. I was initially intrigued, but it was priced at nearly twice the cost of the K&M 18810 standing next to it. They had them in red, black and blue, some were slightly different from the others, different models I assume.

[KeyMoe]

I have the single-column 3-tier.. Kronos X 88 bottom tier, Nord E5D middle, Subsequent 37 at the top. Been gigging with it for about 2 yrs now and I love it.. very study

 

I used this same 3 tier stand for a few years and love it as well. Lightweight and sturdy. It holds a Yamaha S70 XS, a Yamaha MX49 on the mid tier, and a Hammond SK1 on top.

[MathOfInsects]

I saw one in a store, I don"t know what model it was, but I can assure you that it was completely vertical. The lower arms were empty, and the top arms were holding a Moog sub 37 at sitting height. Not a lot of weight I know, but it was totally stable. I was initially intrigued, but it was priced at nearly twice the cost of the K&M 18810 standing next to it. They had them in red, black and blue, some were slightly different from the others, different models I assume.

 

Unless they changed the design--which I am now thinking is likely--they are not vertical, at least currently. They lean back just enough to put the weight on the back "foot" (which is why they are so stable....again, at least currently).

[Six-string-man]

This is quite possible, as I was in the store last September, and I don"t know how long the stand had been on display. It caught my eye as I had never seen a vertical stand before, at least not one with such small support arms. It didn"t have a 'back foot' as such, more of a flat base.

[Ulf]

I use the Stay single tier slim keyboard stand. I like it because it's very lightweight and packs into a slender canvas bag. It takes up less stage real estate than my table stand. I wanted this stand because I play standing up (double on sax) and i needed a stand that goes high enough. My main negative about it is that it's hard to position my volume/swell pedal under it, but I manage to make it work. It's pretty stable but if you're at the same level as the audience and somebody walks by it, they could accidentally hit the keyboard and potentially knock it sideways. They couldn't do that with the table stand.

 

That seems similar to the model I use for playing bass synth. Packs away quick and easy, relatively lightweight.

[MathOfInsects]

This is quite possible, as I was in the store last September, and I don"t know how long the stand had been on display. It caught my eye as I had never seen a vertical stand before, at least not one with such small support arms. It didn"t have a 'back foot' as such, more of a flat base.

 

Yes, it has a flat triangular "cap" at the end of the columns with a back "foot" sticking down, then two longer legs coming forward. Because it is three points of support and one of them directly bears the weight of the keys, it's incredibly stable, and gets more stable the more weight the column bears (as opposed to the Spider Pro which for some reason sabotages the column concept with three independent legs, essentially moving the center of balance and support to that arbitrary vertex instead of down to the floor).

 

The bottom arms are fairly long; the top ones are shorter. Data point #3 that has me thinking there has been an update to the design, and I have the updated version.

[RoadHousePiano]

I just got the Stay Piano, two tier version, this past saturday and used it for a gig the same day. It's very light and very quick to set up. In fact, I literally unboxed it at the gig and had it set up, levels to my liking, in minutes. I play sitting so this is the right Stay stand for me. Here's the one issue I encountered, which could be a deal breaker for some; unless you have a very shallow top board (i use an Electro 5D73) it goes right up to the columns and I found that the rotor and expression jacks lined up with the left column. In order to plug them in, I had to slide the board to the right quite a bit. My fear was that it was going to tip but fortunately it stayed stable for the whole gig. I didn't experience any issues with wobbling and I found the top tier tilt to be just the right amount (you can't adjust it).