Solid lightweight stand?

[Nillerbabs]

'Sup homies.

 

I recently moved away from home. Since I am in no way able to own a car, and renting a car will be expensive (and I can no longer borrow my parents' vehicle), I got one of these for public transport.

 

http://media.billigvvs.dk/ProductPictures/productcard/f9/Danboeren-Saekkevogn-200-Kg-191334.jpg

 

For the most part, things went smoothly. However, carrying a load of keyboards, stand and whatnot in and out of trains, buses etc., is currently impossible to do by myself. I therefore plan to minimize - put cables, petdals and whatnot in a backpack, and swap my currently 8/10 kg stand (depeding on 1 or two tiers) with something lighter. I'm using a K&M tabletop stand, which, weight aside, has served me very well. I'm concerned that a lighter stand will not provide the stability that I am used to.

 

I was wondering if anyone has experience with this stand:

 

http://www.soundhouse.co.jp/shop/prod_img/k/km_18880b.jpg

 

At 2 kilos (3 with an additional tier) it seems like a good, lightweight solution - although not exactly good looking. It does however not look particularly solid to me. Can anyone comment? Or suggest other stands that I should check out?

 

 

Thanks!

 

Niels

[Tobias Åslund]

I will use one at a gig tonight. I think it's very stable - I have the add-on tier as well and it's great. The only downsides I see is - you need a wrench to adjust the hight of the base, and the 2nd tier is almost as deep as the bottom, so you must place your lower board so it extends a few inches in front of the tiers if you want to see its panel.

That being said - I have a Nord Stage 2 sw73 on the lower tier and a wooden shelf with a lot of gadgets on top and the Stage's panel is visible enough.

 

Now I'm off to prepare the gig! Good luck with the stand.

[AnotherScott]

Yes, I have found that K&M 18880 to be perfectly stable, no problems.

 

The adjustment for the height of the base is something you do just once, when you first buy it. Unless you suddenly get taller or shorter, it's generally not an issue! However, I could see that being a concern for someone who does some gigs sitting and some gigs standing and may prefer the board at a different height depending.

 

As for the second tier protruding further forward than you'd like, there are three ways to address that.

 

One is that you could buy the 18882 extra tier instead of the 18881, it's a shallower housing, with a pull-out extension. The idea is that, if the 18881 is too deep, you can use the 18882 without pulling out (or even installing) its extension for something shorter, while if the 18881 is not deep enough, you can use the 18882 with its extension for something even deeper.

 

The second solution is to insert the 18881 backwards, facing away from you instead of facing toward you. That's what I do. However, you should remember to put your lower keyboard on the stand first, as the stand may not be stable with a heavy board on the reversed second tier without a counterweight on the first tier.

 

The third solution is to take a hacksaw and just make those protruding arms shorter. The problem of course is that you can't "undo" that if you get different boards in the future where you might want that extra depth back. Also you may lose use of the "stop pins" which I don't care about because I don't angle my boards, but if you want to tilt your top board down, then you want the pin to stop the board from being able to slide forward, so that could be an issue for some people.

[Tonysounds]

Goddamn, that thing is fugly.

[MoodyBluesKeys]

I use the 18880 stand plus the 18881 upper tier for gigging, it replaced an OnStage 2-tier Z stand that was rugged, time consuming to set up, and Heavy.

 

I typically carry the stand folded up (with the 2nd tier attached), a couple of short bungee cords making sure it stays folded, and a couple of longer bungee cords wrapped around the hard case for the PC3 which is bungeed to the RockNRoller cart.

 

Takes about 15 seconds to set up the stand, another 15 to tighten the three knobs that make it rigid. As far as strength and no wobbling, I have no problems. I gig with a PC3 on the lower tier and an Electro 3-73 on the upper tier. I'll put up with the ugly, because I love the quick setup and lack of weight.

 

No problems with stability. I have loaded it with the PC3X on lower and the PC3 on upper, so it will take a couple of heavier boards.

 

[AnotherScott]

a couple of short bungee cords making sure it stays folded

I just tighten the same knobs that you loosen to collapse it, and I've had no problem keeping it folded that way.

[bloodyMary]

2 kilos! Wow,that's lighter than any X-stand!

When I use public transport and there's no stand provided, I take a lightweight x-stand (4 kg), and carry it in my hand. Other hand is taken by a 6 kg synth.

Maybe a backpack with a laptop or a module if I want a better sound. Works fine!

 

By the way, I don't think that stand is that ugly. Looks ok to me.