Stand mods

[Pat Azzarello]

We've had a stand thread since early in j my time at KC

 

How about stand mods? I find that few stands work well enough for me with some changes. With 3D printing it may be easier to do some if these but I'm wondering if anyone else is kidding stands?

 

[Pat Azzarello]

Alright - I'll begin. 

 

I probably have close to 20 keyboard stands, going back to Invisible (1985) and USS tubular stands. 

 

One of my current favorites is the StandTastic stand, but the ways the tiers work I can never get my top keyboard close enough to the bottom keyboard to be efficient. So... I pulled some wood scraps out of the shed, setup the chop saw and soem spray paint and has some fun. 

 

Insert photo
Insert with Keyboard resting on it.

 

(Sorry, couldn't figure out how to insert a photo). 

 

These sit inside the channel of the bottom tier arms, and allows me to have a fairlly stable base to for the top keyboard. It could be better, and I'm going to try a few things when I get a chance, and including a couple of ideas for my Z style stands (that are easier to setup than the STandTastic. 

[Stokely]

I'm debating whether to get the 3rd tier for my Omega Pro.  I bought it for single-keyboard gig use but I really like it, but I noticed the problems others were having with the 2nd tier not only being too high but also having the bottom support "arms" sticking into the player's midsection.   So I guess with the 3rd tier the mod is to drill holes for the tightening screws after removing the rubber stopper off the first tier.

I  (or technically a band-mate since I'm as handy as a foot) did a bit of a mod to my Spider Pro due to the mic boom  always grabbing the adapter nut off the top when I unscrewed it.  When that happens, you have a bolt sticking up with a rubber washer holding it up, and it tended to fall into the body of the stand.  I got rid of the adapter, so both the boom and bolt are the smaller size, and the new bolt is double-ended and tightened with a nut to the underside of the plate.  K&M sells a metal plate but the strength of the plastic one was not an issue.  
 

[ajstan]

Here's a minor mod I made to the 18881 second tier stacker on my K&M 18880 that made a significant difference in playability and aesthetics.

 

In the pictures, you can see the 18881 where I cut off 3” of the arms on which the keyboard sits so they didn't stick out over the keybed of the bottom board, and I drilled an extra set of height-adjustment holes with the same spacing as the other holes so the upper tier can be lowered. The height-adjustment knob is in the new hole. 

 

The pins that come with the stacker aren't needed as I use marine weatherstripping to securely keep my top board from sliding off the top tier. Since these pictures were taken, I also added the weatherstripping to the bottom tier to replace the original non-slip pads.   Here's a link to the weatherstripping: https://www.homedepot.com/p/202066509.

 

Yes, my current project is working on cable management.  I'm starting with this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FW3MKGH to control the vertical drop of cables, but I probably need to need to right-size the length of my cables so there's less excess on the floor.  Not sure if I'll wind up learning to solder my own cables or just buy shorter lengths to begin with.

[The Real MC]

I use a K&M table stand with tiers for gigging, but I play standing up and any keyboard on the base is too low and it is very uncomfortable on my wrists.

 

I raised the height of the base by building a riser out of 2x6 pine then bolting it to the base.  This puts the lowest keyboard at a comfortable position and I can still use the tier for a 2nd keyboard.

[Stokely]

That has been an issue for me as well (pretty much any x-stand is a problem).   My Z stand and my current Omega pro are two of the stand that can get tall enough for me (the Omega pro is at the "STOP HERE" mark on the legs!)

[Stokely]

Bringing this thread back to life hopefully to ask a question.  I'm trying my best to find the info--that I've read here in the past!--about specifics on that Omega 3rd tier mod.  I can't recall who did it but I'm seriously considering it at this time.  The 2nd tier not only seems too high, but those lower arms seem like they'd be hitting you in the ***s, they are ridiculously long.

If I remember rightly, the mod was to take the 3rd tier arms and make them work with the 1st tier ones.  Normally they'd slide into the end of the 2nd tier, so I think the steps were:
- take off the rubber round end of the 1st tier arm
- drill a hole in the top of the 1st tier arm for the bolt from the 3rd tier arms to go into, which would stop it from sliding out.

That seems doable even for a handy-as-a-foot caveman like me; if anyone has done this mod I'd love to hear how it worked.   If there's an alternative to the hole-drilling, even better; the tier arm is horizontal so I wouldn't think it would come sliding out easily.   My top keyboard is currently a MODX7 for what it matters--it's ultra-light so the 2nd tier doesn't have to support much.   I really like the omega pro, which I bought for one-keyboard gigs and home use but now I'm thinking I'd like to use it all the time.