Quiklok WS550 wobble

[SMcD]

I recently bought a Quiklok WS550 stand for my Kurzweil PC4 - I figured the table-stand design offered the best combination of stability and fitting-in-my-car. 😛

 

The stand has universally great reviews, but I was disappointed to find that it's got a bit more back-and-forth motion than I expected. If I'm playing some "Sympathy for the Devil"-style thunder, it shakes more than a stand should at this price point.

 

It seems that most of the "wobble" comes from the height-adjustable legs. No other part of the stand is really mobile. My old Monolith stand (beat up and rickety beyond usefulness, hence me buying this one) had bolts opposite the height adjustment pegs, so you could increase the stiffness of the legs. Not so on the WS550, so you're stuck with the factory tightness (or lack thereof).

 

Does anyone have any tips on how to tighten this thing up? Something I can stuff into the legs, maybe?

[Delaware Dave]

Still using my two-tiered X stands from the 80's/90's, one is a quik loc  and the other is a proline. Put it down if you want but they setup and teardown in 10 seconds and have been on many big stages over the years.  Never had an issue.

[SMcD]

Hey, if it ain't broke.

 

Personally, I prefer the table design so that width and height can be independent. Near-infinite foot/pedal room is also a plus.

 

A few scattered posts on other forums give me the impression that Quik Lok moved their manufacturing operation at some point in the past decade, which may have affected quality. A fact-check is in order, but it is true that a lot of the praise I've seen for this stand is from 2009-2012.

 

In any case, my WS/550 has some wiggle in its legs, with no obvious way to rectify this.

 

Perhaps what I actually wanted was the WS/660, which has spring-loaded knobs you need to pull to adjust the leg height. WS/660 owners (preferably those who purchased after the supposed Quik Lok manufacturing change): do these knobs help to give the legs a little more tightness?

[Coker]

Can you further explain what the wobble is?  Is it side-to-side or front-to-back?

[SMcD]

A little of both, I'd say, but I think each leg experiences "maximum wobble" along the axis of the height-adjustment holes. In other words, if you hold one of the legs with the holes facing you and wiggle the "foot" (i.e. the adjustable part), most of the motion would be back-and-forth, if that makes sense.

 

That said, each leg does have some side-to-side wobble (i.e. movement perpendicular to the holes) as well. One idea I had was to extend each leg to the maximum height, then put rings of electrical tape down the length of each one. That way, when I lower them, the "inner" parts are a bit wider due to the tape, and hopefully that'd increase each leg's friction enough to keep it a bit more stable. If the tape is too thin to make a difference, add layers and repeat.

[Coker]

I have kept the legs at the same length for many years, because I always play sitting down and shortening the legs wouldn’t help in transport. If your case, if the tape idea doesn’t work, you might try drilling a hole through the inner and outer legs and inserting a bolt with nut.

[Baldwin Funster]

Just an idea. The tightening screws go into a dimple not a hole on my ws550 . Maybe if you drilled all the way through so the screw wasn't just pressed into the dimple....

[SMcD]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm always hesitant to start making new holes in my gear, but I'll keep the drilling idea in mind.

5 hours ago, Baldwin Funster said:

Just an idea. The tightening screws go into a dimple not a hole on my ws550 . Maybe if you drilled all the way through so the screw wasn't just pressed into the dimple....

Are you referring to the screws that attach the legs to the body? Adjusting those would increase the resistance where the legs meet the body, but I don't think that's the main issue with my stand. If you're talking about the height-adjustable part of the legs, there don't seem to be any tightening screws (and therein lies the problem).

 

I ended up using duct tape instead of electrical. Put 2-3 layers around each leg, both surrounding the height adjustment peg and at the "hidden" end that inserts into the stand itself. The challenge was finding the "goldilocks zone" where the tape is thick enough to provide some resistance, but not so thick that I couldn't cram the legs back in.

 

Results are...moderately successful. I seem to have reduced the wiggle by a fair bit, but it's still nonzero, and the stand isn't particularly resilient on uneven floors. Call me a dreamer, but I'd like my digital piano to "handle" like an acoustic piano: in the sense that it should stay put with all but the craziest of Jerry Lee Lewis-style pounding.

 

I'm considering replacing the stand outright: duct tape and DIY shouldn't be necessary on a $200 piece of equipment. I was eyeing a Hercules Z-stand for my Hammond SKX, and I might pick up a second one for the Kurz. Either that, or a K&M 18800 if I can find a way to get one up to Canada (the few online retailers carrying K&M stands seem to have everything except that one), but those ain't cheap.

 

Any other thoughts?

[Baldwin Funster]

Sorry. I just looked at my stand and it's the KS7150 not the same as yours. I don't know if mine wobbles or not, I'm not a hard player on mostly synth action.