I've been lurking on this thread for a while but had nothing to add until now. I've had my Stagg for a year and a half and have experienced some of the same problems posted, but overall am very pleased. My background is BG so this is my first foray into the upright world. As were many I was also frustrated with the stability/stand issue and, not wanting to spend the money for a proper stand had tried something similar to the snare stand - an outdoor umbrella stand. It has the right size hole, is very sturdy, but looks funny on stage and is heavy to drag around, and the bass ‘flops’ over when I’m not holding it, due mostly to the bout thingy hanging off the side which I never really liked.
Then as I was cleaning out a closet one day recently I came upon my wife's old camera tripod and knew instantly this was what I was looking for. Since the camera mount is a metal plate with a captive screw all I had to do was figure out the screw thread size and find an insert. Turns out its 1/4-20, so off to my local hardware store I go and find a screw-in 1/4-20 insert, about ½ inch long. I then drilled a hole in the back of my bass, screwed in the insert and voila! Since the tripod is designed to handle multiple angles and heights it is versatile enough to easily handle this job. My only concern is the single point of contact – the screw – is fairly short. I don’t jump around when I play so I don’t anticipate any problems. Should the screw fail I can replace it with a standard ¼-20 screw, but that would mean having a loose piece to keep track of when I disassemble it. Of course I can always find another tripod out there somewhere.
I don’t use the 3rd leg of the tripod since the bass is a leg itself. Someday I may try to remove the extra leg, but will have to get clearance from the wife. As you can see from the photos my tripod base has scratched the finish as I moved it around. The tripod screw is fairly short so putting some cork or padding material would not allow the screw to grab deep enough. I may fix this later. As you can also see I use a baseball for a peg foot. Soon I’ll try the wooden peg mod, but people really like my baseball. Doesn’t cure the rattle though.
I leave the thumbscrew that controls the angle of the plate (that attaches to the bass) loose so I can easily change the upright angle of the bass while playing if needed. I stand with the one tripod leg between my legs and angle the bass into my body just as you would a DB. The beauty is that this rig will hold the bass in that position when I jump off to one of my other basses. The only drawback with my rig is that the tripod legs are ‘floppy’, meaning they don’t stay in position if I pick the bass up to move it. I may try to make them ‘sticky’ so they stay put.
This may work on other EUBs, but the Stagg is so inexpensive I didn't mind carving it up myself.
Parts and tools:
*¼-20 X ½ inch screw insert, aka Crown bolt. Make sure you get the screw-in type, not the hammer-in type!!
NOTE: be sure to test the insert on the tripod screw before screwing it into your bass. Some of them have funky threads.
*Old style metal camera tripod. I doubt the newer plastic ones will work, but could be wrong.
*Drill and drill bits: starter bit of any small size; finished hole is approx. .05 inch, but test first. You only get one chance!
*½ inch Hex wrench to screw the insert into the bass
*pony keg of Heineken (see photo)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/93751722@N05/
