Tale of woe and warning

[dmt]

Explorers have been known to slide off stands. And stands are not child/pet/spouse/idiot proof. "Let me just put my bass down for a minute, still plugged in..." *sound of someone tripping over the cable - kathunk*

Yep, that's the flip side (so to speak). Although I advocated for stands earlier in the thread, it definitely bears mentioning that stands aren't disaster proof either.

Fortunately, in 20 years of stand use, plus the first 10 years of mostly just leaning my instruments against whatever was handy(!), despite some seriously close calls, I've so far averted disaster. Well, except for one, a disaster that didn't involve a fall or cord tug. One cold winter after my wife and I had moved to a new, poorly heated apartment, I ended up retreating from my music room for the coldest months and just left my most expensive and beloved acoustic guitar and an acoustic bass in the heated living room, out on stands for easy access. This apartment had a kind of heated-water-under-the-floor heating system, and I didn't realize that there was a hotspot on the floor right under where I'd decided to keep my guitar stand. The air was accordingly drier right there than the rest of the room, which I had kept monitored with a hygrometer. And
It hurts just thinking about it.

Gotta be careful about humidity along a wall too, I guess

 

[Mike Whitfield]

Hercules prevent his by having a locking mechanism at the front. You almost cannot mess up when putting up your instrument:

Link Removed

If I had any wall space that wasn't inside surface of a natural path, these or the horizontal swing-type would be the only ones I'd use. I also once caught a guitar falling from a wall hanger where another shopper had just replaced it and I'm pretty sure my luck only extends to one of those catches per lifetime.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

One time I had the instrument cable still plugged in with an instrument hanging.
I walked past & snagged the cable with my foot & pulled the instrument out to almost 45 degrees from the wall. I don't have quick reflexes, so I had to really engage my brain right then not to instinctively let go of the cable, because it would have sent the instrument crashing back into the wall.

That day I learned my lesson about leaving them plugged in while hanging.

However, with any other non-locking hanger, that instrument would have gone flying across my floor, after crashing into my printer (all-in-one printer with a glass scanner top).

 

[ashtray]

Oh - I bought some Hercules hangers a few years back that came with a key lock device! It slid on to each end of the closed yoke and then you locked it in place, so that the yoke wouldn't open if you lifted the instrument up. I could see that being useful in case of an earthquake, but it's a bit time consuming so I generally don't use them. Could prevent "casual theft" too if you don't leave the key around. (You'd need to unscrew the mount from the wall - definitely possible but a little time consuming.)