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Double Bass The definitive amp stand thread

#21
Chris Fitzgerald said:
Marc - on the page you linked to, all of the reviews mention that that particular stand has a design flaw which casues it to break pretty quickly. Have you found this to be an issue with yours?
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Thes weight capacity of the Ultimate brand stand is over rated, a twin reverb will break it in time. OTOH, I've found it seems to hold up fine to single 12's and smaller cabs and the occasional use with my 50 lb Acme B2. I use it on big stages to turn a cab into a monitor.

At cafe size gigs I usually borrow a chair or a bar stool. However, if you must be prepared, you might try sitting the little Wizzy on a music stand. I had to use one in an emergency situation and I found it worked OK with my 20 lb Ampeg PB110h as long as the weight was centered over the shaft. If it works for you, cut the tray down to size with a hacksaw or skilsaw and cover it with velcro.

Joe
 

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#22
Joe_Atlanta said:
However, if you must be prepared, you might try sitting the little Wizzy on a music stand. I had to use one in an emergency situation and I found it worked OK with my 20 lb Ampeg PB110h as long as the weight was centered over the shaft. If it works for you, cut the tray down to size with a hacksaw or skilsaw and cover it with velcro.
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That is a very interesting solution. What kind of music stand is that? Does it have a set screw to hold the tray at a fixed angle? I like the way the legs fold up, which could make it a perfect solution. The total weight of the Wizzy/Focus rig is well under 25 lbs. My only concern might be that a tug on the cables might tip the whole thing.

Gary Falk has a smaller PA stand in his showroom than the one I use. I'll have to go check that out as well.

On the whole "attaching threaded inserts to the cab/tightening the polemount flange on with wingbolts" notion, where might a fella go looking for that kind of hardware?
 
#23
In one of my many past lives I was did studio and live audio and the (legal) rule of thumb for hanging speakers or stands is the material has to be rated to handle 5 times the weight of the object it will be supporting. That is how we calculate the size of chains, brackets, bolts and etc to use.

A Fender Twin that someone mentioned is a 65 lbs amp your gonna need something that can support over 300 lbs. Where most of the cabs we are talking about are about 20 lbs so anything capable supporting 100 lbs should work.
 
#24
I have a music stand like that as my travel music stand.

It's got the nuts to hold my laptop up when I use it which is about 5 or so pounds but twice that I'd want to work on reinforcement. The pivot that holds the part that the charts live on would need something to keep from moving around. It's not made for more than a couple pounds of charts.

OTOH I have had somebody trip over the power cable to the notebook and pull the whole thing over on the ground before too. So i dunno....
 
#25
Chris Fitzgerald said:
That is a very interesting solution. What kind of music stand is that? Does it have a set screw to hold the tray at a fixed angle? I like the way the legs fold up, which could make it a perfect solution. The total weight of the Wizzy/Focus rig is well under 25 lbs. My only concern might be that a tug on the cables might tip the whole thing.

Gary Falk has a smaller PA stand in his showroom than the one I use. I'll have to go check that out as well.

On the whole "attaching threaded inserts to the cab/tightening the polemount flange on with wingbolts" notion, where might a fella go looking for that kind of hardware?
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Wouldn't Menard's or Home Depot or Lowes have that kind of hardware?
 
#26
T-Bal said:
I've been using this one. It's not as high as you're used to, but if placed 2 - 3 feet away, it aims right up to your head. It is off the floor, but still low enough not to be conspicuous. I gorilla-glued the rubber feet onto my Focus, and it sits on top of the cab with the front feet hanging over the edge of the cab to keep it from sliding off.

The stand is a double-x so it's not going anywhere. It's about the same width as a VL208, a little wider than the wizzy 10 but the wizzy sits on it just fine.
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Yep. I have this too. I have a strap that hold my head on at that angle.
 
#27
Chris Fitzgerald said:
The total weight of the Wizzy/Focus rig is well under 25 lbs. My only concern might be that a tug on the cables might tip the whole thing.
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I wouldn't put the whole rig on one of these stands. It was a bit tippy with just my cab, I was thinking that just the 16 lbs of Wz10 would ride OK. Definitely wouldn't stick a $1300 amp on top of the pile unless you beefed it up some how.

Joe
 
#30
Here's a tangent. Suppose there is no PA support. If the amp is basically close to the floor, but tilted back like many of the solutions depicted earlier in this post, then granted you can hear it better on stage because you are close to it and the driver(s) are pointed in more of a line to your ears that way.

But what does someone 20 or 40 feet away hear? They are definitely off-axis from the center line of the drivers I would think. From that far away, the drivers are pointed more at the ceiling than at the listeners ears. The more radical the angle of tilt back, the more pronounced this off-line effect becomes. I could be all wet, but I think that's one reason why I like a tall amp stand or a pole dealy, with the speaker's drivers not tilted back but in a "traditional" vertical orientation, at a right angle if you will to the floor. Seems to me like you might lose something in terms of coverage or clarity out front when your amp is tilted back, especially for larger rooms or really high ceilings, but I certainly could be wrong.
 
#31
The main reason I get my amp off the floor is to uncouple the amp from the floor. The main reason I tilt it is so I can hear myself. A good distance away from the stage there are so many factors in clubs (ceiling fans, pool tables, loud patrons, material of different surfaces) that I think the least of your worries is the angle the amp is on. Also the majority of the frequencies we play are in the pretty omni-directional range.
 
#32
True. I hear what you're saying about all those other factors. But I thought mids and highs in particular tend to "beam" more than radiate omni. If you lessen those, might turn things to mud pretty quick at a distance.

Just a thought. It occurred to me after listening to a bassist from the back of a room once and thinking "Man, that is a seriously diffused sound." When I walked up to the bandstand, the sound was much clearer and more focused. His amp was tilted back at a 45 degree angle, bouncing off the ceiling primarily, or at least so I concluded.
 
#33
I have had good results with raising and tilting my amps. But I am finding that I get equally good results simply moving the speaker away from me. In all cases, I think the effect is the same, which is to put your ears inside the midrange "beam."

At some point, the solution to beaming is a speaker with better off axis response, such as one with a cone midrange.
 
#34
Dig. The part about getting your ears in the mid beam. Thanks. I have definitely experienced that.

I was wondering moreso about how all this affects what people out in the room hear, or if it affects what they hear much at all.
 
#35
Joe_Atlanta said:
I wouldn't put the whole rig on one of these stands. It was a bit tippy with just my cab, I was thinking that just the 16 lbs of Wz10 would ride OK. Definitely wouldn't stick a $1300 amp on top of the pile unless you beefed it up some how.
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I hear you. But what about one like Invalid Link Removed, with a tripod on the bottom? It looks pretty beefy, and honestly doesn't look all too different from what I'm using now.

christ andronis said:
Wouldn't Menard's or Home Depot or Lowes have that kind of hardware?
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They might. I was at Lowes today looking for something else and didn't run across it in the department I thought it might be in, but I was in a hurry. What would such a threaded doohicky be called, anyway?
 
#37
Chris,

I have that On-Stage stand that I use as a music stand (imagine that!). The base and tubing are very sturdy and should be able to take a reasonable amount of weight. Plus, it's light. The down side is that the desk is attached to the frame with six rivets and is somewhat loose and shaky. I wouldn't trust it with anything bigger that a Real Book. You could drill out the rivets and replace them with small carriage bolts and nuts and strengthen this weak link.

While you're prowling around the home improvement store check in the electrical/lighting area for work light stands. They're not as light weight as the On-Stage but they are designed to be stable and hold a resonable amount of weight.

Edit: Joe snuck in while I was typing. The spread between the ends of the legs on my unit is 19"
 
#38
Chris Fitzgerald said:
......What would such a threaded doohicky be called, anyway?
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Well, I think if you go in there and use that exact technical language they'll know exactly what you want. :)

It sounds like you're looking for a threaded rod and wing nut (with washers)type of contraption. I know that really clears it up for you , being the hardware savvy guy that I am, so this is really like the blind leading the blind.

Personally, I'm a put it on a chair type guy, although I really like your setup with the speaker on the stand and have been toying with that idea.

You might also want to go to a small hardware store and talk to the guy in there; they usually know exactly what people like us are talking about and even if they don't have what you need, they can point you in a better direction.
 

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