microphone stands

[crox]

I had a good search but couldn't find anything definitive on this topic.

 

What make stands do you use for touring, and which provide best bang (or hopefully not in this case) for buck?

 

Our's are packed down every week so get a fair amount of abuse, but I did find a good thread on how to store them.

 

I am looking for stands for drum mics, overhead, snare and kick in this case, as well as general use stands for vocalists.

[soundiesam]

hey most of our hire stock is K&M but we also use a lot of the Proel stands both seem to stand up to the road. K&M are quite expensive but if you want them to last, K&M is the way to go! we have K&M stands that are 20 years old and still going.. you can order them through me if you want some..

K&M and Beyer are closely linked but as I said earlier arnt cheap your looking about £45 a stand

for Proel stands are cheaper but I suggest if you want them to last dont go for Proel stuff

sam

[Pete Alcock]

It's worth noting that Proel do a range of stands. The lower-range have a lot of plastic components and I'd hesitate to recommend them. The "Pro-Stage" variety are the real deal though and will withstand hard use just as well as K&M, and they look better too.

 

I've had mine for over five years and nothing at all has bent or broken.

 

http://www.proelgroup.com/skn/catalog/prd/doc_011153746513580.tif.big.jpg

 

Cheers, Pete.

[jamesperrett]

What make stands do you use for touring, and which provide best bang (or hopefully not in this case) for buck?

 

I've not had much experience with touring but I've run a rehearsal room where mic stands have been used and abused 7 days a week. With the exception of the obviously cheap and light stands, most stood up to it fairly well. The biggest problem that I've had with our Beyer stands is that they are tightened with a knob rather than a tommy bar and, after a while, it becomes difficult to tighten the boom sufficiently. Many performers never loosen the stand before trying to adjust it so the friction pads stop working over time.

 

Cheers

 

James.

[charlyfarly]

I much prefer the K&M with the tommy bar (for the reasons jamesperrett states).......it's annoying when the balls fall off, so always keep spare balls to screw back on! (fnarrrr fnarrrr snick)

[soundiesam]

you know you can buy spares for the beyer stands???

[paulears]

I'd agree that K+M and Beyer are tough and long lasting. In my view, well worth the price. My old ones are still going strong. The weak on a typical stand is where the legs protrude out of the base, and loads get consigned to the skip when heavy footed musicians stand on the legs and either the casting snaps, or the legs bend. I too prefer the tommy bar over the big knob, but agree that the balls always seem to be a problem.

[charlyfarly]

I too prefer the tommy bar over the big knob, but agree that the balls always seem to be a problem.

 

I suppose a blob of Loctite or SuperGlue would do the job, thinking about it. ;)

[J Pearce]

For budget conscious applications the studiospares stands are good.

 

Not bass player proof unfortunately, but pretty sturdy and at the cost you can afford to replace them when they go.

[timtheenchanteruk]

we have beyers, and some cheap unbranded at work, (a school) the beyers havnt broken yet! (about 7 years) whereas the no-names are down to 3 and a few bits (of 10, and only 2 years olds)!!

[Sirch Sound]

I have two different types of stands, the K&M Stands, which I normaly take out with me everywere, they might be more expensive but if you intend to use them over a period of years then they work out far far cheaper. However I also got myself the 6 pack of the studiospares purely for the fact that they cost £50 and there really really good budget stands, they perfom all of the tasks I would expect the K&M stands to do, just they have some plastic components on them. I normaly find that the vocals go on K&M's and everything else goes on the studiospares, oh and countless amounts of spares are availalble for both stands, which many budget stands dont offer!

 

As for drum mic stands, I have always used the stands that clip onto the rim of the drum, my favorite of these has to be the sennehiser offereing but its not cheap, especialy when it only fits a few tom mics. As for overheads, I use my trusty studiospares ones, my only concern with this is that one bump and there over, there not the stablest when you extend them higher with the boom out so maby not the best for your application.

 

Rich

[Dan Appleby]

In my experience, mic stands are one of those that you get what you pay for... cheapo ones will fall apart fairly quickly. Pay the money and buy something that will last! Beyer and K&M are good, spares are easy to get too.

[Rob_Beech]

A few years back I bought a box full of cheap mic stands. Whilst they were cheap and did work, they didn't take much abuse before falling to bits. They all went in the bin and since then I tend to buy K&M ones, with the odd other (beyer etc) creeping in here and there, As Dan says, all the spares can be purchased for them and as such I've got a few drawers full of adaptors, screws, rubber feet, screw washers, etc for if they ever do break or go missing.

 

 

Rob

[Chappie]

you know you can buy spares for the beyer stands???

Beyer stands are made by K&M and all the parts are interchangable. If you can't get hold of Beyer parts but have a ready supply of K&M bits, just use those.

[palbin]

Buy K&M from Thomann. Doesn't cost more than inexpensive domestically sold stands, but obviously are much better.

They charge only 15 eur for postage, so if one builds up an order with reasonably many things postage cost is neglible.

 

Best, palbin