Vaughn McMillan
11-27-2005, 4:32 PM
As the result of comments I made in response to Dick Parr's beautiful guitar stands (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=26772) recently, another Creeker has asked me if I have any pics of the ones I've made. I've made a few over the years, but didn't take pictures, and only have one of them in my possession now, so I snapped a few quick pics of it this morning. This stand was built at least 25 years ago, and it's probably had a guitar in it for 15 of them. It's built of pine and a hunk of 5/8" ply I found in my granddad's wood pile. I think I only stained it; no other finish that I can recall. Looking at it today, it could use some touching up...perhaps a bit of BLO would brighten things up a bit. Considering the fact that I'm a rank beginner now, I was really a rookie 25 years ago when I built it. It'd be fun to re-do in nice hardwoods. I built this with the intent that it'd be adjustable to hold thick or thin-bodied guitars. Since it was planned for a "living room" stand instead of a "gig" stand it doesn't completely break down flat, but is does disassemble pretty easily.
Here's a shot of the different pieces. It's basically a base (which is simply two pieces of 1" pine held together with two dowels), a sliding backrest, and a couple loose dowels to hold the backrest. IIRC, I cut the outer curves with granddad's bandsaw, and cut the inner stuff with a jig saw and a lot of sanding. (This would be prime scrollsaw territory.) The plywood chipped out around the holes in the backrest -- I was likely using a spade bit at an angle -- so I used a chisel to square it up and make it look intentional.
26609
Here are the pieces put together. The two loose dowels can go in any of the three sets of holes, to compensate for different guitar body shapes, and the backrest slides on all four dowels (two fixed, two loose).
26610
Another shot of the empty stand, showing the angled front piece of the base, and the angle of the backrest. These angles were eyeballed, so I have no idea what they actually are. The angle tilts the guitar back a bit and also keeps the backrest from slipping.
26611
You can see the guitar only only touches the stand at a few points. (This particular guitar has an arched back, so even the backrest is barely touching the guitar.) Years ago I had attached leather to these contact points (except on the dowels) using rubber cement, which held for a few years, but didn't stand the test of time. Since then, the stand hasn't scratched or dinged up any of the guitars I've put on it, but I'm careful putting them on it, and this is more of a "display" stand than a "user" stand, so once a guitar is placed on it, it tends to stay there for a long time.
26613
And the obligatory action shot...One other consideration about this design is if something fell onto the guitar, it could potentially cave in the back of the guitar, due to the moment stresses on the guitar body. In normal use, I've seen no ill effects, but it doesn't take a PhD in physics to see what could happen if the wrong stresses were applied while the guitar is in the stand. On the other hand, any stand has potentially bad things it could do to a guitar under the wrong sircumstances. For my "user" stands, I prefer something that supports the neck as well as the body -- something more along the lines of what Dick Parr built.
26612
I hope these pics give some of you a few useful ideas...even if it's what not to do.
- Vaughn
Here's a shot of the different pieces. It's basically a base (which is simply two pieces of 1" pine held together with two dowels), a sliding backrest, and a couple loose dowels to hold the backrest. IIRC, I cut the outer curves with granddad's bandsaw, and cut the inner stuff with a jig saw and a lot of sanding. (This would be prime scrollsaw territory.) The plywood chipped out around the holes in the backrest -- I was likely using a spade bit at an angle -- so I used a chisel to square it up and make it look intentional.
26609
Here are the pieces put together. The two loose dowels can go in any of the three sets of holes, to compensate for different guitar body shapes, and the backrest slides on all four dowels (two fixed, two loose).
26610
Another shot of the empty stand, showing the angled front piece of the base, and the angle of the backrest. These angles were eyeballed, so I have no idea what they actually are. The angle tilts the guitar back a bit and also keeps the backrest from slipping.
26611
You can see the guitar only only touches the stand at a few points. (This particular guitar has an arched back, so even the backrest is barely touching the guitar.) Years ago I had attached leather to these contact points (except on the dowels) using rubber cement, which held for a few years, but didn't stand the test of time. Since then, the stand hasn't scratched or dinged up any of the guitars I've put on it, but I'm careful putting them on it, and this is more of a "display" stand than a "user" stand, so once a guitar is placed on it, it tends to stay there for a long time.
26613
And the obligatory action shot...One other consideration about this design is if something fell onto the guitar, it could potentially cave in the back of the guitar, due to the moment stresses on the guitar body. In normal use, I've seen no ill effects, but it doesn't take a PhD in physics to see what could happen if the wrong stresses were applied while the guitar is in the stand. On the other hand, any stand has potentially bad things it could do to a guitar under the wrong sircumstances. For my "user" stands, I prefer something that supports the neck as well as the body -- something more along the lines of what Dick Parr built.
26612
I hope these pics give some of you a few useful ideas...even if it's what not to do.
- Vaughn