WARNING: Hercules stands

[Dave Sloven]

Most of you who have been read my contributions to threads on guitar stands will have noted my enthusiastic endorsement of Hercules stands.  Well no more!!  I've just had the oldest (2008) of my stands fail on me in a spectacular manner.  The height adjustment hand grip simply exploded when I just replaced my SG Junior (lightest of my guitars) on its stand, after not being used for a good while.  The hand grip thing at the back is all perished and sticky, as if it has decomposed, and the assembly basically broke to pieces as the spring was untensioned and retensioned by lifting the guitar and then replacing it.  Thankfully the hanger at the front held it as the post dropped to its lowest point, and the guitar did no more than hit the carpet on its bottom edge.

I will post photos later today.

EDIT:

This is by no means the first time this has happened to a Hercules user.  A quick search for 'hercules stand failure' brings up a heap of hits with exactly the same symptoms of stickiness etc described.

For example:

http://charliehall.proboards.com/thread/16982/beware-hercules-guitar-failure-important

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/showthread.php?t=348591


From Hercules (via Facebook):

Hello Dave,

The problematic material has been removed few years ago so please kindly note that the current products has no problem. For warranty issues or replacement parts, please kindly contact our distributor in Australia. They will help with your request. 
 
ELECTRIC FACTORY Pty. Ltd.
188 Plenty Road
Preston, Vic. 3072, Australia
Phone: 61 3 9474 1000
http://www.elfa.com.au
sales@elfa.com.au

Let me know if we can be of more assistance.

Thank you!

HERCULES TEAM

[CommonCourtesy]

I've always heard of the Hercules stands but nothing about them collapsing like that. I was tempted to get a couple for some electrics but after reading this I'm glad I didn't!!

I just use the simple Stagg A shape ones, and I've still got the stand that came with my first guitar starter pack back in 1998, and its still going!!

[AndyR]

Very interesting...

*wanders over to Hercules stand with Les Paul on*

"Well f*** my old boots, that's sticky..."

*takes Les Paul off Hercules stand and leans it "safely" against some vibrating rickety table thing instead*

*does some googling*


OK - sounds like some folks have got replacements out of Hercules, others have been told to "buy another one".

I did find this:

http://roy.vanegas.org/thoughts/fix-your-hercules-guitar-stand-for-about-1/

I'll see if I can find out how to contact Hercules in the UK, with a "well, I won't be buying another of these will I? And I'm on a lot of guitar forums..." kind of approach and see what they have to say.

Meanwhile, although mine hasn't failed yet, it's been in place for 7-8 years, I'll go for ripping it apart and fixing it myself as described in that link before it goes "boiinngg" and makes everyone unhappy (me for a dent in my geetar, her for the obvious hole that the guitar would make in the tiled floor!)

Many thanks for the heads up.

[AndyR]

If you're in the UK, Contact Form here:

http://www.herculesstands.co.uk/home/contact/708.0.4.3

I've sent them the following

Hi

I have one of your guitar stands from 2008/9 (looks like Item # GS412B) and have been very happy with it. I was actually about to purchase more of this model.

However, on one of the many guitar forums that I frequent, a fellow member has just warned us of the catastrophic failure of the Comfort Grip height adjuster on one of his Hercules stands today.

He described the symptoms as the Grip becomes very sticky over time and then, at some point, disintegrates without warning... sending your multi-thousand pound instrument direct to the floor.

I checked my stand: and find that it is EXTREMELY sticky. My guitar is no longer on the stand.

An internet search reveals this might be a known issue, but it is not clear what the Hercules approach to it might be, nor whether it can be guaranteed that current stock is free of the same issue.

I have suffered no damage to any guitar and have been VERY happy with the stand but, sadly, at the moment, I have no intention of using it anymore nor of buying any further Hercules stands nor recommending them to others.

Are you able to re-assure me that your product is safe to trust with my instruments?

Many thanks, Andrew

Hopefully I'll get a response of some sort.

I do believe their stands and hangers are a SUPERB product, and I want to use them. But not without some re-assurance now...

[dave_mc]

Yeah mine went sticky too (as you said, this has happened to a lot of people). Luckily it wasn't in use, just folded up. I didn't need another one so I didn't bother contacting them.

Glad to hear yours didn't do your guitar much damage.

[Plenum n Heather]

Weird! Good thing your guitar wasn't trashed!

I've been using Ultimate GS200 stands for ages with no issue...

[AndyR]

Well, well, well... I don't know about other territories but, in the UK, that's some SERIOUS customer service...

I wasn't really expecting a reply, but...

They've got back to me already (less than 48Hrs). They've explained that they have changed the plastics used on these stands some time ago, that the new stands do not have the same issue, and that they will replace old stands free of charge.

That is seriously impressive in my book. As one of our sales guys here at work said "way to keep a customer!!"

I'll be ordering the extra two I'd noticed I needed over the last few months! (I've run out of walls that I'm allowed to put wall-hangers on!)

[dave_mc]

Nice

[AndyR]

Wow - I emailed them last Thursday evening... this Tuesday evening I have a shiny new stand.

Classy 

[FELINEGUITARS]

Strings and Things who are Hercules UK distributor are an excellent company and do look after their customers, and will work with their supplier to make sure the customer isn't let down or left in the cold in my experience.
Glad you got it sorted Andy

[AndyR]

Strings and Things who are Hercules UK distributor are an excellent company and do look after their customers, and will work with their supplier to make sure the customer isn't let down or left in the cold in my experience.
Glad you got it sorted Andy

Yep, I was SERIOUSLY impressed with them. Magnificent service.

[Dave Sloven]

WELL, that will teach me to take my time.

I finally got around to calling the Australian distributor and apparently this replacement policy ended on February 1st.

They are offering discounted replacements through dealers but I really don't need a stand as cobbled one together out of two broken stands (one had been previously replaced under warranty for a broken yoke so I had an extra legs assembly).  I'm going to throw the rest of this stand out

So if your Hercules stand breaks now the service is not quite so magnificent as it was back in January ...

[Nadz1lla]

One of mine exploded like this a while ago. I just chucked it out at the tip, wish I'd kept it for a replacement now. Meh. I just went with "won't buy one of those again!"

I do have another one that's gone tacky, will check them an email.

Cheers for keeping a record! Very useful. :)

[Yellowjacket]

As someone who leaves his guitars in their cases, my reaction to the thread is " well, won't buy one of those..."