Broken Hercules guitar stand

[Dave Sloven]

This is what happened on the way home from the first time I took my Hercules GS455B guitar stand to practice. I have been taking my GS414B stands to practices since December without incident but the part that broke on this one is made from what seems to be a more brittle plastic. Here's a photo of it today in use and then two photos of the broken part.  I bought it from a reputable Australian ebay seller last November.

I would avoid this model or any model with the same type of yoke.

Does anyone know what warranty is like on these?

[Kiichi]

All I know is that I have had bad experiences with Hercules mic stands and such. These days I just go with K&M. More pricy, sure, but worth it in my experience. Especially their mic stands are the standard for a reason. And I love the normal guitar stands with cork they do.

[Lew]

Probably not designed to take the weight of that pickguard.

I have a couple, actually. A two header and a single but I never use 'em as the guitars live in cases. Maybe that's why mine haven't broken.

[Dave Sloven]

Silence from the seller ...

[AndyR]

How/when did it break? You said "on the way home", so I assume/hope the guitar wasn't on it at the time?

My Explorer is on a GS412B, and I've got a whole bunch of the GSP38WB wall-hangers that use the same attachment. Not had any problems, but then I don't gig or go out to rehearsals.

I have to admit, I did not trust the GS412B at all at first :lol:

When I bought the Explorer years ago, and I was muttering about how to stand it up, the guy went "you want one of these". I looked at it and thought "you gotta be kidding me!!" ... but he convinced me, and it's my favourite floor-stand. (And I went on to get all the wall-hangers a few years later).

That GS455B doesn't look quite so sturdy in the pics I've seen, though...

Anyway, hope the geetar is ok :D

[Dave Sloven]

It broke laying flat in the back of the car on the way home. It was between my Explorer (in its case) and my Pedaltrain 2 (in its soft case).  The guitar case was locked in place by my Peavey head (I have a Ford Falcon wagon so everything is laying flat in the back of it, heaps of room, these cars are really popular with Australian musicians) so the only thing that could have moved was the Pedaltrain, but if it moved it wasn't by much

So yeah the guitar was unhurt, the Pedaltrain must have moved slightly at some point and that was enough to crack the stand straight through the joint.

If I take one of my GS414Bs to practice next time it will be in the back seat.  Hopefully a cushion doesn't break it.  I definitely won't be buying another stand with this same brittle plastic yoke.  They are complete rubbish and I wouldn't trust the wall hanger with that yoke either.

Thankfully it didn't fail with my guitar in place!

EDIT: I just went looking for a replacement and it seems the part number of my good ones is 414B, not 412B.  I've changed the post above accordingly. The 412B and 414B have the same yoke but different legs

[AndyR]

You had me checking there, as well! Mine is the GS412B.

So your GS414Bs don't have a "back-rest"? The guitar just swings on the "grabber"? Before I'd used the wall-hangers, I'd have been suspicious of that... actually, in a gig situation, I'd probably still be suspicious of that...

[Dave Sloven]

The guitar rests against the legs of the stand, as the stand leans back at an angle.  I have found that to be very stable.  The GS455B has the same design, just a different yoke (and that is what broke).

Here's is an image of the three stands in use.  The two on the right with the SGs are 414Bs. The one with the Explorer is that now-broken GS455B.



Also, see the most recent review of this model on Amazon:

Beware of Possible Cracks

By Onkel Sam on January 21, 2014

I'm on my second Hercules GS455B guitar stand received as a gift. I'll be returning this unit also.The first one came broken where the plastic yoke slips into the black metal tubing that forms the stand. I got a replacement, and upon close examination, found cracks in the same area. The self closing mechanism works great, except for the chance of getting one that snaps under the weight of an instrument and finding your expensive guitar/banjo on the floor in pieces. Hercules needs to modify the plastic yoke to make it stronger and eliminate a potentially heartbreaking experience.

If this review had been online in November I wouldn't have purchased a GS455B