What Makes a Good Guitar Stand?

Guitar players around the world know just about anything there is to know about playing guitars, achieving all kinds of effects and similar stuff. But when it comes to storage, things are completely different. A lot of people simply don’t give storage and transporting of guitars much thought, even though they definitely should. Guitar stands are one of the more common accessories that help with this issue. They are simple, easy to use, and generally get you the best results at affordable prices.

However, not all guitar stands are made equal. Some are definitely better than others, while some need to be avoided completely. We won’t go into specific models or stand types in this article. If you want to learn more about different types of guitar stands, you can check out our article here ‘What is The Best Type of Guitar Stand?’. This article is going to be focused mainly on what makes a good guitar stand. With that said, let’s begin.

What Makes A Good Guitar Stand?

So, what makes a good guitar stand? There are definitely a couple of things to keep in mind when you’re shopping for a guitar stand. First and foremost, you want decent materials, especially for the support frame of the stand. There aren’t many things out there that are more important than the quality of the frame. Some stands offer a great design, impressive padding, and everything, but the frame is subpar. Having a stand like that kind of beats the point of a guitar stand, and should be avoided.

Once you find a stand that comes with decent base materials, you’ll want to look at what kinds of solutions were chosen for padding. There are generally three points of contact between the stand and the guitar. Two at the bottom of a guitar, and one back side where the neck meets the body.

Padding in these three places definitely needs to be high quality if you plan on preserving the finish on your guitar. What you’re looking for thick, good quality foam. Some manufacturers offer a type of soft plastics that looks good at first, but it’s definitely not that good at preserving the finish nor preventing the guitar from moving around. The high-quality foam will cover both of these issues, and will also serve for a long period of time.

Once you find a stand that delivers both of the things we’ve mentioned so far, next thing you will want to pay attention to is the overall build quality. A good product is the sum of its parts, but it’s also about the way those parts are put together.

You definitely don’t want to get something that’s going to fall apart after a year of use. In most cases, a stand that is made of decent materials is also going to be built to last, but it doesn’t hurt to check nevertheless.

There’s no standardized way to do this. If you pick up the stand and it feels sturdy in your hands, it’s probably going to be just fine. Look at how to joints are made, and what mechanism is used to expand/contract the stand.

Sometimes manufacturers build these mechanisms counting on the fact that most people deploy the stand and don’t fold it afterward for a very long time. While this isn’t necessarily wrong, you’d definitely want to have the option to use the stand in any way you want. Even if that means deploying and folding the stand often. That is definitely something you should be able to do.

There are probably several more things worthy of your attention, but that is completely up to you. In terms of quality, if a stand meets all of the requirements we talked about in this article, chances are it will serve you for a long time.

Conclusion

Figuring out which guitar stand is right for you comes down to knowing what to look for in the first place. It’s important to get a stand that suits your guitar the best, and one that meets the stuff we talked about in this article. Everything else comes in a distant second place. All of this may sound too confusing, but it’s definitely easy to understand what this article is all about when you first pick up a guitar stand and start observing it closely. After all, these things are pretty simple in nature.

We suggest you research which brand has the best track record, and stick to their models. You can find a whole bunch of useful info about what is currently the best on various forums. Check out what people recommend the most and consider going from there. If you’re buying more than one stand, you will definitely want to do a bit more research. Same goes if you have more expensive guitars that require some special care.

With all this stuff out of the way, feel free to check out our list of Best Guitar Stands on the market.