Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I'd like to check with you all about my memory of the commonly available, daresay, ubiquitous pipe-style guitar stand. When did these appear on your radar? Were they common in the Sixties or were they a product of the Seventies? For example, I don't recall seeing stands on any Beatles' stages or studios. Am I wrong about that?
Also, weren't the first commonly available guitar stands made more like fan-out sheet music stands, with flat bar elements? I the first one I had was built like that, and it was awful.
Have I got it right?

Yeah, I remember those flat bar type stands, they worked as long as there wasn't a breeze and you didn't actually put a guitar in them...

The first tube-type stand (no, it didn't have to warm up) I had was in the late 70's but I have no idea when they first came out, that's just when I finally decided to give up on the old one and buy a new one (poor college student syndrome)...

I believe that the first tubular stand I bought (or saw for that matter) was in the early 1980's. I can remember playing many gigs in the 70's and having to keep my case close by to put the guitar in during breaks. I do have a memory of the Hamilton chrome guitar stand (much like their foldable music stands). They were chrome, thin flat pieces and a flat bar in the back------- very un-stable and flimsy.
Bob

They were around when I started playing in the 80s.

That's pretty much the way I remember it too, Kira. Had one of those flat guitar stands. Made by Hamilton, as I recall. And it seems to me they had a tendency to tip over pretty easily, as well.

JimK

Pete Townshend was using a guitar stand in 1964:


I am surprised that the Stones and the Beatles weren't using them.

Nah, sorry, Jake. I don't think that's a guitar stand. A cymbal stand, maybe. If you blow up the picture you'll see the guitar is probably leaning against the wall. I don't think it's on a stand, rather it's just next to some other piece of gear. I'm open to being convinced, but I ain't buying it.

You're right, the light on my monited sucked.

Pete did start using stands by 1969 when the Who were performing "I Don't Even Know Myself" and that song required a capo'd guitar.

I also seem to believe that George Harrison used a guitar stand at Shea Stadium in 1965 to switch from his Gretsch Tennesean to his Rickenbacker 360/12OS.

You know what they say - it didn't happen without pictures. I'm waiting to be convinced about them in the Sixties. I still say mid-Seventies for the tube-style stands, with the flat ones available for only a few years before that.

What's holding up the J-160e and the '61 Hofner in the first picture and the 360/12 at Shea?

The drum riser's holding up the J-160E, Dan. Obviously, John didn't care about what became of his guitars.

Look to the far left, you'll see a spare SG for Pete waiting for him...ON A STAND!

JakeK wrote:The drum riser's holding up the J-160E, Dan. Obviously, John didn't care about what became of his guitars.

In the first one the J-160e (and possibly the spare Hofner) is vertical and there appears to be something holding it up from behind.

dpowell wrote:In the first one the J-160e (and possibly the spare Hofner) is vertical and there appears to be something holding it up from behind.

I was talking about the Shea photo. I know a stand is holding up the J-160E and the Höfner in the Paris photo.

Here's a blow up:

Here you can clearly see one of the old style stands.