As is often the situation here I came across a product that I thought I needed, but could not find a source for it locally. In those situations I can either order one and have it sent, usually balikbayan box, or try to make do with what I can manufacture. That’s what I did with my latest project.

I’ve had a lot of issues with my back/neck lately and attributed at least part of the problem to playing the guitar. At first I thought it was because of the chair I was using, so I bought an expensive chair from S & R that gave me good support and allowed the freedom for the guitar to sit naturally. Unfortunately that didn’t seem to help. After playing for 30 minutes or so my back was still killing me.

It occurred to me to try playing with a strap and stand, such I was would do if playing a gig. While that didn’t eliminate the issue it did seem to reduce the pain some. The problem then was that my small little amp was pointed at my legs and the sound I was hearing was not the sound that was meant to be.

So I decided to tilt my Laney Cub 10 amp up towards me while standing up and playing the guitar. This would allow me to hear the amp as intended. I knew I wanted to tilt it and not raise it, as the bass would be reduced if it was brought up off the floor, such as putting it on a chair would do. This amp needed the extra bass that was provided by coupling it to the floor.

I did a lot of research and found that there were only a few options for stands that tilted, while keeping the amp on the floor. The one I wanted, Standback, as well as any other that I researched, were not available here in the Philippines. I found one place that had carried the Standback, but no longer did.

I came up with the idea to create a amp stand out of bamboo. I’m not sure exactly why, but one obvious reason might be that bamboo is readily available here. Given the layout of the back of my amp there aren’t very many places to secure it and the bamboo strips I used seemed just about perfect. I wanted something that would be fairly solid and inexpensive to make.

I was able to get two small bamboo strips about 1 1/2″ wide for the braces and cut them down to the correct size for the amount of tilt I wanted. I bought the base at a sari sari store by the local market. They were selling it as a bank to save your coins in. It was about 3″ round and 16″ long. I had to cut the lower third of it off to give it a flat, solid bottom.

The hardest part was finding the bolts and wing nuts. I was only able to find stainless steel bolts, so I paid too much for them. With the wing nuts I’m able to fold down the braces to make it more compact, if I decide I ever need to pack it.

Overall it works pretty well. Good enough for what I’m doing at the moment, and the price was right. If I get and opportunity to buy a Standback I’ll probably do so. For now I’m happy with the setup, and any back relief is certainly welcome.

Google+

Randy Countryman

By Randy Countryman Category: Music Tags: Amp stand, amp tilt, bamboo amp stand. Standback