Guitar Stands Bad For Neck?

[tom310]

Does keeping a Tele in a guitar stand all the time cause any neck issues? I'm just curious since I don't have a case right now for my Tele so it sits in a guitar stand when not being played.

[xrolandtx]

the only way i think this might cause any problems is if it fell OUT of the stand, if the stand was sitting in direct sunlight all day long, or possibly it might cause a rosewood board to dry out depending on your rooms humidity?

other than that, many of the members here have a guitar that sits in a stand all day, ready to be picked up and played at a moments notice! no problem with that :)

[drewsblues]

The rubbery stuff on guitar stands can react badly with the finish on your guitar. I've got a Strat that has suffered this fate after leaving the guitar on a stand for 6 months in a beach town. The mix of the rubber and the salt air just ate away at the body and neck finish. As a result, I started pulling that rubber crap off of my stands and draping a terry cloth towel or rag (clean, of course) over the places that contacted the guitar.

Nowadays, my wife sews little terry cloth "stand condoms" that I slide over the bare metal of the stand. Never travel without protection, boys!

[redstringuitar]

Nitro finishes are more likely to react to rubber than poly.

[Joe-Bob]

Oooo........Stand Condoms---cool idea!

[tdowns]

Originally Posted by drewsblues

...........

Nowadays, my wife sews little terry cloth "stand condoms" that I slide over the bare metal of the stand. Never travel without protection, boys!

...

Cool, but they don't appear to have reservoir tips????

There were some guitar stands made in the past that reacted with the finish. I'm sorry to hear that modern day stands still do that.

[tombm3]

Hey Drew, Have you ever thought about selling stand condoms? I'd be in for 1/2 dozen or so.

Actually I'm surprised nobody (that I'm aware of) has come to market with these yet.

[Oldschoolwax]

Originally Posted by tombm3

Hey Drew, Have you ever thought about selling stand condoms? I'd be in for 1/2 dozen or so.

Actually I'm surprised nobody (that I'm aware of) has come to market with these yet.

Then people would complain about the price and say. " Just buy a a cheap 12 pack of socks!"


I leave guitars in stands and have left them out on hardware store shovel hangers for years ( Poly, not lacquer ) and never had a problem. With a Tele, well, I don't think the word hurt comes into play unless you break out a hammer!


~Michael

[agony]

As for my experience regarding the original post, I've kept my first tele on a stand since 1995. It's a poly finish so no issues on reaction to rubber. As for the neck, I use stands that don't support the neck at all, just the body. Hence no stress placed on the neck anywhere. It plays as well as it did when I first had it set-up 14 years ago.

I too would like to know the effects of a stand with a neck support, and even the wall-hangers that support the full weight of the guitar by the headstock.

[silentactors]

What about Guitar Wall hangers? I have two teles that that hang on my wall and I have been curious about any effect it may be causing - especially since one is a rather heavy 70's tele. seems like a lot of pressure on the the headstock. Any thoughts?

[bandeapart]

Please, don't take offense to my wording, cuz I'm not attacking you... I just think people worry to much about dumb little things like this. We should just play our guitars and have some fun! I don't think little things like this will do anything significantly noticeable to any guitar.

[iansmitchell]

It's a tele. The thing is durable enough to be used as a murder weapon. Stand won't do it no harm.

[BoogerRooger]

Originally Posted by iansmitchell

It's a tele. The thing is durable enough to be used as a murder weapon. Stand won't do it no harm.

[Jakester93]

lol at that video!!

But yeah, I doubt any harm will come to the neck. If it did, it would probably be well known; a bad neck isn't something a guitarist wants.

[Mike Bruce]

If use of a stand or hanger was all it took to hurt any guitar, guitars simply wouldn't work for very long. Much more stress is put on the neck from being carried around, and played.

Much ado about nothing.

Mike Bruce

[Bad Chile]

Wall hangers have no effect on the neck. Why?

The tension in the strings amounts to approximately 20 pounds-force (lbf) each. Six strings * 20lbf = 120lbf tension.

This is counteracted by compression in the neck. Remember force = mass * acceleration? Well, if the force is unbalanced, there has to be some acceleration. Since the guitar isn't flying around all the time, the force is balanced and the compression in the neck is 120lbf.

Put the guitar on a wall hanger, though, and the body weight is pulling down. A heavy telecaster is what - 9 pounds? Say 10lbf to make the math easy. So what happens in our static system?

So on a wall hanger the neck has a compression of 120lbf and the body - being pulled down by gravity, puts a tension of 10lbf into the neck. The net resultant is 110lbf in compression. You won't hurt the guitar at all. Note that this analysis ignores the effect of the truss rod, which puts additional compression in the neck and the eccentricity of the forces of both the strings and the truss rod. Don't worry about those.


This is very much like bicycle spokes. A fully built bicycle well has so much tension in each spoke that the full weight of the rider on that wheel is still not enough compression to cause the spoke to go into compression and buckle.

[teleyouk]

Originally Posted by Joe-Bob

Oooo........Stand Condoms---cool idea!

Clever!

[jwells393]

If your guitar has a modern poly finish you shouldn't have a problem. However since many of us refinish guitars or finish our scratch builds in lacquer the stands can be a problem. I've tried various rubber and plastic tubing a well as leather. They all seemed to react with the lacquer.

I did something similar to drewsblues but used felt instead of terry cloth. Instead of sewing the felt I used an office stapler. Sewing would definitely be better is that option is available.

......

[silentactors]

Originally Posted by Bad Chile

Wall hangers have no effect on the neck. Why?

The tension in the strings amounts to approximately 20 pounds-force (lbf) each. Six strings * 20lbf = 120lbf tension.

This is counteracted by compression in the neck. Remember force = mass * acceleration? Well, if the force is unbalanced, there has to be some acceleration. Since the guitar isn't flying around all the time, the force is balanced and the compression in the neck is 120lbf.

Put the guitar on a wall hanger, though, and the body weight is pulling down. A heavy telecaster is what - 9 pounds? Say 10lbf to make the math easy. So what happens in our static system?

So on a wall hanger the neck has a compression of 120lbf and the body - being pulled down by gravity, puts a tension of 10lbf into the neck. The net resultant is 110lbf in compression. You won't hurt the guitar at all. Note that this analysis ignores the effect of the truss rod, which puts additional compression in the neck and the eccentricity of the forces of both the strings and the truss rod. Don't worry about those.


This is very much like bicycle spokes. A fully built bicycle well has so much tension in each spoke that the full weight of the rider on that wheel is still not enough compression to cause the spoke to go into compression and buckle.

THANKS! very helpful and puts my mind at ease!

[stxrus]

i've been using the Ultimate stands for years, as is, with no adverse effects on gibsons or fenders.

steve

[nadzab]

My Les Paul, the only nitro-finished guitar I have, still bears little marks from being left on the stand for extended periods, before I figured out what was happening. Nowadays, I have a stand that wears socks: I cut a small holes in a pair of dark gray socks so I could slip one over the neck support, and one over the body support. Now when the LP come out of the case, that's the stand it uses.

As far as neck warpage from storing a guitar on a stand, unless there's some oddball external factor at work, I'd bet money that this would not happen. Think about it...most cases have a neck cradle too, so are we any better off keeping our guitars cased, if in fact this was an issue?

[Bill]

Back in the '70s I ruined the finish on a new Les Paul by using a plastic guard that went over the back to protect the finish. Oh the irony. (It had a foam strip around the guard to hold it in place. The foam melted onto and into the finish.)

I've been pretty paranoid about that kinda thing ever since. If I used a cotton or felt cover for the hanger, I'd make sure it was white or undyed. I'd worry about any dye leaching into the finish or reacting, especially on hot or humid days.

Also, if you hang the guitar on the wall, make sure it isn't a poorly insulated wall that gets a lot of heat. My wife used to have an apartment with one interior wall that got so hot during the summer you literally could not touch your hand to it for more than 3-4 seconds. But a couple of feet away you wouldn't have known about the heat problem, just that the room was warm near there. I could see someone hanging a guitar in winter thinking it was fine, and wondering why their guitar neck warped over the summer.

[tdowns]

Originally Posted by Bad Chile

Wall hangers have no effect on the neck. Why?

The tension in the strings amounts to approximately 20 pounds-force (lbf) each. Six strings * 20lbf = 120lbf tension.

This is counteracted by compression in the neck. Remember force = mass * acceleration? Well, if the force is unbalanced, there has to be some acceleration. Since the guitar isn't flying around all the time, the force is balanced and the compression in the neck is 120lbf.

Put the guitar on a wall hanger, though, and the body weight is pulling down. A heavy telecaster is what - 9 pounds? Say 10lbf to make the math easy. So what happens in our static system?

So on a wall hanger the neck has a compression of 120lbf and the body - being pulled down by gravity, puts a tension of 10lbf into the neck. The net resultant is 110lbf in compression. You won't hurt the guitar at all. Note that this analysis ignores the effect of the truss rod, which puts additional compression in the neck and the eccentricity of the forces of both the strings and the truss rod. Don't worry about those.


This is very much like bicycle spokes. A fully built bicycle well has so much tension in each spoke that the full weight of the rider on that wheel is still not enough compression to cause the spoke to go into compression and buckle.

Bad Chile,
You should get post of the week or something for that. The bicycle spoke analogy is golden.

[Bad Chile]

Originally Posted by tdowns

Bad Chile,
You should get post of the week or something for that. The bicycle spoke analogy is golden.

Thanks - you're too kind. Taking me down a notch or three - Half my life has been devoted to the study and practice of structural engineering so this stuff pretty much comes naturally to me The stresses in a guitar neck are quite similar to that in post-tensioned concrete construction. It smply is my job to know this.

Now, fortunately for the public (but much to my dismay), I'm a significantly better engineer than guitarist! But for the benefit of this and other forums one of these days I'm going to do a full post on the stresses in a guitar neck with diagrams, including accounting for the eccentricity of the strings and the truss rod as well as discussing the aspect of creep. Creep is the time-dependent deformation of a material under constant loading

Now, for good reason I neglected the effect of creep from my analysis because a cyclical difference of 10% in the loading in the neck over time due to the wall hanger vs. playing is utterly negligible over the course of hundreds of years. However, removing guitar strings but leaving the truss rod engaged for a significant - say, longer than ten years - will cause a small deformation of the neck due to the eccentricity of the truss rod (which is how the darn thing works!)

One of the really, really cool things about investigating the stresses in a guitar neck is that wood is neither homogenous (uniform) nor isotropic (having the same mechanical properties in each direction) nor prismatic (having a uniform cross section). Add in the effect of the truss rod and the effect of humidity on the guitar and creep and the interation between the truss rod and the wood of the neck and it is soon apparent the complexity of a guitar neck.

Which hopefully gives you a better appreciation for that guitar you just bought. And a better appreciation for the fun stuff structural engineers do all day.

[Blueblood]

For what it's worth, I ran to Big Lots and bought a bag of infant socks for cover up on the tubing. Problem solved cheap and working great for years!

[phildobbin]

I always store mine in a guitar rack. Only use a stand when I'm re-stringing them. As long as you keep them upright with no pressure on the neck, they'll be fine. & as the Keef clip showed, Tele's are pretty much indestructible this side of a house fire...

[johnporter]

A few issues I have been made aware of over the years,I am willing to share with you nice folks.

1. Some Wall hangers do not fit all instruments properly.
2. Teles hang in some with most of the weight on the low E tuning key,most likely not a good thing.
3. Firebirds & some acoustics also hang on the tuning keys;mainly ones with the keys on the back of the headstock instead of the sides.Most likely not a good thing.
4. If you get careless during some hectic day and decide to hang a Really Heavy, VERY EXPENSIVE banjo on a wall hanger.........there is a chance of breakage where the thin neck swells into a headstock............................I understand this can be followed surprisingly quickly by being notified you no longer have a job at that particular music store.

[Bad Chile]

Originally Posted by johnporter

A few issues I have been made aware of over the years,I am willing to share with you nice folks.

1. Some Wall hangers do not fit all instruments properly.
2. Teles hang in some with most of the weight on the low E tuning key,most likely not a good thing.
3. Firebirds & some acoustics also hang on the tuning keys;mainly ones with the keys on the back of the headstock instead of the sides.Most likely not a good thing.
4. If you get careless during some hectic day and decide to hang a Really Heavy, VERY EXPENSIVE banjo on a wall hanger.........there is a chance of breakage where the thin neck swells into a headstock............................I understand this can be followed surprisingly quickly by being notified you no longer have a job at that particular music store.

Good points - I don't know how many Tele's I've seen in stores with the low E tuning key being a resting point. That does make me nervous.

[superbadj]

On most wall hangers, you can squeeze the fork that holds the headstock together a bit to make it smaller to fit the Tele headstock. It certainly should only be on the wood, NOT the tuners.