Musician's Gear Heavy-Duty Folding Music Stand  

The stand has retractable legs, adjustable pole and angled stand. It works great and is convenient for practice and play.

The stand is very sturdy and is the same metal I am use to from band years. If it falls over for some reason, fear not, it wont bend nor break.

Worth every penny!

Though the stand did not come with assembly instructions, it was simple to figure out. With a little bit of tinkering and trying out the stand, I found out how to work the retractable legs and the adjustable pole and stand. Its a great product and is worth the amount I paid for it.

The bolts came loose on the top of the stand within days so now it wobbles.  Can't see any way to fix.

I got this on a sale, regular $59.99 I got it for $19.99.  I wouldn't pay more than that.

I'm in a community band and need a portable stand to bring to rehearsals.  So far I've brought this to one rehearsal and used it at home and the top has come loose and wobbles.  It is sturdier than  my previous stand and able to hold the band music without tipping over.

Features? It's a music stand, not a fully loaded car.

Well, this certainly isn't a completely horrible music stand. That designation is reserved for the tin-plated little fold-up ones that look like they are made out of glorified wire mesh. However, this stand isn't very good for either, at least not for gigging. While I love the portability of the insubstantial stands that fold up to the size of a closed umbrella, the problem is that at gigs, all my set lists, lyrics sheets, and chord charts end up flying all over the place. So I needed one of those old-school solid metal stands we have all seen.  So I found this stand and was initially excited because it looked like one of those solid, old style stands, at least it did in the picture. Trouble is that in a live setting, it is a little better at holding the papers I put on it, but still not particularly good. I think a lot of it has to do with the horribly flimsy build quality of this thing. Those old stands we have all seen aren't particularly portable, and apparently aren't cheap either, but what they do have is a very solid, easy-to-use, easy-to adjust construction that for whatever reason, the papers seem to have the ability to STAY on them. Obviously if you're playing outdoors then all this goes out the window, but I am talking about indoor gigs, bars, clubs, and that sort of thing.

This stand has several small holes in the "stand part" of it where the papers sit. So I guess, even the slight breeze of an indoor venue can generate enough to sometimes knock your papers off no matter what angle you set the main part of the stand at. I will try putting masking tape or something over the small holes and see if that helps at my band's next gig, but I am not going to get my hopes up.

The "mechanism" of how this stand goes together also leaves a lot to be desired. To describe it briefly, you have the expandable, telescoping tripod part, similar to your standard microphone, booom stand. The end that connects to the actual stand is just a black, cylindrical piece. Here is where things begin to really get stupid, though: The "female" part on the stand that the pole slides into is this strange looking, almost crescent shaped piece on the back of the stand that has sort of two semi-circular metal pieces and a tightening bolt. You are apparently supposed to loosen the nut (or bolt, whatever you want to call it) all the way, slide the cylindrical pole in, and tighten it until it stays in place. First off, whoever thought of this mechanism was apparently on something...or perhaps they should have been. It is clumsy and not very effective at all. In addition, the way it is designed is that you have to find some magical "sweet spot" where the stand is about to fall off the pole but still manages to stay on. The reason is because the way the attachment mechanism works is that if you push the pole too far into the locking mechanism (you know, to make it more stable) the back of the stand hits against the freaking pole! This means that you will be forced to have your stand almost vertical! In other words, most good music stands allow you to flex and extend the functional part of the stand to accomodate your position on stage, not to mention make the papers resting n it less prone to falling off all the time. But if you try to make the stand more stable, you lose almost all of the movement of the stand. So you will have to spend some time threading the pole in so shallow that it is barely in the mechanism at all, but still stable while allowing for the stand to be tilted more or less according to your needs. This is pretty awful, to be honest, particularly for gigging.

In addition to the connection to the tripod being very awkward and cumbersome, I cannot imagine this lasting very long. The first thing I thought when I assembled the stand for the first time was, "This is a broken stand waiting to happen!".

It also comes with a very strange wing-nut that I have yet to figire out what it is supposed to be used for. It doesn't actually fit onto anything, but I saved it just in case I get a visit from the Music-Stand Fairy and it turns out that this is the magic ingredient to turn this lackluster stand into something a little more functional.

Honestly? Not good. The only thing that prevents me from giving this stand straight "1's" across the board is that, as I said in the title, "You get what you pay for." Seriously, though, this stand is NOT worth the money in my estimation, at least not if you are a gigging musician. Yes, as I alluded to, it is better than those wire-mesh doodad stands, but then again they are half the money as this one.

I have to be honest and say that this stand is a giant waste of my  money! Because, while I will grudgingly use this stand for  the time being, sooner or later, I am going to have to spring for an  ACTUAL MUSIC STAND to replace this with. In short,this is not a real  music stand. DO NOT be fooled by the pictures in the ad that make it  look like those old-school stands. If you really need a high quality  music stand then you are just going to have to spend the dollars and buy  one of those annoying, bulky stands that, to be quite honest, are the  best out there. I can tell you right now that I have a case of buyer's remorse. I would return it, but I already crushed up the box it came in.

My old "wire" stand gave up the ghost at rehearsal a couple of weeks back, so checked out Musician's Friend and found this heavy duty folding stand on sale. I ordered it on a Thurs. night and got it the following Tuesday. So far, it's worked perfectly. Assembly was easy and the construction of the stand appears to be good quality. I'm waiting to see if the tightening screw for the trunk of the stand at the bottom holds up long term. That was the issue with my wire stand. Anyway, I'm using the stand, it works well, I got a great deal on it, and we'll see how it holds up down the road. Thanks, Musician's Friend!

Great inexpensive folding music stand.

Stores easily and tilting tray is a plus.