TubeNet

I've recently purchased a Hercules tuba stand for my concert horns, and so far I've been very happy with it. It seems to hold my horns very securely, it is difficult to tip over, AND it holds my tubas at an attractive angle so that they make nice living room decor. Overall, it's a big win, and I'd recommend to just about anyone.

I'm curious if anyone has seen a similar stand that will fit a helicon. Hercules makes a sousaphone stand, but I'm not convinced the pad that catches the area just below the bell would work with the geometry of a helicon. You can see what I mean below--



So, what are my options? The general idea here is to have something that will display my helicon nicely and get it off the ground. Any suggestions and comments are welcome.

The Yamaha Airlift sousaphone stand will hold helicons nicely, so long as:(1)they don't have a huge tube at the shoulder location (like old large Cerveny's), and (2) don't have a shoulder plate (like some Conns). There are pictures and a discussion of them in a recent thread discussing their (lack of) suitability for Conn Jumbo sousas.

The stands never caught on and are being sold off now for about $130 or less.

K and works for mine.

You have to be careful taking it out of the stand or it picks up dents.

The hercules stand works just fine for my Holton Eb Helicon. I did not have to modify it in any way.

opus37 wrote:The hercules stand works just fine for my Holton Eb Helicon. I did not have to modify it in any way.

Really? That's great! If that's the case, I think that I may need to invest in one of these.

Here is my Helicon on the Hercules Stand.

My 2 cents on Hercules & H&M; I hope I get a chance to try something else.

The Hercules; Its one position only. If it fits, you're lucky. If not, oh well. On the up side I think that their hollow rectangular pipes are the way to go. Once the horns on the stand it's on the stand. No jumping around when the drums kick in, or an elephant waltzes past. With my 40K I've had to have it welded FOUR DIFFERENT TIMES. And there are only three contact points! It's obviously been constructed for the fiberglass small sousaphone market. In hind site I'm happy the welding broke at the bell support. The grip was way too low for my 40K and absolutely useless for the 46K, so I changed the angle. Now of coarse, with real manly welds I can at least use this stand out on the job.

K&M. Great idea with nice possibilities to vary the height and angle of the horn, but again; It's obviously been constructed for the fiberglass small sousaphone market. Firstly; all my sousaphones bounce around in the thing on any stage thats a bit sensitive for vibrations. Secondly, they obviously decided to ignore most of the lessons learned with percussion stands. I mean really, the entire weight of the sousaphone in the "angular" setting hangs on a flimsy wing nut. I barely trust my 14K on this one. If I put my 40K in it I have to truly reinspect the angle to make sure that gravity doesn't win out over the strength of the wing nut (which I must tighten with a monkey wench...or else!). And it was absolutely dangerous for the 46K. I expected more from K&M; which specializes in stands.

Of coarse I realize that, like any product, I might've unfortunately picked out a defect stand. Or maybe a bad year. On the other hand, the only function of an instrument stand is to hold the instrument. I really feel cheated paying out all that money for a sousaphone stand that is almost entirely useless out in the field.

To make a comparison; in the 70's I bought a tuba stand from Miraphone out in Calif. And even though it also uses a wing nut in the angle adjustment part of the stand I'm still using it till this day without any problems. No, not just straight up in the stand, but often in really extreme angles in order to make a quick switch between two horns (than I might be playing the tuba in the stand). NEVER a problem. Even my front bell 36J slanting at 75% stays stable.

Oh well, my message is clear; I've had nothing but bad experiences with two international stand companies that do nothing else than make instrument stand. I hope your helicon is light enough for a K&M. It should work out. I'm curious about the Yamaha.
-Pat