Stewart Stands? anyone use them? Opinions?

[bearphonium]

I know Dave Werden uses one; there are a couple of threads on his web site that discuss them.

[tokuno]

I've been pondering (or dreading, more like) pawing through storage boxes to find my old Stewart stand.

I bought it in the 80s for my euphonium, but that horn was so light (and my lower back hadn't yet suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous abuse) that it wasn't worth the hassle of setup/teardown necessitated by using the hard case. I eventually permanently altered the case's padding to make it fit, but it was still a hassle (not a huge hassle, but per pain:value, the value didn't justify the nominal effort) just to mount the support rod.

Now, with a middle-aged lower back and a retro-fit trigger that requires me to hold the horn away from my torso, the timing's right to finally avail myself of that purchase.

I don't know if the stands have changed much over the last couple decades, but iirc, it was a tight fit to the bottom bow, so make sure you get the model appropriate to your bow size.

I mounted mine far off vertical, so it put a lot of bending stress on the rod and the the throw required me to sit farther back in the chair than I preferred. Depending upon your horn's weight, it might make sense to trend bigger on the clamps so you can mount the uppermost one right at the bell ferrule (I didn't go any higher for fear of damping the bell), and align the rod closer to vertical (although canting it a bit will keep it from sliding under load).

When I remount mine, I'm gonna bring the bottom clamp closer to the upper to force the rod more vertical.

The Stewart bands/nuts combo protrude ~1/2", iirc (but it's been a couple decades, so questionable estimate), so not significant to a soft case.

The knurled nuts and boss threads would probably wear your softcase faster than without, but you can probably mitigate that with careful handling, and anyway, imho, what's the cost of replacing your gig bag 25% faster (or whatever %) as compared to improving your playing - you know, cart/horse.

All in all, I remember it being a simple, elegant solution, nicely machined of quality materials and properly finished (e.g. cork liner to protect horn).

I say go for it.

hmm . . . I wonder if they have an optional 5' rod for standing gigs

[brianggilbert]

I really thought long and hard about a Stewart, but in the end I ended up going with the BBC stand for my 982.

[ken k]

After looking at this thread
viewtopic.php?t=27199
I've started wondering about the Stewart stand. I use a Besson 983 and have had quite a bit of playing to do on it lately so I am also putting a large amount of my practice time in on this instrument. I'm noticing that I can't seem to get the instrument set up to where it is comfortable for a long period of time. My back starts hurting(yeah, I'm a pansy).

I have never actually seen a Stewart Stand in person but it makes perfect sense and I wonder why more people aren't using them on some of the shorter tubas such as the Yamaha 621 F and C tubas, the Besson Eb of all varieties, etc.

Can anyone give me some feedback on this contraption? Are you able to still fit your tuba into the gig bag?

Thanks,

That is my horn in the pix. Getting a stewart stand was the best thing I ever did. I used to use the velcro straps but it was hard to adjust because the straps would not stay still for you to be able to move the rod up and down through the mounts. Once you got it into position it was fine but it took some time to do that.

That is why I attached the mounts directly on the horn. Now it works incredibly well. Imight look to get one for euphonium also.

keep in mind they really only work when you have to raise your horn to play. If you have to lower the horn then you will need a stand. But I can use it on any kind of chair and it is adjustable.

It fits fine in my gig bag. If you had a hard case it could be a problem. The rubber base piece come off, so it can fit in the case.

Go for it!

ken k

[Brassworks 4]

I tried the Stewart Stand - found it to be quite cumbersome actually. Mostly due to the fact of giggin' both sitting and standing. It just didn't work well for me.

I bought the DEG and love it. I can pop up for a solo number and not worry about the danger of the Steward "rod" getting in the way - plus that added weight isn't there.

Just my two cents worth.

[Uncle Buck]

I tried a Stewart stand for about a year with a Conn 3J tuba. I probably only used it for that long because I didn't want to admit to myself that I had wasted my money. Ultimately decided it was more hassle than help.

[bobcatpilot]

I've never tried a Stewart, but I've used a DEG for 10 years and it works great!

[FreeBandMusic]

I got one when I bought my Sterling euph, but I found it awkward to attach and when in use it felt 'springy'; I was never happy with it and didn't use it long.

John Thompson
visit FreeBandMusic.biz