3 Guitar Racks Seriously Chosen by Someone Who Now Owns 5 Guitars
Good evening! It's me again!!
A little while ago, I wrote an article titled, "I have 5 guitars. That's probably enough."
I must say, I wrote some pretty good things.
Let's cherish what we already have.
Buying things doesn't change who you are as a person.
Now that I'm in my 50s, what I need isn't a 6th guitar, but more time to play the 5 I already have.
That's what I wrote.
And after finishing that article, here I am searching for guitar racks.
People really don't change that easily.
Once you buy a guitar, you have to put it somewhere.
It's obvious, but when you buy a guitar, you need a place to put it.
However, when we buy guitars, we rarely think about that.
What kind of pickups are on it?
What is the body wood?
How is the neck?
What year was it made?
This color is rare.
How much is it selling for overseas?
What is the used market price?
Even though we research all that,
By the way, where are you going to put this in your house?
For some reason, that very important question always gets pushed to the back of the line.
Do we feel like buying a guitar somehow makes our room feel bigger?
It doesn't.
Only the number of guitars increases.
I currently have five guitars and basses in my house combined.
And I already own one five-guitar rack.
So, isn't that fine?
That's true.
I have five instruments and a rack for five.
The math is perfect.
However, it seems that "can fit" and "can fit comfortably" do not mean the same thing.
The body thicknesses are different, too.
Some of them have straps left on them.
Some guitars have Bigsby vibratos.
I've started wanting a bit more room rather than cramming five instruments into a five-guitar rack.
So I thought about it.
Why not just buy another five-guitar rack?
Even though I only have five, I'll be able to store ten.
That's plenty of room.
Of course, there is no need to fill the 5 empty spots.
This is extremely important, so I will write it again for my own sake.
There is no need to fill them.
This is not consumerism. It is environmental improvement.
I am not buying a guitar.
I am buying a rack to store the guitars I currently own safely and comfortably.
This is not consumerism.
It is environmental improvement.
Humans invent very convenient phrases when they go shopping.
However, this time, there is a genuine necessity.
Maybe.
So, when I looked into options focusing on 5-guitar racks, three candidates emerged.
And annoyingly, each one seems good for a different reason.
1. RockStand by Warwick—My wallet is rooting for this one.
First is the RockStand by Warwick.
It is a very straightforward rack that can hold 5 electric guitars or basses.
It has a metal frame with foam padding where the instruments make contact.
It can also be folded up.
Something like this is perfectly fine.
I am not looking for Bluetooth or an LCD screen on a guitar rack.
It just needs to keep the guitars from falling over.
And above all, it is relatively affordable compared to the other three.
This is a big point.
Guitar racks are a bit of a strange product.
People who will spend tens of thousands, or sometimes even hundreds of thousands of yen on a guitar itself, suddenly say this when it comes to a stand:
"That's expensive..."
I start saying that too.
I am one of those people.
I look at an effects pedal that costs tens of thousands of yen and think, "Well, it costs about that much," but the moment a guitar rack exceeds 10,000 yen, I suddenly become calm.
Why is that?
Is it because it doesn't produce sound?
The 5-guitar RockStand seems sufficient for my needs.
I don't know if it will look good next to the rack I currently have.
But that's fine.
My room is not a music store.
I'm the only one who sees it.
As long as the guitars can be placed safely and are easy to take out, that's all that matters.
Note that the manufacturer does not recommend this for instruments with nitrocellulose lacquer finishes.
Fortunately, I don't have a single guitar with a lacquer finish in my house.
I never thought that not owning high-end guitars would be an advantage in a situation like this.
2. HERCULES GS525B—I'm a Sucker for Recommendations from Experts
Next is the HERCULES GS525B.
You often see HERCULES stands in music stores.
This one is also for 5 guitars, but what's interesting is that it's expandable.
By attaching dedicated extension yokes, it can hold up to 10 guitars.
10 guitars.
I don't need that.
I currently have 5.
I just wrote an article saying, "That's enough."
But the phrase "you can add more" has a strange appeal.
It's the same with PC memory slots.
It's the same with empty SSD slots.
Even if I don't plan to use them right away, being told "you can add more in the future" makes me feel at ease.
I don't know what I'm preparing for. A war?
And as for HERCULES, it's also recommended by Tokyo Metal City.
This is a problem.
When someone who knows infinitely more about guitars and gear than I do says, "This is good," it's more effective than reading the Amazon product description 100 times.
HERCULES has a manufacturer-rated load capacity of 80kg.
Special foam material is used on the parts that come into contact with the instruments.
Compatible with electric guitars, acoustic guitars, and basses.
It can be expanded further.
I am quite serious.
Looking at the RockStand,
"Isn't this good enough?"
my heart, which had been thinking that, began to waver.
You shouldn't think that shopping gets easier the more options you have.
The more options you have, the harder it becomes to decide.
3. K&M Guardian 5—Teacher, are you using two of those?
And the last one is the K&M Guardian 5.
At this point, it's a very proper guitar rack.
It can store five electric guitars or basses in a space-saving manner, and protective material is used on the parts that support the instruments.
It can also be folded.
The part that supports the neck is designed not to touch the strings, and it even comes with a pick holder.
Furthermore, this one is also compatible with nitrocellulose lacquer.
That has nothing to do with me.
It doesn't, but it certainly feels very professional.
And there is a problem.
My guitar teacher, Katzuya Shimizu, uses this K&M 5-guitar rack.
And he has two of them.
Two of them.
This is a problem.
If it were just one, I could still ignore it.
I could think, 'Maybe they just happened to buy it'.
Two is hard to ignore.
It means they used one, and then chose the same one again.
For me, this is more persuasive than a row of five-star product reviews.
However, the price also goes up.
Should I really spend this much on a guitar rack?
Couldn't I buy an effect pedal with that money?
Couldn't I buy some interesting gear if I looked for used items?
I start thinking about such unnecessary things.
That won't do.
What I am looking for right now is a guitar rack.
If I buy other gear with the money I saved by not buying a guitar rack, I don't know what I'm doing.
Even so, K&M has a charm that makes it seem like a tool I could use for a long time.
And above all,
'The teacher uses two of them'
That phrase won't leave my head.
It is extremely powerful.
Wallet, reviews, teacher
I have narrowed it down to these three.
RockStand by Warwick.
HERCULES.
K&M.
Let me organize who is recommending each one.
RockStand is recommended by my wallet.
HERCULES is recommended by Mr. Tokyo Metal City.
K&M is actually used by two units by Mr. Katzuya Shimizu.
Whose advice should I listen to?
If you think about it normally, it's my wallet.
My wallet knows more about my life than anyone else.
However, a wallet has absolutely no understanding of music.
"Don't buy such things."
That is all it ever says.
It is not very interesting as a person to consult with.
The more I research, the less I understand.
Before the internet, shopping might have been a little easier.
Go to the store.
It's there.
Ask the clerk.
I buy it.
It's different now.
I check the official website.
I check Amazon.
I read the reviews.
I watch YouTube.
I even check overseas message boards.
I ask my acquaintances too.
I even get curious about what my teacher uses.
I used to think that more information would bring me closer to the right answer.
That doesn't seem to be the case.
When information increases, about three right answers emerge.
That's right. The truth is not always singular.
And then you become even less able to decide.
I have experienced this many times when buying guitars as well.
Perhaps part of the reason I own five guitars lies somewhere around here.
Maybe you won't have any trouble regardless of which one you buy
After researching this much, I'm going to write something blunt.
I think you won't have any major issues regardless of which of these three you buy.
If you prioritize price, go with RockStand.
For a balance of build quality and expandability, go with HERCULES.
If you want something solid that will last a long time, even if it costs a bit more, go with K&M.
That is what it ultimately comes down to.
The rest depends on where you want to spend your money.
In my case, I already have a 5-guitar rack.
If I add another 5-guitar rack, I can store 10 guitars.
I currently own 5 instruments.
That means a 50% utilization rate.
In my room in Tokyo, the guitars would end up living in an unusually spacious environment.
They might even have more space per unit than I do as a human.
But maybe that's fine.
It also reduces the worry of the guitars bumping into each other.
If they become easier to take out, I might even play them more often.
At the very least, it's cheaper than buying a sixth guitar.
Material desire just changes form
In the previous article, I wrote that I have 5 guitars and that's probably enough.
That thought hasn't changed.
For now, I have no plans to add any new guitars.
However, now I find myself wanting a rack to store those 5 guitars.
Perhaps material desire doesn't disappear; it just changes its form.
I want a guitar.
I buy a guitar.
I get more guitars.
I start wanting something to put my guitars on.
I buy a guitar rack.
And then, there's an empty spot on the rack.
I've decided not to think too much about what happens from here on out.
I have five guitars.
That's probably enough.
However,
it seems that for guitar racks, it's not enough yet.