Mic Stands

Hello all, I need 25-30 boom mic stands for road use. All my web searching comes up with people saying Atlas or K&M only, but I can't afford those. Any good experiences with On-Stage, Ultimate, Samson, whatever?

Thanks!
-Glenn

I just got four low-cost On-Stage stands from Sweetwater for use in my rehearsal studio. With boom arm, they were less than thirty dollars each. However, you get what you pay for. While functional, they simply seem too lightweight. I am afraid of them tipping over in a live situation. On the other hand, I also have three of the high-end On-Stage Studio Boom stands and they are worth every penny.

Road use means you're going to be constantly replacing those cheap stands.  If you were performing with say a regular band, small number of stands that you personally set up yourself, probably not a big deal.

But touring with 30+ inputs means local labor, which means you'll really not be happy with cheap stands when the locals are tossing them back into the trunk at the end of the night. 

I've regretted every purchase of On-Stage Stands Sag . Because they're cheap you end up telling yourself you can just buy a replacement if it doesn't work out...and it's very likely that you will.

I've never heard anyone talk about Tama stands, but I swear by them. The swivel nut doesn't use the cheap soft rubber gasket that On-Stage uses (that makes the boom sag over time).  They're a little pricey, but I've never had to replace one in the 20 years that I've had mine. I did a quick search and these "seem" to be the right ones, but mine are chrome so I can't say for sure:  https://www.sweetwater.com/c396--Tama--Mic_Stands

For those using the cheap lightweight stands like on-stage, a good trick is to stick a metal barbell weight (2.5lb or 5lb) on the vertical pole to provide some stability.

gltech said:

Hello all, I need 25-30 boom mic stands for road use. All my web searching comes up with people saying Atlas or K&M only,

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And there is a reason for that.

As the old saying goes, "buy once, cry once."

I'm extremely happy with these:
Auray MS-5220T -- short boom, all metal
On Stage MS9701TBPLUS Platinum Series Tele-Boom Microphone Stand

They're $30 and $50 respectively, and the second is many, many steps above the $30 on stage. Both are all metal, and I have 3 of each at home, plus some of my bandmates have gotten a few of each for themselves. Get the short booms for instruments or sitting people and you won't have to spend quite as much as you would getting the $50 ones. They are heavy, they're solid, and the moving bits stay put.

They aren't as good as K&M or Atlas (I have a couple K&Ms that I inherited from a short-lived bluegrass band my dad was in along with some PA gear). In particular they can stick a little when you're trying to collapse them. But they are also much, much better than the $25-30 On Stage -- like a completely different planet. I did have to return one of the short booms for a bad thread (and B&H made it right), so be sure to assemble them before you take them on the road.

gltech said:

Hello all, I need 25-30 boom mic stands for road use. All my web searching comes up with people saying Atlas or K&M only, but I can't afford those. Any good experiences with On-Stage, Ultimate, Samson, whatever?

Thanks!
-Glenn

Click to expand...

I regret every time I tried to go cheap and not buy K&M, I ended up wasting much more money in the end.

Sorry I only advise K&M stands,
or if you dont have the money for new ones I would preffer to buy second hand good stands that to buy cheap new stands.

I have some K&M stuff which actually broke, and some cheap stuff which is doing great - just to add a different voice to it. I'd probably go to a shop and see what looks rugged, some cheap stuff is good while K&M isn't necessarily always. Here in Germany we have a very big store (on- and offline) which offers cheap stuff as well, they give a three year warranty on everything and you can return stuff within 4 weeks if you don't like it. So it is in their interest to offer usable and reasonably long lasting stuff, otherwise they'd drown in returns ;-) Sorry I can't recommend anything concrete, but maybe this still helps a bit.

If it is an option I'd try to buy second hand as well, but I see how this can be difficult if you need to be set up at a fixed date.

Michael

I never seen an K&M mic stand that was not good, and I never seen anything cheaper that was better