Hercules Stands HCGS-525B

A big thumbs up for this stand! It's strongly built and looks fine - not as pretty as a wooden stand but not an eyesore either. I use it to hold 2 acoustics, 2 electrics and a bass - it takes up far less room than separate stands would.

Also: one of the reasons I bought it was because I'd had problems with cheap Millennium stands reacting with the nitrocellulose finish on my acoustic. It says 'not suitable for nitrocellulose finishes' in the product listing, but after looking on the Hercules website's FAQ (where they say it is safe for the majority of nitro finishes) I went ahead and bought it anyway. No problems so far! (Although from reading around forums, a) most nitro reactions happen when the guitar is new and the finish is still curing, and b) nitro formulations vary so you can never be 100% sure that a stand won't react.)

Anyway, an excellent stand for 5 guitars that won't break the bank.

Although this rack comes in dearer than some other options, it's build quality, stability and flexibility make it excellent value for money. I ended up buying the expansion packs to allow me to store 8 guitar as you do have a lot of extra room. It comes already constructed so you just fold it open and you're away. Once your precious guitar are racked up you and they feel secure.

The U-shaped neck holders are far superior to most other racks that simply use straight foam covered bars to prevent the guitars falling forward or back. The Hercules neck holder though keep them exactly where you put them. Not only is this re-assuring but is also means if someone does accidently bump the rack you don't have that heart stopping moment of panic worrying the headstocks are going to clatter into each other.

The foam rings on the bottom of the rack are moveable and although without them the chances of the guitar sliding along the foam rail is remote, they make it a near impossibility which is again incredibly reassuring.

In an ideal world a rack probably doesn't have to be as secure as this is as you would position it out of harms way and place your beloved guitars on it. The truths it though that most of us end up buying a rack due to space requirements. Working in restricted spaces then leads to accidents and it's at this point that you'll be thankful for the extra security benefits of the Hercules (which in my opinion justify the price).

Really pleased with it and am considering purchasing a second 3 guitar one.

Bought this, rather than the cheaper ones offered elsewhere. It comes already assembled and is very sturdy, should last for years. Advertised as allowing upto ten guitars, but realistically it fits about 8, especially if you leave the whammy bars on. You can just about squeeze on 10, if you remove the bars, but it is a tight squeeze, Better to just play it safe and go with 8 max (electric) , haven't tried with acoustic. In summary, this rack seems to be very good quality and should be able to cope with some heavy weight, Very pleased with it , and glad I didn't buy the cheaper offerings. p.s - this rack is advertised as accommodating 10, guitars, but only has 5 neck holders. Had to buy another 5, which turned out to be overkill, as explained earlier, this rack for a max of 8, realistically. So it should include the 10 holders in the first place, but I suppose they make more money that way.

Really like this guitar stand.

It is very very stable and very well built. The foam covering ensures that the guitars sit quite softly on the base and the plastic adjustable u-shape neck holder stop the guitars moving about.

I bought an additional 2 sets of 'additional guitar holder' packs along with the basic stand. This took it from 5 guitars to 7 guitars (2 acoustics, 3 electrics and 2 bases) and it holds them all very solidly, with still a substantial gaps between them and with the foam rings on the base there is no chance of them knocking together.

Folds up quite nicely for transport, but once open and installed, I don't know if I would use this function again, (unless I had the sudden urge to gig with one guitar per song and could not live without having a selection of guitars at my disposal...... ), but as I say, once opened it is super stable and won't be moving for while now.

It was a really nice design thought for the foam to be added to the main support bars either side so that the guitars on either end have less chance to be knocked, when placing them in the stand.

Overall it saves me loads of space, in my case compared to the space a '7 separate guitar stand obstacle course' requires, and also much safer than sitting each sitting on a tripod stand. Not cheap, but gives good peace of mind.

High recommended.

in my opinion, a very bad design, it has to be put quite far from the wall because of the tilted necks and it obviously gets even worse with longer scale instruments making it completly useless for me, such an enormous waste of space! Don't get fooled by the specified dimensions...

Stability is fine but far from perfect since the instrument's bodies are not locked in but just sit on foam so it depends on the weight of each of them and they can collide on the side if you are not careful.

Build quality is also fine, it felt solid but nothing special.

A big disappointment overall for the price.

I returned it immediatly to replace it by a K&M which is superior in every aspect, no waste of space, better build quality and better stability, not close.

I purchased the rack as a more compact replacement for the individual stands I'd be using to hold my guitars. I bought two extra expansion holders, which were easy to add to the rack. It comfortably holds 3 electric guitars, 1 electric bass and 2 acoustic guitars, with enough headroom to potentially fit up to 2 more electrics (or one acoustic). It's very modular and yhe instruments are held in place at an angle, which makes it very hard for them to fall off, even more so with the moveable foam rings on the bottom bar that secure the body in place. Though my guitars are fairly standard shaped, so I can't say for certain if it would be a good fit for explorers, flying v's, etc. The only feature 'missing' (but not really, as I have not found a rack that has it) is optional security straps on the neck holder, like those on many guitar stands. But, even without those, I still feel safe placing my guitars on the rack, even with cats running around.