Today i’ve been at the music store to find myself a nice stand for the flute, and some low whistles.
Brand name was Hercules, it comes with 3 poles… It is originally for 2 flutes and a piccolo. The low whistles seem to fit fine on the bigger poles.
My flute only fits on the one that is designed for the piccolo - and what can I say, it was rather thin and elastic and I don’t trust it to hold the heavy flute - especially when on stage switching instruments during one piece.
I’ve tried searching the forum for some stand topics, but I couldn’t really find anything - should that mean only a custom built stand is available out there?
I guess I could buy the Hercules stand, but I will need to replace the small pole with something else.
Depends what you want - if you want a stand for more than one flute, I’d say make one. I’m going to try to put my mind to that task some time soon. But, if you want a stand for just one flute, get a normal one and get someone with a lathe to ‘turn down’ the pole for you to a smaller diameter. That’s what mine is.
I have a wicker basket, cost a few dollars at an import store.
Put some bubble wrap or cloth on the bottom and stand flutes up, leaning the flutes against its side.
No good for high whistles but works well for flutes. 10 bucks.
Can’t find the ruler. It’s over two feet tall.
Tallish is the idea.
That looks nice for when you’re on stage, but in the pub I think it’s safer in your hands or flat on a table.
The risk of somebody tripping over it is too high to make the stand very practical.
I make them out of two crossed pieces of PVC with a dowel through the middle and held together with rubber bands. Works like a champ! I make one arm of the cross longer so it won’t flop over.
I’ve had an idea rattling around in my brain but have never got around to doing something with. It would aim to take advantage of a convenient mic stand on stage as a flute stand. The reasoning being that a big well-footed mic stand is less likely to be knocked over by the banjo player than a stand-alone floor-mounted flute stand.
I visualise it coming as two small, easily stored parts, made from Terry clips. Here’s a Terry clip for those who think I’m making this up!
Somewhere near the bottom of the stand, you’d have a bit of dowel, as a locating peg for the foot of the flute, with two Terry clips screwed to it, so that it can snap onto a typical mic stand. Perhaps better than a locating peg would be a locating cup, although it would need a dribble hole through it!
At a suitable distance above that, there would be a large Terry clip, with soft poly tubing or tape over its nippers. This would also be easily clipped to the mic stand, by a Terry clip bolted back-to-back with it.
When the flute is finished with, it would be a matter of indexing the foot of the flute on the peg or in the cup, then “snapping” the head end of the flute into the arms of the welcoming Terry clip. The Terry clip (with its cushioning tubing) could be bent outwards so that it only required a small amount of pressure to accept the flute.
The peg would be small in diameter and short, or the cup would be pretty wide and shallow, so that if the head end of the flute was pulled out too far too fast, no bending torque could be applied to the flute.
A similar arrangement could be used to hold a whistle or other flutes to the stand.
If anyone gets around to trying such an arrangement, let us know if it works!
The 7" drumstick holder, mounted low on the stand, is already fairly stable (I use this for whistles). The angle is adjustable. The bottom is padded with porous foam, and additional foam lining can reduce its diameter and cushion the flute. Yes, a drain hole could be drilled in the bottom.
Mounted high on the stand, the uke hanger cradles the top of the flute. A strap across the fork can secure the instrument, without the risk of either snap damage or torque damage from a Terry clip. Even better would be the mechanism found on some guitar hanger stands now, whereby several rotating “fingers” automatically close off the front of the fork when the instrument is placed in it, and open again when it’s removed.
Mind you, I haven’t tried this. But I don’t see why it might not work.
Same thing I used for my silver flute, back when I used to play (among other things) a silver flute in my rock band. Nice, compact, and it fell over more than once, when it rocked (literally) during shows. Quite easy to tip over, in other words. Resulted in a small, unimportant ding in the silver head - not sure the same fall would be that minor with a wooden flute.
At the time, I switched over to an idea much like Jim’s - a long wicker basket, with a soft foam insert on bottom and sides. Since the basket had (has - still have it) a nice handle, I attached it to my mike stand and just dropped my flute into it and went back to guitar. Perfect for the reel Swinging on a Mike Stand.
A similar idea, much cooler looking, for ITM playing is a tall, heavy drinking tankard, with or without the trigger-finger flip top (left open, of course). Very stable, you line the mug with foam as before, but it sits on the floor. I have a porcelain one about 1 1/2 foot high, and it would either need an earthquake or a really good kick to knock it over.
K&M offer the mini tripod stands with 4 different peg thicknesses and do mic-stand clamp-on versions too, and I think from their online catalogue that one could use their multi-peg floor stand to put 4 or 5 of the various size pegs on as suited your requirements - you can seemingly buy the pegs separately…
I have no personal experience of these, mind, nor know off-hand where one can buy them - no direct sales from K&M, seemingly.
He made me a flute stand that’s absolutely brilliant – a terrific design. It’s a nice solid maple base with removable dowel pegs of different sizes. The stand folds open flat and locks to make a nice wide – and very stable – base. He makes the stands with pegs to hold multiple flutes; mine holds up to six flutes or whistles and then folds in half to something about the size of an iPad so it fits into a backpack or pipe case. The dowels just sit in little “trays” inside and there’s a wee loop and screw that keeps it shut. It’s a little heavy – weighs a pound or two, but I couldn’t be happier with it. I think it was about $60, and ones that hold fewer are less. I hope he’s still making them, because they really are the beans!
That said, I’ve been toying with an idea along the lines of the “Terry clip” for years, though Terry’s solution looks much more elegant. But this being a discussion board, of COURSE I have to post about my inferior idea anyway :
Attach one of these lower on the mic stand (I have one on a music stand at home that’s become a default tinwhistle holder):
and then clip something like this on higher up (I think they make a version somewhere with a sort of “latch” that would close the U; failing that a thick hair elastic or wee bungee cord might do in a pinch):
When outdoor signs have problems standing up, people add sand bags.
If that is not attractive enough, a weighted skirt that surrounds the stand might be the ticket. Unfortunately many of the folding stands bend in one direction, but loops on the underside could solve this problem.
I started reading your post, and suddenly had an out of body experience. Unfortunately, watching myself while floating on the ceiling is almost as boring as being myself. So I’m very glad you cleared things up.
Great minds … more like cheap minds who enjoy cobbling together Rube Goldberg solutions. C’mon, fess up.
Oh, and it has to be a ukulele hanger. Ukes are much hotter than fiddles nowadays!
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