First, the boring backstory, which is necessary to understand how I got into this stupid situation, and hopefully cut down on the questions, resulting in a higher advice-to-question ratio:
My wife found a Prophet 5 on Ebay a while back, and surprised me with it as a gift. I played one back in the 80's (yeah I'm old), and she was very happy about getting it for me, but I didn't have a regular gig at the time, so it's basically a
very expensive toy. But I get together with my buddies in Michigan a few times a year to jam, and there's the battle of the bands at the end of the summer, so I have a new toy to take with me. It is fully refurbished and sounds sweet, by the way.
My buddy's wife plays some keys, and they have two Yamaha keyboards, an 88 and a 54. They have two single stands which they set up sortuv overlapping each other, 54 on top, 88 below, which looks silly but works. I have full use of her keys when I'm playing with them. So I picked up one of these:
I take it and the Prophet with me when I go. I put the two Yamahas on it, and put the Prophet on one of the single stands to the right. I was trying to plan ahead for the day when I got my own 88, I could put the Prophet on top, and I'd have a pretty sweet rig. Last fall, that day arrived when I was asked to join a local church band and play keys once a month. Since Christian Rock doesn't call for 80's analog synths, I got a deal on a nice Yamaha 88 and I just set up the stand without the second tier. Been doing that for a few months now.
Now, the issue. My band leader has been dying to see/hear the Prophet. He says we'll figure out a way to make it work, it's just too cool of a keyboard to not use. Also, I kinda want to do it anyway. But it turns out that the upper tier of the stand is only rated for 50 pounds, and the Prophet weighs 60. It's a beast. It would probably be okay for a while, then I'd get used to banging on it, eventually the top tier would break, and the Prophet would crash down, destroying the stand and both keyboards in the process. No thanks. So the choices would seem to be:
1 - Set the Prophet on the lower tier and the Yamaha on top. Pros: It would work. The Yamaha only weighs 23 pounds. Cons: I'm not sure how stupid it would look having the longer keyboard on top. Also, I would still play the Yamaha a lot more, which means my arms would be reaching up most of the time. The main keyboard really should be on the lower tier.
2 - Get a new, stronger, 2-tier stand, and put the Prophet on top where it belongs. Pros: It would look better, and also be better functionally. Cons: Stands like that are expensive, plus I would basically have wasted the money on the original stand.
3 - Get a new single stand and set things up in an L, the Yamaha facing forward and Prophet to the right. Pros: Single stands are relatively cheap, and I have no problem playing with the keys in an L. Cons: Possibly looking stupid (does anyone set two single keyboards in an L?) and potential space constraints on stage, though I don't think that will be a problem. The stage area is pretty big. Still, I'd have wasted
some money on the original stand, having paid for a double-tier and not using the second tier, and that bugs me.
I'm curious as to what others think of all this
before I spend any more money. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
Topic: Keyboards players (and others I guess), I need advice (Read 2012 times)