Hercules Guitar Stand - check the height adjust handle!

[No457 Snowy]

I got a bit of a shock today when the Hercules stand holding my '62HR Strat made a snapping sound and then collapsed to the bottom of it's telescopic height travel. The strap-pin of my Strat didn't contact the tiled floor but if it had it might have been nasty. It appears that the locking handle that adjusts the height of the stand has turned into a very gooey sludge, split where the pivot pin goes through it and disintegrated, the handle and spring dropping out and letting the stand just drop to it's minimum height.

Luckily the Strat still had some ground clearance, but I checked my other stand with my semi-hollow Ibanez JSM100 and it's handle is actually about to do the same thing, it's also a gooey mess and I can see a crack where the pivot pin secures the handle and spring (when I touched the handle my fingers got the sticky goo on them and I had a hard time getting it off my hands). I checked against the other stand and if the stand holding the JSM100 had let go the guitar would have taken a hit on the floor due to the larger body dimensions and the impact would most likely have cracked the guitar's body. Needles to say my guitars won't be sitting in these stands again. The stands are probably 8 years old but were set once to the correct height for the guitar they held and never adjusted again so it's hard to understand why the handles on both stands have split like they have.

Anyway, if you use a Hercules stand with the Auto-Grip head and squeeze handle for height adjustment then check the height adjust handle for splitting at the pivot pin and in case it is turning to a gooey mess.

 

[Colnago]

I got a bit of a shock today when the Hercules stand holding my '62HR Strat made a snapping sound and then collapsed to the bottom of it's telescopic height travel. The strap-pin of my Strat didn't contact the tiled floor but if it had it might have been nasty. It appears that the locking handle that adjusts the height of the stand has turned into a very gooey sludge, split where the pivot pin goes through it and disintegrated, the handle and spring dropping out and letting the stand just drop to it's minimum height.

Luckily the Strat still had some ground clearance, but I checked my other stand with my semi-hollow Ibanez JSM100 and it's handle is actually about to do the same thing, it's also a gooey mess and I can see a crack where the pivot pin secures the handle and spring (when I touched the handle my fingers got the sticky goo on them and I had a hard time getting it off my hands). I checked against the other stand and if the stand holding the JSM100 had let go the guitar would have taken a hit on the floor due to the larger body dimensions and the impact would most likely have cracked the guitar's body. Needles to say my guitars won't be sitting in these stands again. The stands are probably 8 years old but were set once to the correct height for the guitar they held and never adjusted again so it's hard to understand why the handles on both stands have split like they have.

Anyway, if you use a Hercules stand with the Auto-Grip head and squeeze handle for height adjustment then check the height adjust handle for splitting at the pivot pin and in case it is turning to a gooey mess.

The older ones are known for this and Hercules will send you a new one for free if you email them a picture, etc.. They have great customer service.

 

[Wag]

The older ones are known for this and Hercules will send you a new one for free if you email them a picture, etc.. They have great customer service.

Now there's some useful info. I have one of their 3-guitar stands that suffered a catastrophic failure of the height adjustment mechanism. It didn't turn into a mess of goo as I recall. The plastic lever kinda degraded over time to the point that it all just fell apart.

I guess I need to make Hercules aware of this situation! lol

thx

 

[Oinkus]

I have had issues with trying to get results from Hercules , had a few stands break just the pin connection on height adjust. I won't buy anymore now. I had the sludge thing on a couple too but removed it with alcohol I think it was been a long time since then.

 

[Jahn]

I use Ultimate Support. Has never let me down.

 

[Colnago]

I have had issues with trying to get results from Hercules , had a few stands break just the pin connection on height adjust. I won't buy anymore now. I had the sludge thing on a couple too but removed it with alcohol I think it was been a long time since then.

That is really odd. I contacted them and within a week I had all 6 replacements at my house.

 

[Rydock]

Hmm I wonder if they’d replace mine too. I also have one of these where the lever became goo. Ended up wiping it off but noticed the plastic was cracking. Stopped using it much since then, but I still keep it around.

 

[drifterphase]

Thanks for the heads up. I won’t be buying any Hercules stuff.

 

[supergenius365]

That is really odd. I contacted them and within a week I had all 6 replacements at my house.

I got 5.

 

[Mr.Darwin]

turns out mine were getting iffy , ounce of prevention as they say

thanks dude.
my 3 guit stand is a coat rack now ha, cant wait to see if it tumbles.

 

[walterw]

Anyway, if you use a Hercules stand with the Auto-Grip head and squeeze handle for height adjustment then check the height adjust handle for splitting at the pivot pin and in case it is turning to a gooey mess.

lots of threads on this. just email them a pic of the stand and ideally of the receipt as well, you'll find a new stand on your doorstep in like a week.

there was a bad batch of the plastic sometime in the past so herc has been replacing a lot of them. the new ones don't have the problem.

got all three of mine replaced easy peasy. great stuff and i won't use anything else

 

[No457 Snowy]

lots of threads on this.

I didn't realise there were lots of other threads but hopefully this thread will alert some people to check theirs now (and it appears a couple have and caught them in time). I feel at least lucky that the stand that went first just happened to have my Strat on it that still had some ground clearance at minimum height, if it had been holding my Scofield JSM sig or one of my Martins they would have impacted onto the hard floor/stage and probably badly damaged/cracked.