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Guitar (and other stringed instrument) storage ideas?

hebrides

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Hi there. As some of you may know, I'm (though not for my day job) a guitar player and singer who spent a fair part of the 90s studying, composing, and playing music quite seriously. I live in a one-bedroom apartment with Mrs. Heb, who also is rather musical (guitar, vocal, and piano, though sadly we don't have the room for a piano). At the moment, we have only one acoustic guitar each in the apartment.

However, in the pre-Mrs. Heb days, I amassed a pretty substantial collection of guitars and other stringed instruments (all told, around 12-15, including two I have been trying to assemble as custom guitars), as well as a silverface Deluxe Reverb amp. I'm not a collector in the standard sense of the word; I got them all to play them. But they've been living at my parents' house, and Mom and Dad are starting to think seriously (for a number of reasons) about moving quite soon. This means I need to somehow move my collection here, and on a relatively modest budget.

I've been doing a fair amount of research about storage options, and I think I'm probably looking at a combination of a multi-guitar stand, some wall hangers, and possibly a bit of shelf storage. But I'm not sure what the best combination would be...so naturally I thought of you guys, since a number of you (TMBTM and Father Merrin offhand, though I'm pretty sure there are more) also play.

Are there any storage configurations/brands you love? Any you hate? I'd really appreciate any and all suggestions!
 

ThrowgnCpr

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I'm a drummer, but mrs. throwgncpr and I are also a musically inclined family, so there are lots of instruments around the house, including a piano, a few guitars, violins, yada yada yada... We have a house, but its a small one, and not much space for extra instruments. I built my own simple guitar rack similar to the one in the photo below (not mine), except that I used wood, instead of PVC. The PVC seemed a little too flimsy to put a bunch of guitars on, but the wood version is pretty solid.

F2ST1QZGVP290BL.LARGE.jpg
 

Rogue-theX

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Probably not what your after, but I have a soft electric guitar case with an extra handle by where the headstock is, I put a coat hanger through the extra handle and hung it up in my closet to save some room.
 

hebrides

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Just catching up after a busy week. Thanks for the suggestions! Rogue, that idea might well be on the table, since the main "open space" (and I use that term very loosely) that we have is a small closet that I am currently storing a few clothes and a bunch of stuff that we no longer really need in. I've been thinking about getting rid of the closet rod to make more room, but if I do wind up keeping it, using a (strong) coat hanger might work.

Throw, I've seen a number of PVC stands like what you posted, but I'm really intrigued by your wooden one. Do you have any pictures/dimensions/instructions?
 

EyeShotFirst

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I have my "nice" guitars in cases in my closet. My workhorse solid-body guitars get the lean treatment. I have several cheap cloth gigbags that I put them in if I don't plan to use them, but my archtop and my acoustic both stay in the hardshell cases. I baby every guitar I own, when I first buy it. I do love a good bolt on strat for the fact that I don't have to worry about every little thing. I make the little adjustments here and there, and bang away.

I have 9 guitars, some where given to me, some I bought myself. All in all, there are 4 I would never part with. 2 were my first acoustic and first electric guitars. I've never owned a stand for some reason, and I've played guitar since I was 11. Right now I keep everything in a closet. It's a pretty decent sized closet and I keep a 4x12 cabinet and all 9 will fit in their cases and gig bags. They are leaned, and I use the 2 hardshell fat cases as bookends for the gig bags. I've thought about doing the wall hanging thing, but I don't want my house looking like a Sam Ash.

Like Hebrides, I'm not a collector, but I pretty much buy guitars with the intent to play them. I keep all the bits and bobs like strings, picks, hardware, tools, slides, capos and whatnot in a tackle box. Comes in pretty handy.
 

hebrides

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EyeShotFirst said:
I keep all the bits and bobs like strings, picks, hardware, tools, slides, capos and whatnot in a tackle box. Comes in pretty handy.

Great idea! I may have to try that...thanks!
 

EyeShotFirst

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You can get some nice ones for almost nothing at a Lowe's or similar store. Though I guess they count as tool boxes.
 

ThrowgnCpr

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hebrides said:
Throw, I've seen a number of PVC stands like what you posted, but I'm really intrigued by your wooden one. Do you have any pictures/dimensions/instructions?

Apologies for the crappy phone photo. I just kind of improvised this construction based off of those PVC stands. I mostly used extra 2x4s that I had lying around. I bought a thick dowel for the pegs, and used the same pipe insulation foam for the padding. I can get measurements on my rack if you want. It's pretty damn sturdy and was a really cheap build. It's not the prettiest rack in the world, but it just sits in my basement.

This one holds 6 guitars. The small brown case is an old violin. Acoustics fit too, but I might have spaced the pegs a bit further apart if I planned on keeping more acoustics in there. It's nice and roomy though for electrics.

guitar_stand_zps7ankgzc2.jpg
 

hebrides

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Cool stuff, Throw! Thanks.

And that Bat Boy poster takes me back to when the newsstand at the local train station used to sell WWN...never knew what I would see on my way to the train, but it was always bound to be...interesting.
 

hebrides

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Here's a pretty cool build:

http://www.eledar.net/Music/GuitarStand/index.htm

stand_front.jpg


Probably beyond my current physical ability, and I've developed a pretty severe sawdust allergy since I last did any real woodworking, but I do like the concept, and he's since added felt to the whole front to better protect the guitars.
 
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