Are Guitar Stands Bad for Guitar? What’s the Solution?

I was just going through some of the forums the other day and came across this strange thread. I am also putting my guitar on a stand for many years. So, I started reading about this topic.

I almost go through all the forums and different blogs and Here are the details of what I found:

So, Are Guitar Stands Bad for your Guitar? Guitar Stands themselves are not bad for your guitar, as all the guitar manufacturers recommend using one. But If you’re not careful, there are many chances you can hurt your guitar’s finishing and even the actual structure in some cases.

There are so many things that matter as far as if you really want to maintain your guitar. Let’s dig into this topic even more:

How Guitar Stands Can be bad for your Guitar?

There are lots of factors you need to understand before you decide whether leaving your guitar on a guitar stand will affect your guitar or not?

Let’s start one by one:

1. Affect Guitar Finishing

If you’re playing your guitar for a long time now, you might see discoloration or scratchy marks on the back of the fretboard where you put on your guitar capo or tuner.

Similarly, the finishing on parts of your guitar that comes in contact with the stand starts to fade away. Especially if your guitar comes with a nitrocellulose finish which is very soft and thin as compared to polyurethane finishing.

Modern Guitar stands do come with a foam-like material that prevents such things. But if your stand is low quality or your stand has a plastic or cheap rubber thing instead of a quality foam, you need to check if that plastic is still there or not.

2. Risk of Falling Down

When you put your guitar on the stand, there is always a risk of falling down on the ground. It may be you or maybe anyone else, guitar can fall unwillingly, no matter how much you try to avoid such incidents.

And, If you have kids running in your room or studio, the chances of falling your guitar increases even more.

I know, even if the guitar fell down from the stand, there is not going to be any serious damage to it, but may wreck your guitar headstock if happened often.

3. Effect of Humidity

If you live in a relatively dry climate or if you burn firewood in your home during winter, one thing you must have to do: Humidifying your guitar.

Dry climate can damage your guitar seriously especially acoustic guitars. It causes contraction of wood of the guitar body but with different rates. That means your guitar’s top and back are not going to stay inline, which causes cracks and even separation in some cases.

But that’s not the case with electric guitar at all. Sure, humidify your electric guitar does help you, but this is not a must-do thing. Even if you put your electric guitar on a stand as it is, you’re not going to face any issues due to humidity.

then, Should I keep my guitar in the case all the time when I’m not playing? If you can, then you should use the guitar case to store your guitar. But when you want to put your guitar aside for some time, it is definitely not convinient to put in the case.

The Solutions for Issues due to Guitar Stand

If you don’t want any kind of marks on your guitar put the layer of cotton or cloths on the parts where stand come in contact with your guitar. This one step not only protects your guitar’s finishing but also avoid slipping of guitar from stand up to some extent.

Look, you can’t avoid falling of guitar from stand completely. If you want to, then start putting your guitar in the guitar case. 🙂 Just be careful around your guitar, and place your stand where it can’t be in anyone’s way!

Talking about the Humidity problem, You could put your guitar in the case but doing that every time can be overwhelming. So, what’s the solution here? there is a Dampit humidifier available for acoustic guitars, which fits in between the soundhole and strings.

It will provide great humidification and maintain the moisture in your guitar’s body. I think this is the cheapest solution (Link to Amazon!) for you to deal with humidity and allow you to put your guitar open on the stand.

Can I hang my Guitar on a Wall? Is it Safe?

If you go to your local guitar shop, you’ll always see all the guitars are hanging on the wall all the time. then what the heck is a problem with that?

As I already told you, a guitar can fall down from your guitar stand. A similar thing can happen when you hang your guitar on a wall. But this is even more worst.

this time guitar is falling from more height and thus can lead to major damage to your guitar. Also, finishing at headstock that came into contact with the hanger starts fading which will feel when you slide your hand on a fretboard.

Although, I have one little tip for you here. Before you hang your guitar on a wall hanger, put on your one old sock on the hanger. Any soft cloth will also work fine. this sock works as a cushion and avoids any damage to your guitar’s finishing.

Guitar shops hang guitars on a wall because they want to show their guitars to every who steps into the shop. Unless you want anything like this, I don’t recommend you to hang your guitar on a wall hanger. Simply go with either a guitar stand or a simple guitar case is even great.

Final Thoughts on Guitar Stands

I hope you like this small guide on the guitar stand. According to my experience, If you put your electric guitar on a stand, you’re not going to face any problem.

I face these issues only with my acoustic guitar. And that’s why I start putting it in the case almost all the time. If you have a little high-end guitar, it’s definitely worth it to protect and maintain it.

Enough from me, I want to know, what is your experience? What kind of issues do you face with your guitar and how you overcome those issues?

I’m waiting for your comments…