Before I launch I into this very favorable review of a uniquely praise worthy product, I have a confession to make. It took me several days from the time I took delivery of my Martin Shadow Stand before I could bring myself to place my last remaining guitar in it. It was the only one I kept when liquidating my collection of professional level, hand-built instruments. To be frank, I was highly skeptical regarding the safety and stability of this new guitar stand.
I mean, it is a single, continuous and rather lean strand of metal, which begins on the floor with an abrupt zig zag of two 18" sections and then rises on a slope for a short span before shooting up with a slight tilt to almost waist height. The top bends into a small, crooked curl, sheathed in a slender skin of garment quality, brown leather, like the single hooked finger of a racing glove or the head of some alien, serpentine creature; graceful in its angles, but straining to reach its full height before it bites you. It really does bare a striking resemblance to a cobra. No pun intended. And that's it. No clasp to lock the neck in place, no splayed lunar lander legs, no supports sticking out at the bottom to rest the guitar on, or bark your ankle when the guitar is in your hands. And it has no clunky, rubber, bumper car coatings to at least imply some sense of shock absorbent security.
But the moment I placed the neck of my Martin OM-28V* into the cushioned, leather yoke and allowed the instrument to hang there by the headstock, I just thought it was one of the best looking stands I have ever seen. The main reason for this is that one does not see it. One sees the guitar. One sees the wood and the symmetry and beauty of design inherent in a great musical instrument. And one sees that guitar suspended in midair, hovering like a pendulum. It does not look like furniture or a tool taking up space on an ungainly piece of stage gear until it is needed. Rather, it appears as sculpture chosen to be shown off and admired in the main room of a fine home.
When viewed from behind, the slender, metal bar reaching up from the ground covers a scant swath, 5/8" wide. It is off-center in relation to the guitar which adds to its ultramodern appearance and allows any marquetry to be seen clearly. It is otherwise about as unobtrusive as possible, while remaining visible but in harmony with the instrument it supports. The back of the guitar, which typically displays the most visually arresting wood grain, is exhibited like the fine piece of the luthier's art that it is. When left empty, the ShadowStand is lithe enough to fade into its surroundings. But when a guitar is hanging from it, the two seem perfectly suited for one another, like parts of the same thing. In terms of its aesthetics it is a marvelous success in its overall form.
In terms of its function the ShadowStand is wonderfully efficient and so much more stable and worries free than it appears. A black strip of some kind of soft mohair-like material is attached to the upright portion of the stand in case it comes into contact with the back of the guitar and the leather yoke sleeve is treated so as not to react with the finish on the guitar's neck. The yoke itself is ingeniously designed to need no further help in securing the instrument, with the guitar's own weight sinking it down into the cradle. It appears as if it is barely supported at all, yet the headstock will not budge unless you take hold of the neck and make the specific effort to lift it up and out of the stand. I carefully experimented in how far the stand would have to tip over before the guitar would come free. I really could not make it do so. If the stand should be knocked over, the bottom of the guitar would make contact with the ground before the neck would come loose from the headstock cradle. None the less, I could see many people wanting some kind of band or bar to lock across the neck, even if only for physchological reasons.
But this tipping test also helped point out the ShadowStand's Achilles Heel. The portion of the stand that is on the ground consists of two sections which resemble a triangle without the third side. Although this makes for a nice visual statement, that empty section leaves the left side more vulnerable should the stand be tipped in that direction as the result of some kind of accident. I would therefore caution anyone who has Great Danes or small children when it came to the ShadowStand. But then I would not think people in such homes should be leaving their guitars out of the case anyway.
Other than this slight increase in risk to one side, the ShadowStand is remarkably well designed. In fact it has won awards for that very thing. All ShadowStands are handcrafted in Indiana, USA. The original ShadowStand had a black piece of steal. The Martin ShadowStand is a textured chocolate brown, with black mottled throughout. This makes it work very well with either mahogany or rosewood guitars as it has the darker brown of rosewood with the pepper-speckled distribution of black reminiscent of mahogany. Lastly the classic "C.F. Martin Co. Est. 1833" logo is imposed in gold upon the leather yoke sleeve. But it is small enough to allow recognizable brand identification without upstaging the graceful overall effect of this elegant but functional piece of equipment.
I am totally sold on the ShadowStand, even if it is a bit pricy, and expect to get others as I begin to replace my guitar collection. Which brings up one last nice feature of this product, they are designed to allow as many guitars as necessary to fit side by side in as small a space as possible. In other words they would make a nice alternative to those large, multi-guitar racks that come in handy on the side of a stage but are such a problem transporting from place to place.
* As a post-review note, I have acquired a new Martin OMC-28B, worth four times the value of my OM-28V. It has spent days at a time in my Martin Shadow Stand and looks fantastic.
Out of a possible 8 Notes on the T Spoon Scale of Guitaracity, I give the Martin Shadow Stand 6 Notes.
TSP, NYC
