Guitar Wall Hangers....

[shredaholic]

What is the downside to using these? I've heard hanging your guitar on the wall can dry the wood out, or necessitate a truss rod adjustment etc etc. Is this true, and if so how bad is it?

If it's any help I live in the UK where the climate is usually wet and rainy, and I have 2 types of wall in my bedroom that I could use - one is plasterboard, then wall, then plasterboard on the other side (we've just made the room on the other side, its an extension above the garage). The other is just plasterboard on both sides, very crap as you can hear sound from the other side of the wall crystal clear. Which of these would be best to use?

 

[shredaholic]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

by the way, this is what I had in mind:

http://www.chamberlainmusic.com/ProductDetail.asp?ProductID=GSP39WB

 

[FretFire]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

I don't believe that a wall hanger has any negative effects on the neck. If they did, why would guitar stores hang them there for who knows how long? I haven't found that hanging my guitars requires any more upkeep than if they sat in their cases all the time. I have, however, found that I play them more often if they are on display instead of having to break the cases out each time.

It might not be feasible for someone who has a large collection, but it works great for me since I have just a few. I would recommend to add a bit more support if you're going to use a hanger, I attached a 2x4 to my wall with woodscrews and mounted the hangers to it.

 

[FretFire]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

BTW, the two hangers on the outside are those Hercules units, they are very very cool.

 

[shredaholic]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

cool - how necessary would you say the extra wood was, or was it just to help your own anxieties about hanging your precious guitars in mid air?

 

[FretFire]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

Well, all the weight of the guitar is hanging at the opposite end of the neck from the hanger, so you've to quite a bit of force pulling where the screws mount to the wall. If you can't hit a stud with the hanger I'd add some support there. I tried mounting the hanger directly to the wall at first and it pulled out when I put a little weight on it.

 

[shredaholic]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

I'll probably try that then, as the construction of this house is just so flimsy - cowboy builders!

nowadays nothing is built to last :evil:

 

[FretFire]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

Better safe than sorry IMO, my guitars have been hanging for several months now with no sign of the board pulling from the wall or anything. If you want you can always paint the board you mount to the wall to make it look better. A buddy of mine is supposed to come do some of his crazy artwork on mine sometime.

 

[JacksonMIA]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

I've actually heard that it's BETTER to hang your guitar like that. I didn't hear a reason this is so, however.

 

[XSSIVE]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

It might not be feasible for someone who has a large collection...

you don't know how tempted i am to hang all my guitars in my den/playing area...there would be like no wall space left lol...man that would look cool. i just worry about how safe it is for the guitar pulling all it's weight on the screws of glue joint of the neck for a long time and also people bumping them etc. i'm still thinking it over b/c it looks damn cool!

-Mike

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

I have hangers for my electric guitars, and I love it. They are always readily available, and it's also a great way to show them off to visitors

I mount them directly onto the studs (no extra board), which is easy as long as you use a long enough screw. If you can do this, the weight factor won't be a problem at all, unless you live in a cardboard box or something.

Guitar books always recommend to put your guitars away to prevent the wood from warping. In practice, this only really applies to acoustic or hollow-bodied guitars, or if the humidity where you live changes all the time. Solid bodies are pretty stable no matter what you do to them. In any case, you could always get a humidifier.

 

[FretFire]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

you don't know how tempted i am to hang all my guitars in my den/playing area...there would be like no wall space left lol...man that would look cool. i just worry about how safe it is for the guitar pulling all it's weight on the screws of glue joint of the neck for a long time and also people bumping them etc. i'm still thinking it over b/c it looks damn cool!

-Mike

I think wood and metal are stronger than we often give them credit for. I don't really see any problem unless they take a fall from a height.

 

[FretFire]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

I mount them directly onto the studs (no extra board), which is easy as long as you use a long enough screw. If you can do this, the weight factor won't be a problem at all, unless you live in a cardboard box or something.

Guitar books always recommend to put your guitars away to prevent the wood from warping. In practice, this only really applies to acoustic or hollow-bodied guitars, or if the humidity where you live changes all the time. Solid bodies are pretty stable no matter what you do to them. In any case, you could always get a humidifier.

I agree, if you can mount them to studs you shouldn't have a problem. In my case the studs were spread too far to fit all three guitars in the space I had. I've had my guitars hanging since last fall, through the winter, and now into summer. New Mexico has pretty flaky weather across those seasons and I've had no ill effects.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

i just worry about how safe it is for the guitar pulling all it's weight on the screws of glue joint of the neck for a long time and also people bumping them etc.

I don't know about bolt-ons, but pretty much everything I've read about glue joints says that the joint itself is actually stronger than the rest of the guitar if it's done right. In any case, we're not really talking about a whole lot of weight here.

 

[Dirtbagg]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

Yeah I have been thinking of doing this also, since I live in a apartment and I can see you would play more if you have better access to them, I have a guitar stand but it tends to get in the way at times.

 

[Stringmachine]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

I see no problem using wall hangers. I do not recommend them on an outside (not on the outside, by the way ) wall, however. Temperature and hummidity changes might do harm this way.

 

[FretFire]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

I don't know about bolt-ons, but pretty much everything I've read about glue joints says that the joint itself is actually stronger than the rest of the guitar if it's done right. In any case, we're not really talking about a whole lot of weight here.

Exactly. And also remember, most of the time the wood grain on guitars is running parallel to the neck, the same way the weight would be hanging, so there wouldn't be any kind of dangerous stress going on. If the weight was pulling perpendicular to the grain there would be a chance of separating, etc.

 

[shredaholic]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

Solid bodies are pretty stable no matter what you do to them. In any case, you could always get a humidifier.

I have this black box in my room that I'm told is a 'de-humidifier'

would that help?

 

[darkshadow54321]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

I think they look really cool, but I would live in constant fear of knocking my guitar off, seeing it fall to the ground in slow motion and watching the headstock fly across the room..... AHHH!!! NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!

But yeah, it looks cool.

 

[rinse_master]

Re: Guitar Wall Hangers....

I've bee thinking about these but there isn't really enough wall space in my guitar room (converted loft) but there are some cool 3/5/7 guitar stands. That might be a bit better, I think a 7 guitar one is about £40?