Hanging guitars on walls

[jmcorey]

Hi Everyone,

Just bought my 4th guitar, and my wife says that if we buy anymore that we will need an addition on the house. A bit of an exagerration, but I get the gist.

I'd like to hang my guitars on the wall, for aesthetics reasons as well as to clear up space on the floor.

Anyone know the best way to do this?

Also, will anchors in the wall be sufficient to support most guitars, or does one need to insert the "hanger" into a stud behind the drywall?

 

[Mark Cearlock]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

I have 6 guitars and 2 basses, 4 of which are hanging on the wall. You DEFINATLY want to go into the wall studs, or you will have guitars crashing to the floor. My solution was to get a long 2 by 4 and paint it, then put screws through that into the studs, the use hangers attached to the 2 by 4.

 

[David Collins]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

As Mark said, you definitely need support in the studs, as relying on drywall hangers would be quite risky. If you don't feel like hanging them 16" or 32" on center though, a backing board mounted to studs as Mark suggested will provide a solid mount for your hangers. If a 2x4 doesn't cut it for you, they have a decent selection of domestic hardwoods down at Fingerle. They always have maple, cherry, oak, and the like, and you can even find milled mahogany, brazilian cherry, sapele, and other remnants in their "target room" sometimes.

For the actual hangers, I prefer the auto-latching ones made by Hercules stands.

 

[Evan Skopp]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

I have a couple of dozen instruments hanging in my house all using Off the Wall hangers. Some are into drywall. Some into studs. I like those hangers, especially in an earthquake prone area like Southern Cal. The reason is that if the house starts to sway, the guitars will sway too. Plus, they use three anchors. And they look cool.

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

I got tool hangers from the Home Depot for (get this-) $0.02 for six of them. They rang up as 1 cent for a 3 pack, and I had two 3 packs.

I screwed them into drywall and never had a problem or a worry. Very sturdy.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

I have a couple of dozen instruments hanging in my house all using Off the Wall hangers. Some are into drywall. Some into studs. I like those hangers, especially in an earthquake prone area like Southern Cal. The reason is that if the house starts to sway, the guitars will sway too. Plus, they use three anchors. And they look cool.

Evan, do you have acoustic guitars hanging from those? Looks like the standard Off The Wall version wouldn't stick out from the wall far enough for acoustic guitars. I'm putting together my music room and need a hanger that sticks out from the wall far enough to hang my acoustic guitars from as well as my electric guitars. Thanks!

 

[GoDrex]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

I use String Swing wall hangers and I think they're great. I have 4 vertical hangers and one horizontal/diagonal one that I got because my Parker can't hang from the headstock (though now I found that I can hang it in the vertical hangers by its upper body horn).

 

[j9fd3s]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

I got tool hangers from the Home Depot for (get this-) $0.02 for six of them. They rang up as 1 cent for a 3 pack, and I had two 3 packs.


I screwed them into drywall and never had a problem or a worry. Very sturdy.

yep we did the same

measure twice, and screw into a stud

 

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

Drive a stained board into the studs, then evenly space the hooks into the board however you like:

 

[Evan Skopp]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

Evan, do you have acoustic guitars hanging from those? Looks like the standard Off The Wall version wouldn't stick out from the wall far enough for acoustic guitars. I'm putting together my music room and need a hanger that sticks out from the wall far enough to hang my acoustic guitars from as well as my electric guitars. Thanks!

Yes Lew, I use them for acoustic, electric and bass. In addition, I use them for my mandolin, ukulele, Papoose travel guitar and charanga. But for the charanga and the Papoose, I had to use a wider grip to accommodate the wider neck. But that's no problem, Off The Wall makes the wider version too.

 

[mrfjones]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

Lew, I have my Martin in one right now and it doesn't even touch the wall. Fits perfectly.

 

[Surgeon]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

Drive a stained board into the studs, then evenly space the hooks into the board however you like:

Ohhhh, that's nice man...

Lew: I used two pieces of wood (2x4) (sanded, stained, etc..) one over the other done in an aestheticly pleasing way in addition to a hanger set-up. That way, the whole set-up is far enough from the wall to hang my acoustics... just a thought.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

I have the Apex hangars, which look pretty much exactly like the String Swing ones. There is plenty of clearance for acoustic guitars.

I screw them directly into the studs.

 

[MattPete]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

I also used Off-The-Wall hangers with 3 drywall screws. Worked great, with more than enough grip to hold a bass.

 

[Spudman]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

In this room I have 2 - 2x4s anchored to studs then put my hangars where I need to to maximize space. In my living room I have 2 shorter decorative boards anchored to studsan one is positioned on the adjacent pair of studs just a bit higher than the first board so that the hanging guitars are at an angle like this. This is way exaggerated though.
It looks really nice on a bare wall.

I don't have a photo of my staggered display but picture the top of each candle is the top of a guitar hanging on the wall. They hang at an angle like this.

 

[MikeS]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

I use the off-the-wall hangers. I like the metal base plate and the three mounting mounts. I made sure to get at least one of the screws into a stud. The others use a drywall anchor... if one of the three is into a stud then the anchors shipped with the hanger should be fine. If there are no studs behind where you want the hanger, you'd be fine with a medium to heavy weight drywall hollow wall anchor.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

I've got a couple dozen guitars staggered like Spudman, but I only use the String Swing with the supplied sheetrock anchors. I didn't worry about stud spacing, just put the Swings where they needed to be. The studs aren't necessary, neither is a wooded mounting board. The Swings are very secure in just the sheetrock. I've been hanging acoustics, solidbodies, and bases for ten years with no problems. I've been a carpenter/contractor for 40 years and can tell you that you could hang 5 times the weight Lester with no problem. One suggestion though...make sure you drill 1/4 inch holes first before screwing in the anchors.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

I use the String Swing hangers, screwed into drywall using the included plastic anchors. No problems. They have enough clearance for a dreadnaught.

Those large plastic spiral anchors are rated for a lot more than what a guitar weighs. If you need to move the hanger, don't re-use them - buy replacements at any hardware store.

 

[Surf Whammy]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

String Swing® makes excellent wall mounts for guitars!

I like the metal models, and I use two styles (acoustic and vertical) . . .

It is very important to screw the mounting bracket into a wall stud or, if there is no handy wall stud, into a sturdy piece of wood that is attached to the wall studs somewhere else with screws . . .

The screws that come with the String Swing wall mounts are good, but I use DeckMate® wood screws, because they are a lot stronger, and I can get them in longer lengths . . .

Occasionally, when I can find them here in the US, I use Reisser® screws, which are simply amazing . . .

Reisser Stainless Steel Self-Tapping Screws

Amazing!

Reisser makes a special line of super-strength, star drive wood screws that will stop a 1.5 horsepower Makita electric drill rather than pop-off the head of the wood screw, which is mind-boggling, for sure . . .

For sure!

I used these super-strength Reisser screws in combination with Simpson Strong-Tie® metal reinforcing brackets on the house where the sound isolation studio is located, and so far the house has withstood two hurricanes, with the eye of one hurricane passing directly over the house, which was patently weird, since after 13 hours of the house shaking and trees blowing through the air, it was so calm that you literally could drop a feather and it would fall straight to the ground in a perfectly vertical line--not even a tiny breeze, nothing . . .

NOAA estimated the sustained wind speed at 125 miles per hour with gusts to 150 miles per hour, and the only damage to the house was that some loose asphalt shingles the roofers left on the roof fell to the ground . . .

It was pretty cool, and I think that the house can handle 200 miles per hour sustained winds, but I am not so curious to want to experience another hurricane . . .

And all the guitars were just fine, including "Sweet Sixteen", my Fender® Custom Shop Telecaster®, which is fabulous . . .

"Sweet Sixteen" ~ Fender Custom Shop Telecaster

Fabulous!

I use a vertical String Swing wall mount for The Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster™, which has Seymour Duncan® pickups (Lipstick Tube for Strat® and Little 59™) and is heard on this Surf Whammys™ song, featuring Ravi "Reveb" Ole™ on lead guitar and The Fabulous Cooters™ and The Amazing Lollipops™ on backup vocals, which is as fabulous as it is mixed expressly for listening with iPod® earphones or studio-quality headphones like the SONY® MDR-7506 . . .

"It Don't Add Up" (The Surf Whammys) -- MP3

The Fabulous Fifty Million Dollar Trinaural Stratocaster

Fabulous!

 

[Aceman]

Re: Hanging guitars on walls

I think I'm gonna go music store style:

Two 2x4's - one high one low,
hanger board on those,
then angled holders

I just don't want to fill the wall with guitar faces. Don't know why...