For years I used those fabulous La Voz saxophone stands that are almost legendary. I have a tenor stand and an alto/tenor combo stand with soprano and clarinet pegs. Over time though, the latex covering over the arms has broken down, and has become so rough that it not only no longer grips the horn, but actually scratches the lacquer as well. I tried different fixes including black electricians tape & plastic tubing, but nothing really worked well: the horns were just no longer secure in the stands.
That was about 10 years ago, so then I was on the lookout for new stands, but wasn’t really happy with what I’d been seeing. (I was living in Fredericton at the time, so my choices were more limited.) Then on one of my trips out to Vancouver I happened to see some saxophones in a music store’s display case that were being supported by K&M stands. I liked the look of the stands, and compared to what I’d seen, they looked really well made.
I bought an alto/tenor folding stand to start with.
This is the stand that you can adjust for either tenor or alto. I set it up for my tenor and started taking it to all of my rehearsals & shows. It held up really, really well. It gripped my horn extremely well, was stable, and seemed pretty damn good for a $25 sax stand.
When I added a baritone sax to my sax family, I immediately got the K&M bari stand.
What I liked about it, was that is was adjustable for low Bb horns. Many of the new “cheap” baritone stands do not adjust for the shorter bell of the low Bb horns. It too is really quite stable, grips the horn very well, and again, for a $50 stand, is pretty damn good.
Lastly, my straight soprano needed a new stand, since the only one I had was the peg on the La Voz stand which was now in a closet. I opted to try the K&M soprano stand.
What’s really nice about this stand is that the base unscrews and then the legs fold into the peg. You can then store it in the bell of your sax. Again, a very nice stand.
Over the past 10 years I have bought so many of the K&M stands for all my horns that I have more inventory than most music stores! (Much like my reed collections actually.) 😯 The only 2 horns of mine that don’t have K&M stands are my bass (because they don’t make a bass saxophone stand) and my curved soprano.
When I got my curvy, K&M didn’t yet make stands for curved sopranos. Actually my choice was really limited to only 1 brand available only at 1 store, so I ended up having to order that stand from England. I like this curved sop stand fine, and don’t use the horn enough to buy yet one more stand. However K&M now does make a stand especially for the curved soprano, so if I was ever to lose my curved soprano stand a new K&M would definitely be its replacement.
