Konig & Meyer 14160 electric double bass stand

K&M 14160 - Well made, and a good bit of kit. Would have given it 5 stars but it does have a small, but potentially disastrous, design weakness (see below). Now I understand this, it would not stop me from buying the same again. Was delivered promptly and well packaged by Bax, who I would use again.



Not as big as I feared from reviews read elsewhere. The tripod base has a diameter of 800mm. With the two back feet against a wall the front foot extends 620mm from it. It can accommodate my KK Baby Bass like that, with the head/pegs almost touching the wall. My bass is heavy (c10kg), but it seems to support this quite adequately, and is stable enough to withstand any but violent knocks.



The instructions are in German only but, having translated them into English to be sure I understood properly, they don’t tell you anything that isn’t obvious from the diagrams and common sense, or highlight the danger of the neck support twisting round and dropping the bass that I have read of elsewhere. I will now try to explain that risk and how it can be avoided.



The upper tube of the upright, with the neck holder, is positioned at the chosen height by unscrewing and retightening the knob. This knob is on a plastic collar on top of the lower, wider tube of the upright. This collar also has an internal spigot which runs in a slot in the upper tube to stop this and the neck holder from turning in the wrong direction. The danger is that the collar can be pulled up off the lower tube, which would then allow the upper part to turn and drop the bass.



The collar which stops the upper part turning is clamped to the lower tube, but this fixing is not completely reliable. If you try to pull the upper tube up without releasing fully the screw knob, or it otherwise doesn’t slide easily, then the risk is that instead of the tube coming out of the collar, the collar itself is pulled off the lower tube and then the upper part (including the neck support) can twist. It is possible to tighten the lower clamp which holds the collar to the lower tube (it also holds a hook for a bow), but this only seems to make the upper tube more difficult to slide in and out.



Once you are aware of this risk it can be mitigated just by being careful. I have put a piece of coloured tape around the bottom of the collar, and on the tube immediately below it, so that it would be obvious if the collar has shifted up at all. When I have more time I will consider (a) putting some silicone lubricant on the upper tube (to make it slide more easily) and (b) gluing the collar to the lower tube. It is a shame that this otherwise impressive bit of kit has this potentially disastrous weakness which could easily be eliminated by a minor design change, but it wouldn’t stop me buying another if I lost this one.