Planet Waves Guitar Dock

Take a stand—well actually, make a stand

by Craig Anderton

So there you are, sitting at your computer table iwht your DAW, playing a guitar part. Then it’s time to edit the part, so you put the guitar . . . hmmm, where do you put the guitar? You can keep it strapped on, but then it gets in the way of doing your editing. You can have a guitar stand next to you if you had enough foresight to set it up, or get up and place the guitar in its case—although you’ll probably end up needing to play again soon, in which case you’ll need to go take the guitar out of the case again. Or, you can hand the problem over to Planet Waves' Guitar Dock.

Guitar Dock has a screw-on clamp that can accommodate flat surfaces with an edge (like a table) from about 1/4” to 1.5” thick, or similar surfaces (workbench, chair, etc.). Note that you can't see the lower clamping surface in the picture, but it's there. The clamping surfaces have a rubberized texture to avoid scratching the surface to which you’re clamping; you then fold out a cradle that holds your guitar’s neck. You can even fold the cradle up perpendicular to the clamp so you can clamp to a vertical edge, but in that case the back of the neck will hit the plastic thumb screw that tightens the clamp rather than the rubberized block in the middle of the cradle that’s more neck-friendly.

Don’t necessarily expect to replace a standard guitar stand. For starters, there’s nothing to secure the bottom of the guitar, only the one point along the neck. I’m not sure I’d trust guitars with wildly unconventional lower shapes (like a Gibson Firebird, Ibanez XF350, or Schecter XGR Avenger), but standard guitars shouldn’t experience any problem. Most importantly, if you’re into leaning a guitar neck against a table, chair, amp, or whatever, the Guitar Dock provides a far more stable option that will make it much harder to knock the guitar off its holder. It's never fun to watch a guitar crash to the floor . . .

Guitar Dock is compact and light enough to fit into most guitar cases, so you can always have an emergency stand with you. I find it particularly helpful in the recording scenario mentioned at the beginning, but I’ve also found it handy for clamping on to a keyboard stand so the guitar and keyboard are in the same place. The $42.99 MSRP may seem steep, but you can buy it direct from the Planet Waves store for $27.94. If that keeps your headstock from snapping off due to a floor crash, that’s pretty cheap insurance.

For more information, visit the Guitar Dock landing page at www.planetwaves.com

Craig Anderton is Editor Emeritus of Harmony Central. He has played on, mixed, or produced over 20 major label releases (as well as mastered over a hundred tracks for various musicians), and written over a thousand articles for magazines like Guitar Player, Keyboard, Sound on Sound (UK), and Sound + Recording (Germany). He has also lectured on technology and the arts in 38 states, 10 countries, and three languages.