A Cheap Alternative to Truss Totems

[Casual77]

I've been thinking about buying some truss totems so that I can offer the clean, minimalist wedding set-up look but being the stereotypical tight Yorkshireman and a bit short of cash at the moment I haven't been able to bring myself to spend around £200 each on a pair. I saw the Novopro stands at BPM and thought they might be a reasonable alternative but they were still more than I wanted to pay so over the past few weeks I've been looking around for a cheaper alternative. A few days ago I stumbled across the Malone ST-1 speaker stands on eBay and thought that, at £55 for the pair delivered, they would be worth having a look at so I bought a pair. They arrived on Friday and I built them up yesterday. They clearly aren't as good as totems but at around a sixth of the cost they are a pretty reasonable alternative in my opinion. They are attractive, sturdy, fairly stable, have a 28x28cm top plate which I would think is large enough for a Spherion/Starbust or medium sized moving head and an ADJ Mega Tri Par fits nicely between the three uprights.

I haven't bought any yet, but I'm thinking the LEDJ tri-truss scrim covers should fit around them and create an end result that will be very similar to a covered tri truss podium at a fraction of the price.

Anyway.... I've attached a few photos in case they would be of interest to anyone else on here.

[Corabar Steve]

They're a bit short. Less than a metre.

[Benny Smyth]

...being the stereotypical tight Yorkshireman and a bit short of cash at the moment...

I apologise if this sounds a bit harsh, and I know it's not my place to say such things, but for someone who says that they don't have a lot of money to spend, you seem to spend a lot of money. Isn't about time you let your investment pay for itself and then earn you money instead of wasting your cash on this sort of thing? There is nothing wrong with the setup that you have currently.

And I'm sorry, but these are not fit for the purpose you bought them for. These are studio speaker stands. They're not designed for people to be dancing near to, and they don't have a decent enough size on the base for them to not be knocked over very easily. They're designed to hold little monitor speakers on a table top where the only wobble they'll ever experience is an exuberant press of a play button on a CDJ. Are you planning on putting a light you already own on them, or is that something else you're going to buy? You could have bought a pair of tripods and a top plate for each for a not too dissimilar price. Add to that the scrims, that would have been a better idea (and I am an anti-scrim kinda guy).

I'm afraid that you'll look back at this one as a wasted investment. Probably when you're looking in your garage and realising that all they're doing is taking up space.

[Casual77]

They're a bit short. Less than a metre.

True.... they are but I'm not going to lose too much sleep over 6cm. I would ideally have gone for something around 1.2m-1.5m but these will do for now.

I apologise if this sounds a bit harsh, and I know it's not my place to say such things, but for someone who says that they don't have a lot of money to spend, you seem to spend a lot of money. Isn't about time you let your investment pay for itself and then earn you money instead of wasting your cash on this sort of thing? There is nothing wrong with the setup that you have currently.

And I'm sorry, but these are not fit for the purpose you bought them for. These are studio speaker stands. They're not designed for people to be dancing near to, and they don't have a decent enough size on the base for them to not be knocked over very easily. They're designed to hold little monitor speakers on a table top where the only wobble they'll ever experience is an exuberant press of a play button on a CDJ. Are you planning on putting a light you already own on them, or is that something else you're going to buy? You could have bought a pair of tripods and a top plate for each for a not too dissimilar price. Add to that the scrims, that would have been a better idea (and I am an anti-scrim kinda guy).

I'm afraid that you'll look back at this one as a wasted investment. Probably when you're looking in your garage and realising that all they're doing is taking up space.

I knew that would probably come up and I agree about the base plate not being altogether suitable. Fortunately I have a friend who is a steel fabricator who has said he will make me a larger removable base plate for each one and powder-coat them as a favour. I disagree with your assertion that they are intended to be tabletop though. I know I have chosen to stand them on a table to take the photos but personally I wouldn't be standing anything like that on a table top. They are clearly designed to be floor-standing and the speakers they are designed to hold are likely to be considerably heavier than any light fixture I will ever choose to stand on them. If you are right though and they turn out not to be fit for purpose they will look rather nice as stands for my KRK speakers in my home studio so whatever happens they won't be a wasted purchase.

[Casual77]

I should probably have waited until they were fully ready and took a picture of the complete rig before putting them on here to be shot down in flames. I'm fairly thick-skinned though so I will take your condescension with a pinch of salt Benny.

[Excalibur]

so I will take your condescension with a pinch of salt Benny.

Change that to " constructive criticism ", and Benny's helping.
Change it to " scepticism ", and you may yet be able to point out to Benny that you've spent a grand less than him, and achieved the same end result.
Or eat humble pie, when a grand's worth of moving head crashes to the floor.

I'm keeping out of this, as I see no place in my rig for totems, movers, imitation mirror balls, real mirror balls and the like. I am firmly in favour of cost saving, especially when it can be achieved by using or adapting something designed with a different market or purpose in mind.
Good luck with it Allan, hope it works for you. Keep us posted.

[Casual77]

Change that to " constructive criticism ", and Benny's helping.
Change it to " scepticism ", and you may yet be able to point out to Benny that you've spent a grand less than him, and achieved the same end result.
Or eat humble pie, when a grand's worth of moving head crashes to the floor.

I'm keeping out of this, as I see no place in my rig for totems, movers, imitation mirror balls, real mirror balls and the like. I am firmly in favour of cost saving, especially when it can be achieved by using or adapting something designed with a different market or purpose in mind.
Good luck with it Allan, hope it works for you. Keep us posted.

I'm a bit like you in that regard. I'm no huge fan of Spherions and the like, and personally I like lots of lights at a disco, but if I'm going to charge premium prices for bespoke wedding packages, I feel I need to be able to offer a neater looking set-up for those brides (and maybe grooms) who particularly want that look. I also like adapting and building things because I get a certain amount of personal enjoyment out of that. I'm not really pleading poverty. I'm not choosing not to buy proper truss totems because I can't afford them, but rather that at this time I can't see the justification in spending £400+ on a pair. The thought of achieving a similar look and functionality for a fraction of the cost just appeals to me. If by the end of my playing around, they don't achieve the desired look or as Benny suggests, are 'not fit for purpose', then at worse I will be about £80 down and certainly won't be having major recriminations about it.

For now, I'm going to have a play around regardless and when I've got the full set-up I'll maybe post up a photo for further constructive critique.

[DazzyD]

Personally, these stands (and pillars and everything else like this) are not for me. I can't help but feel that, unless they are fully bolted to the floor, they are always at risk of being knocked over. Even ones with big base plates, if you have 18-stone Uncle Phil at the wedding who's had about 6 too many and he's doing his moves, loses his balance, makes ten steps to the side of the dancefloor - head first - and crashes in to that stand, it's going to go over. And it will take whatever you have perched on it with it. I have everything fixed, belted and braces (well, bolted and safety chained!) above me on the overhead bar. If someone crashes in to the deck stand, I am behind it to stop it falling over. I can't be everywhere including next to various podiums alongside me.

And, for those reasons, on the subject of pillars, podiums and individual fixture stands, I'm out!

[ukpartydj]

Interesting, the height is about table height where 2 of my moving heads sit so I can see that being useful.
I can see why some may think it's not suitable, but if you put a scrim around it and a steel plate I can see it looking good.

I wouldn't worry about it being toppled if you're putting a base plate on it, I've got a 2m column/truss with a base plate around 12kg steel (my uncle fabricated and powder coated for me).
Speaker stands are far more of a worry to me, all the weight on a stick all the way up there and no weight at the bottom!!!

One thing I would warn you of - you may grow to hate them.
I hate mine, they look good and I've had nice comments but they're heavy - take too long to set up, take up more room in the van ... and they take too long to take down!!!

[Excalibur]

I can't help but feel that, unless they are fully bolted to the floor, they are always at risk of being knocked over.

While I agree with your reasoning, I have found that some venues take a dim view of me getting the SDS drill from the van, and bashing in half a dozen Rawlbolts for security purposes.