The Complete Guide To Guitar Wall Hangers

What Wall Hanging Changes For A Guitar

A guitar wall hanger holds an instrument by the headstock so the body floats clear of the floor, which saves space and keeps the guitar within arm's reach. It is a display and access solution, not a protective one. A hanger does not shield an instrument from knocks, dust, direct sun or swings in room humidity, and it does not replace a case for storage or transport.

The risk in wall hanging sits mainly in two places that have little to do with the guitar itself: the fixing holding the hanger to the wall, and the contact between the hanger padding and the finish. We have serviced the Perth music community for 20 years, and both of those are worth settling before a guitar goes up on a wall.

Hanger Types And The Headstocks They Fit

Four patterns cover most of what is available. A simple two-rod yoke with padded arms suits standard headstocks. A self-closing auto-grip hanger, where the arms swing shut under the weight of the neck, suits households with children or pets. Angled and horizontal holders present the guitar face-on as a display piece. Multi-guitar racks and slatwall panels suit a row of instruments along one run of wall.

The gap between the yoke arms is the measurement that decides fit, so the headstock should be measured across its widest point behind the nut before anything is bought. Standard six-in-line and three-a-side headstocks, including those across the Epiphone range and our Fender electric guitars, generally sit in a standard yoke without trouble.

Three cases need checking. A slotted classical headstock is wide and shallow and often fouls the arms. The long headstocks on twelve string guitars carry twelve machine heads, so both the yoke width and the weight deserve a look. Headless designs give a yoke nothing to hold at all and need a body cradle or a case.

We carry accessories from brands including On Stage, Xtreme and Armour, and our Joondalup store is open 7 days. Anyone unsure of a measurement is welcome to bring the instrument in, or to call us first on 08 9300 0033.

Working Out What The Wall Is Made Of

Before a hole is drilled, the wall has to be identified. Double brick, brick veneer, rendered block, plasterboard on battens over brick, and older fibre cement sheet all turn up in Perth homes, and each takes a different fixing. Ernie Ball highly recommends that its guitar hanger is mounted directly to a wood stud, so on brick, render or block the fixing specification comes from the instructions supplied with the hanger (Ernie Ball, installation instructions).

Solid brick and block carry a hanger well when the fixing lands in the body of a brick rather than a mortar joint. These walls need a masonry bit, hammer action, and a plug sized to both the bit and the screw. Render and the hard glazed face of some bricks can spall, so it is better to begin with hammer off and switch over once the hole has started. If the drill suddenly runs soft and the dust turns grey and loose, the hole is probably in mortar, and the right move is across into solid brick.

Where a Perth wall is plasterboard on timber battens over brick, there are no studs to find. The workable answers are to locate a batten and fix into it, or to drill through the sheet into the brick behind and use a masonry plug long enough to seat fully in the brick. Where the wall is genuinely timber framed, a stud remains the target. The listing for the Hercules Stands GSP38WB recommends a wall stud for maximum stability and specifies the supplied plastic screw anchors for non-stud drywall mounting (Hercules Stands GSP38WB product listing).

Where an older Perth home has fibre cement sheeting, no hole should be made until the sheet has been assessed professionally, and a floor stand is the answer in the meantime.

Fitting A Hanger That Will Hold

Fitting a guitar wall hanger is a drilling job before it is a music job. Ernie Ball states a maximum weight limit of 6.8 kilograms for its hanger with proper installation, and that limit holds only while the fixing itself is sound. Five steps carry the job.

First, identify the structure behind the lining, finding the stud, batten or solid brick, and stay clear of the zones directly above and below power points and switches, where cables run, and of wet-area walls where pipes may sit. A stud finder with live-wire detection is cheap insurance. Second, set the height with the guitar held up against the wall, keeping its lowest point clear of chair backs and foot traffic, then mark the fixing centre in pencil and check it with a spirit level. Third, drill the hole the material needs, which means a pilot hole narrower than the screw for timber, a masonry bit with hammer action for brick, render or block, and depth to suit the full length of the plug.

Fourth, fix the plate firmly, driving the screw into the stud or into a correctly sized plug, pulled snug against the mounting plate rather than overtightened into it. Fifth, load test before the guitar goes up, taking hold of the hanger with both hands and leaning a good share of body weight onto it, then looking for any movement or cracking at the plate. Movement means the fixing comes out and the wall gets reassessed.

Finish And Climate Care On Open Display

Two things act on a guitar left on a wall that do not act on one in a case: the padding touching the finish, and the air in the room.

Gibson's Instrument Care and Maintenance FAQ warns that the chemicals in the rubber on many guitar stands react with nitrocellulose lacquer, with results running from discolouration through to the lacquer being eaten away, and that Gibson does not cover that finish damage under warranty. The remedy it gives is a soft cotton cloth between the rubber and the finish, with stands used only for temporary storage and the instrument otherwise kept in its case (Gibson, Instrument Care and Maintenance FAQ). Anyone unsure which finish their instrument carries should check the maker's specification for that model, or ask us.

Eastman's care and cleaning guidance asks for 40 to 60 percent relative humidity and for sudden temperature and humidity changes to be avoided (Eastman Guitars, Care and Cleaning). That rules out a stretch of wall in direct sun, a spot above a heater, the wall under an air conditioning outlet, and an uninsulated external wall. Fender Support notes that a guitar on an open stand is exposed to the air of the room, and that more control than that is usually wanted (Fender Support, Humidity and Your Tacoma Guitar). Dry Perth summers and closed-up houses both pull a room away from that band, and where the conditions cannot be held steady, a case is the controlled option.

Hangers, Stands And Cases In One Home

A hanger suits the instrument played daily, because access is immediate and there is nothing standing on the floor to be knocked over. A floor stand suits a rehearsal room or a wall that cannot be drilled, accepting that it can be tipped. A case stays right for storage, for transport, for a nitrocellulose finish on Gibson's own advice, and for anything valuable enough to be insured, and the choice between a hard case or a gig bag comes down to how far the guitar travels. All three can sit alongside each other in one home.

An instrument that has spent a hot season on a wall is worth booking in for a re-string and a service if the action or the intonation has shifted. Damage from a fixing letting go is bench work rather than a home repair, and our services and repairs carry free quotes in-store.

Our store is in Joondalup, we serve players across Perth and ship Australia-wide, and our range runs from Maton and Fenech Guitars through to the Fender Vintera III series.

Contact information: Joondalup Music Centre, Unit 4/101 Winton Rd, Joondalup, ph 08 9300 0033, open 7 days.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does hanging a guitar by the headstock stress the neck? Hangers are built to be loaded in exactly that way, and the weight limit stated by the maker applies only with proper installation. The risks worth managing are the fixing and the finish rather than the neck.

Can a hanger go up in a rental without drilling? Ernie Ball highly recommends mounting its guitar hanger directly to a wood stud and states a maximum weight limit of 6.8 kilograms with proper installation, and the Hercules Stands listing specifies its supplied plastic screw anchors where no stud is available. In a rental, a floor stand or a case is the safer answer, and anything involving holes is a conversation with the property manager first.

How far apart should two hangers sit? Measure the widest body of the two guitars, then space the hangers so the bodies clear each other by at least a hand's width. Staggering the two heights slightly keeps one set of tuners away from the other body.

What happens when a fixing pulls out? The instrument lands headstock first, and a break where the headstock joins the neck is bench work rather than a home repair. It is repairable, and it is avoidable with a fixing in structure and a load test.

Does a wall-hung guitar need a room humidifier? Not automatically. The question is whether the room already sits inside the 40 to 60 percent relative humidity range named above and holds steady. Where it does not, a case between playing sessions is simpler than conditioning a whole room.