Millenium Amp Stand AS-2001

"Turn that amplifier down!" they shout.

"But I can't hear myself!" you protest.

"We can't hear anything but you!" they retort. And turn their own amps up...

And so the onstage volume war begins, escalating ever upwards. It leads to the destruction of musician's ears, and is the bane of soundmen worldwide, as onstage volume gradually overwhelms the front of house PA system.

How does this come about? Musicians often place their amplifiers on the floor next to where they are standing. However, speakers are quite directional, especially in the mid and high frequencies that allow you to pick out your own sound amongst the mush of live sound.

But feet don't have ears, so it's easy to set the volume to a comfortable level for yourself, while deafening another musician 10 feet away. Add in rumble transmitted through stage floors finding its way into open mics, and the problem worsens.

This stand goes a long way to solving this problem, through application of the completely obvious - it points the speaker towards your ears, so you can actually hear the sound you are making.

I use it with my 1x10 and 1x12 bass combo amps, and it supports their weight perfectly well.

Buy one for yourself. Even better, buy them for your whole band. If they are open to enlightenment, they will thank you, as will your sound man and audience.

I have used the Millenium AS-2001 amp stand with Roland Cube 40XL and Blackstar 1W combos. This affordable stand is just perfect at least for my purposes.

The amp height and angle can be easily adjusted exactly the way you want them and the stand is easy to collapse for transportation and set back up again. I would recommend this product to be used with combo amps weighing less than say 10-12 kilograms (25-30 pounds).

I also tested the stand with a Peavey classic 30W combo which weighs over 22 kg (55 pounds). It became perhaps just a bit too shaky. I guess it is still possible to use it with amps of that weight class, but I would recommend something more robust to be used together with heavier gear.

I bought this to put a small acoustic amp onto it - a Marshall AS50D and it fits on perfectly. My son's Harley Benton AS Pro 60 also fits on although as the Harley Benton is quite a small cube-like amp, it only JUST fits. But it's secure all the same.

It's a fairly light piece of kit so easy to transport when gigging. It's not particularly wide so I wouldn't really want to put anything bigger than my AS50D on it, but I don't think it's designed for bit amps in mind.

The L-shaped arms have foam rubber on them to prevent your amp from slipping at high volumes and also to protect your amp from scratches. A nice touch.

One thing I did notice however is that the shortest part of the L-shaped arms is shorter that I thought it was going to be. It's fine for holding my AS50D but for my son's cube-like Harvey Benton AC Pro 60 - which is a lot deeper in size than my Marshall - I had to tilt the L-shaped arms the other way so that the longest part was at the bottom and the short bit on the back. If I didn't do that then I'd have had to tilt the arms a good 45 degrees to make it feel secure, but then you're just playing up to the sky. With the longest part of the arms holding the bottom of the amp then I was able to tilt it at a much less severe angle - almost horizontal - and it still felt secure.

Overall, it's a very handy piece of kit if you want to raise your amp off of the floor at gigs to aid projection. If I could improve it then I think I'd include some sort of velcro strap that you could wrap around the amp to prevent accidentally knocking it off but that's being picky.