Ultimate Support Apex AX-48 Pro Column Keyboard Stand - Black Reviews

If you're thinking about it, just get it. It's everything you think it is: Sturdy, but you worry about the plastic Stabilizer piece breaking. More expensive that you'd like, but cheaper than some other options, and the functionality is why you're looking at it in the first place. Little large for your vehicle, but it fits and the footprint live is kinda perfect.

It's not flawless, but it's pretty close. Grab one, handle with some care, and it should last you a very long time.

Very strong stand I had one for the last 15 years still good, but I just decided to get a new one
Thank you Sweetwater the service on thank you Tim Holsinger

I have had my Apex stand since the early 90's. I've never had to replace a part on it although I did replace the adhesive strips only because they had become worn. One of the best things is that it has taken a beating over the years but the shape is so smooth you can disassemble it and wrap it in vinyl and you have a brand new stand again. My keyboards are not light (Kurzweil Forte and a Nord Stage 3) but it has never given me issues. Thanks Ultimate Support for a great product.

On a side note, the carrying bag is useless. I've had two so far and they rip at the seams within a few months.

I have made the mistake of buying the old fashioned stands that are both clunky and unsteady. This stand is super duper solid, holds my keyboards on two levels, and has a thick backbone keeping everything intact and straight. You can run cables down the canal it has built into it to keep them hidden and organized (although not every cable will fit together, it's still very convenient). It's incredibly modern and beautiful, and compliments my home studio. I wish they made one with three levels (one a bit lower), because I'd buy that as well. To me, this is the ultimate two tiered stand, and I'm very pleased I purchased it.

I have been using Ultimate Support Stands for many years. They are durable and well built. The APEX AX-48-Black is sleek and suits my needs.

The Apex AX 48 Pro keyboard stand is awesome its well work the extra money it cost compared to the other stands on the market. This stand is the best you can buy a must have if you want a great keyboard stand. quality made, easy to assemble, and easy to take down to store and carry. Glad I got mine. Great product from a great company and as always great support from folks at Sweetwater. Thanks to Joe Shafer at Sweetwater

When this stand fist came out years ago I used it on tour with Cheap Trick, Journey, and REO.
I still have my original excellent condition, and now bought this one for my southern studio. Great improvements!
These stands are an amazing invention.

So, it's an APEX. The thing's reputation speaks volumes, no review of the stand is really needed.

What SHOULD be noted, however, is the ABSOLUTELY AMAZING customer service offered by Sweetwater. I had a few questions about how this functions, how I can add a third tier, laptop stand, etc. and the attention I received was outstanding.

Keep doing what you're doing, you've definitely gained a permanent life long customer.

Excellent product!!!

I got my keyboard stand and it is an amazing product. Just as describe. I got a lot of compliments on my new stand. They said that it looks more professional and very clean (referring to the cables). I am real happy with it. Service from Sweetwater.com it was real good. My product got here in the time frame that it was promise.

Thanks guys!!!!!

I've been using these stands for years. The latest versions are coming from China but they are still Ultimate all the way. I have five tiers on one of these (I know they say only use two but the keyboards are light lol) and it's still rock solid. USS makes great stands, Sweetwater makes them affordable.

We bought one of these in the 80's and I am still using it. They used to be more triangle shaped and the new ones look much easier to carry. We stacked 3 keyboards back then. Amazingly simple design and easy to set up and tear down. It should last a long time!

After using two separate single stands, this is really what I needed....what took me so long to get it.

Replaced my USS three tier A frame with this, added a third tier...got the bag too, but that tore completely after the first use. Was replaced immediately without any problem.
Only complaint, which is more an observation, is, if you're tall, like me, over 6', the lowest keyboard is a bit too low. And, the lower boards are covered up by the ones above it...but....
A fair trade for the convenience. I custom built a three tier out of A frame parts and a speaker stand Tripod base, and it is the best stand I've ever had, but it cost $ when I add up all the spare parts I bought along the way...

Great Stand. Using a yamaha S70XS on the bottom which is heavy. I recommend the mic adapter as well.

The Apex is a classic and stylish keyboard stand. I bought the very first model over 20 years ago and other than a slight rounded profile instead of the older triangular shape and longer arms on the bottom it's pretty much the same. Very solidly built, stable and easy to transport. I loved it so much I bought a new one to replace the one I sold 15 years ago!

Used to have a x style stand with 2nd tier adapters. Looked junky. This has a sleeker look and has cable guides that make it look even cleaner. Highly recommend using the adapter to mount your mic to the top.
Only down side is it is a little wobbly if you are and "exuberant" player.
Also takes up less space in your vehicle...which is nice.

Had a problem when putting it together, and had to call Sweetwater, the first rep was very unsure of himself, but transferred me to another "technician" and this person was much better: here is the caveat: you may think the foot stands are fully extended but they may not be: I had to lean, heavily on the column and they then truly snapped into place: when that happens, the bottom of the support column is just shy of the floor by maybe a half an inch, and that is when you make up for that gap by adjusting the stability bar.

I was afraid of breaking it, but it wasn't the only thing I had to force....Since my stands are a permanent part of my studio, and I don't travel gig them, other issues raised here, hopefully, I won't find out about. What makes the construction difficult are the simply TERRIBLE instructions, with low res fuzzy pictures in which you really can't see what is what at all.

Again, staying put in my studio, they should be fine, but I wouldn't have confidence to gig with this apparatus.

Taking some use to get used to. Love the low profile of it. It can get shaky if you play hard (ie: blues piano, boogie, etc). Also, the brace has a tendency to become uneven as you play. Careful when folding up the legs at the bottom so that the button doesn't go too far into the stand. Otherwise, neat compact design. Enjoying it as a two tier keyboard stand.

Not particularly effective for very large and non-standard keyboard sizes (my Kurzweil k2600). But it works really well for my Lil Phatty and other keyboard controllers. Never gigged with it, so the wobbles may be somewhat of an issue if you really like to bang out notes.

Pros: Portable, collapsible and fairly lightweight for its size. Looks decent.

Cons:

-Unstable!! A little bit of thin carpet on the stage will make this thing rock and roll like a boat on the high seas. (Yes, that even with the "stabilizer" engaged)

-Terrible accommodation for pedals. No ability to run a pedalboard whatsoever.

-Lackluster cable management options.

-No ability to angle top tier.

Bottom line is that I"ve used this for a couple of years now, and it"s been a serious disappointment. I will be revamping my live rig shortly with something else.

I've used the same APEX stand for 15 years and broke one of the foot locks. When I went to replace it I chose the same company because it was a great product. However, I was disappointed because one of the plastic grips that holds the bars wasn't drilled properly and was impossible to attach. I finally used the one from my old stand and it works fine. That being said, I the design change was moderate enough that I was also able to use my old boom mic attachment and save some money. I like the new round design, and it is a solid, safe stand for my keyboards. But ... when you buy a luxury car, you expect the radio to work...

I've been using Apex stands since their inception, but I'm disappointed with the current design. The original (I still have one for rehearsal, it's too beat up for on stage) has a flat surface at the top of the stand, making it suitable for angling the top keyboard, which is my preference as I am on the taller side (6'2"). The latest incarnation has a curved surface on top, making it unstable when tilting the top keyboard. I have to use my wallet across the top to provide a safe, secure surface for my top keyboard, which is either a 40th Anniversary Minimoog Voyage or a John Bowen Solaris. Both are too valuable to risk setting on an unstable stand. I've also found the 3-point base on the newer models to be problematic... it's just not as stable as what I became accustomed to playing the original design for years. I'll be switching to the K&M Spider. It's way more expensive, but I'm willing to pay more for superior stability at both the top and the bottom of the stand.

I wouldn't recommend this if you have a heavier keyboard such as the Korg Kronos or a cat. My 5 lb cat got on the Kronos and toppled the whole thing over. Luckily she survived. It's not a matter of if this thing is going to crash but when. If a 5 ld cat can knock over your keyboard stand then there's something up with the stand. The build quality and setup is good but it just doesn't hold the heavier keyboards. Yes I read the instructions and removed the piece to allow for heavier keyboards.

The AX-48 Pro is the most stylish keyboard stand on the market by far. It will accommodate a number of tiers and a great deal of height adjustment, accessories, etc.

Unfortunately these are its only positive qualities. At first glance it appears incredibly solid, but is little more stable than any $40 stand. The 'keyboard stabilizer' on mine doesn't even reach the floor. The tiers tilt back at a weird angle which makes the controls on some gear very hard to see. You cannot adjust the width of the tiers, so forget about mounting your drum machine or desktop synth. At first I thought I'd set it up incorrectly but further inspection reveals no error on my part, although it's difficult to tell because there is almost no contrast in the user manual illustrations. You would never want to gig with it - why drag along a stand as heavy as this when any decent x-stand would do?

If style is your only concern, go with this.

I guess this stand appealled to me in many ways, not just for the professional look on stage but for the ease of use with 2 keyboards, versus a folding stand. I'm not as happy with it as I expected I would be, after over a full year of regular use. The first thing that happened with this stand was one of the tri-bars broke off on the end one day. The second thing I dislike is that the top cap never stays shut when you turn the stand upside down to close the bottom legs. I guess I should start pulling the tri-bars out and then placing them to the side instead of in the top cap until I close the legs on the bottom of the stand. The third thing I dislike is that the little plastic "stabilizer" on the bottom of this stand broke after about 11 months. Since then, I just decided this stand is really not as great as I imagined it would be. Ultimate Support did work with me and send me a new tri-bar and a new top cap. The new bar hasn't broken and I've also bought an extra pair of tri-bars in case they are needed, which I have to keep elsewhere (in my crappy bag I bought for it). But the top cap they sent me does the same thing the first one did....falls open all the time. It falls open in transit, in the bag, and it falls open everytime you flip it over w/tri-bars in it. So I guess I just can't win with this stand. Glad I didn't buy the newer model stand and spend extra money to just be disappointed some more.

I probably would have given this 4 out of 5 stars if reviewing right after purchase. Was immediately set up at rehearsal with 2 boards. Reason is, it's a little insufficient at keeping the boards stable. If you lean on the board at all, I mean just beyond touching at the rear corners, you'll feel it start to tip. I got past this though because every design has compromises. 76 keyboard btw. The reason that compelled me to review now is, for it's first gig, I was packing up and picked up the empty stand by the handle. It broke off instantly in my hand. I never even got it off the floor. I never moved or adjusted the handle in any way from the way it came new. I thought OK, I can get another handle. Upon returning from the gig and reinstalling the stand for rehearsal again, I went to pull the legs out. 1 leg OK, 2nd leg OK, 3rd leg - rubber foot comes off in my hand and the leg falls inside of the housing. Now I'll need to find an appropriately sized allen wrench to take this apart to fix. If this had happened at the gig, I might have been outta luck, Only way I can take this out again would be to tape whatever wrench I need to disassemble the housing, to fix on the road if needed.

My APEX broke on the very third gig I took it on. One leg wouldn't lock into place.

However, these stands are very popular and I believe failures like the one mine had are probably rare. So that is NOT the reason for my low rating. It's a decent stand, but the custom service experience I had was profoundly an inexcusably poor.

It took them WELL MORE THAN A YEAR to get the problem resolved and replace the stand. And after making me wait more than a year, they insisted I give them back the (new) carrying case that came with the replacement stand. Why? because my case has a tear where the handle joins the bag.

That tear happened after three gigs. Is that also NOT a "defect"? Should a handle tear after only three gigs? (I assure you it was not abused.) And even if it wasn't, after making me wait well more than a year, wouldn't it have been a reasonable gesture to just give me a new case.

To me, this is exceptionally poor customer service.

Have had the Apex in rotation for 2+ years of gigs. Things I like: 1) solid, compact, portable stand; 2) Ease of height adjustability; 3) Built-in microphone mounting point; 4) Sturdy base legs when fully deployed; 5) Everything stores neatly in the frame for transport

HOWEVER, they missed the mark on a few key items, this stand is going into recycling! I've moved to a different brand, here's why:

1) Ultimate customer service STINKS! They take forever to respond, and when they do it's not to solve the problem but say sorry, you're out of luck

2) The bottom support legs store into the frame, but when deployed the (2) side legs don't stay locked out... so when you try to turn the stand from upside down after leg deployment to right side up, the side legs fall vertical again... HUGE pain. I took the unit apart and there are no broken pieces, it appears to be a design flaw. Seems like this could have been an EASY non-issue with minor design adjustment

3) The cover over the top storage compartment (where the keyboard arms store) comes open WAY too easily, resulting in keyboard arms flying out often during transport - Seems like this could have been an EASY non-issue with minor design adjustment

4) The mic mounting point isn't easily removed, leaving it exposed during transport and subject to wear over time. Seems like this could have been an EASY non-issue with minor design adjustment for removability/storage

5) The supports for the keyboard don't lock into place on the vertical column well. There are (2) issues... for heavier keyboards, the supports allow the keyboard to lean out of level (left or right) very easily, requiring regular reset to level. 2nd: The supports are very hard to tighten such that they don't shift down over time. Again, the column itself is heavy duty and well designed extrusion... The supports seem heavy duty, there was simply not better design provision for them to lock into place. Seems like this could have been an EASY non-issue with minor design adjustment.

Did I mention Ultimate customer support basically told me to have a nice life when they finally responded? Lame. That's fine, I'm happy to spend $$ with another manufacturer and actively recommend against Ultimate to my clients.

The bracket on the inside breaks every single time, making it impossible to lock the legs. Contacted warranty support and was informed that they consider this normal wear and tear and thus will not send the part. Never ever again.

I have this unit. It is very unreliable if you keep tearing it down and using it for gigs.
The legs will get stuck in the unit and you have to share the whole unit down to get them out
Ultimate support does not assistant any aspect
I would never recommend nor purchase this unit again

Buy from Sweetwater by all means, but not this. The big support arm snapped at the base a couple of hours after I put my Studiologic controller on it. The crash was dreadful. My controller is now damaged, my nice floor (home studio, so it wasn't already wrecked) is dented, and the manufacturer said that since Sweetwater (bless you, James) sent a replacement stand, there was nothing to talk about. So what the manufacturer is saying is that you can't trust your gear or your floor to their expensive product. Sweetwater has been great, by the way. They tried to go to bat for me with the manufacturer, Ultimate Support. Alas, they had the same success I did. Don't buy something from someone who will not stand behind their product. Their exact words: "Our warranty only covers Ultimate Support products not the products that are placed on the stand. I do apologize for any miscommunication regarding this matter."

My original stand from the mid 80s is still going...
Which i use for gigs
Tried a new Pro 48... for my studio... broke stabilizer leg nut within minutes setting up in my living room. All 3 cable clips have cracked and all 4 rubber on the arms have fallen off... Never gigged... just rearrange studio....
So i called "support'... sent photos... they sent back a price list... So much for lifetime warranty!
Granted they're cheap parts but why would I pay for something that's not gonna work... Shame they really used to have a great product...

Bought two Ultimate Support Apex Pro stands almost two years ago. Fortunately Sweetwater is way cooler that US and when first one chassis swallowed a leg irretrievably after a gig (shout out to 45Grave), then the other cracked the arms casing and swallowed one of the big arms.

Now the first one that broke has seen some weekly (to semi-monthly) use since I joined a band in April and had largely been in a closet before then. That"s the one that swallowed the middle leg. After a gig the leg just fell in as I was tearing down and just kept going.

I had a gig the next weekend and used the other stand (which till then hadn"t been touched since I set it up in my home studio) while I shipped the first one back for credit against a V stand.

The Apex is cumbersome and awkward to handle, but it feels like it"s built like a tank.

A surprisingly fragile tank. This gig (no wait it was rehearsal) the barely used Apex, when I slid a rack arm into its slot swallowed the arm like the chassis swallowed the leg. Only unlike the leg, there"s an obvious crack in the casing for the arms. Again, barely used. 2nd stand. Out of US"s warranty, but fortunately not Sweetwater"s.

I got the 2nd tier arms that I literally screamed myself hoarse putting together as it is at best a purgatorial experience. Imagine IKEA, but made of the heaviest lead alloy possible and even more impossible to fit together without self injury. Versace isn"t so overdesigned. US, here"s a clue, if you"re gonna charge so much, ship them pre-assembled. Putting together my console table wasn"t so stressful. And as overdesigned as they are, they"re not especially well thought out or even built. The tilt mechanism lock sucks. But more on that later

So I took the V stand to one rehearsal and as I arrived to set it up I noticed (this had to have happened in transit, as it was folded up and in its little fabric gig bag, and was perfectly intact going in, and set on top of everything in my suv, not being treated roughly or threatened by anything more extreme than a wide turn at 15 mph) that one of the metal plates bolted to the bottom part that tilts out to secure the right main support leg had completely cracked through. The stand didn"t stand so much as lean more than that tower in Pisa. It was a stressful rehearsal.

So Aaron, literally the best, shipped me a new one...

The second V stand seems to be stable, but so did the others. The locking pins on this one work better (though having two tethered and two untethered and asking to get lost seems just stupidly moronic).

But after one gig (not even a rehearsal) at which it performed as expected, when I came to set it up in my studio at home (as I"m down to one working stand, or was), one of the tier arms would not tighten the tilt properly and my Prophet 6 fell twice, once all the way to the floor.

Then, as I tried to make sure of the grip, the (rather thick) tightening screw (and I mean an industrial-thick screw) just twisted in half, snapping off and making the tier arm useless.

My Prophet is still on the floor.

So I"m done with Ultimate Support stands, and pricy stands. I"m sending the Vstand and the arms back and I"m combing the local pawn shops for cheap X stands. Don"t bother buying an expensive keyboard stand from anyone. Four out of four failures...

That is literally unforgivable. These products are not worth any of your money.

I bought this stand in April of 2015. I gig about 100 nights a year and I loved the idea of the compact portable stand that would hold my rig. Unfortunately the idea did not translate to fact.

Within 2 month, the plastic carry handle broke off. Not a big deal..it was just a luxury. 6 months later the mic boom developed stripped threads and would not catch. It was useless. Next a plastic front foot stabilizer designed to stop the stand from falling forward broke off of its anchors in the stand rendering this aspect of stability useless. Finally, in the left leg, a plastic spacer designed to keep the leg locked in tight broke off and rendered the entire stand useless (the left leg would no longer lock into place).

The worst thing was Ultimate's support of their defective workmanship.

Admittedly, I did not know about the limited lifetime warranty on the stand when I purchased it. When I logged on to Ultimate support website to try an order replacement parts to fix the stand, I discovered the warranty and registered my product (including my proof of purchase with date). I also supplied photographic proof of the defective parts.

Ultimate stated that because I did not register the product for warranty right away (it was about a year later) that no warranty requests would be honored despite my proof of purchase and proof of defective parts.

Be wary...this stand looks great...but it will fall apart. If you buy it...register it immediately with Ultimate and immediately report any defects.

My suggestion is not to buy this product. It is built with cheap plastic parts for the most integral supportive elements of the stand. Ultimate's support of their products is non existent. If you are a regularly gigging musician...it will not last.