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Stroll into your local guitar shop and sift through their stock of guitar stands. What you’ll find are a bunch of dreary hunks of plastic and metal that are utilitarian, uninspired and in no way aesthetically pleasing. On the flip side, guitars are cultural icons wielded by some of the most inventive individuals of the last century. They’re lovingly crafted from wood and designed for optimal acoustics and ergonomics. They deserve to be displayed better, ideally in a manner that matches them in style without distracting from their natural beauty and eminence.
This is something that Joel Edmondson has managed to accomplish in forming Hudson Valley Hard Goods, a New York-based company dedicated to handcrafting modern, high-quality guitar stands. Having studied furniture design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and worked at high-end furniture brands like Pfeifferlabs, Lorin Marsh and SYMBOL Audio, Edmondson is a man who knows how to design good-looking products. Edmondson is also a musician. In the attempt to display a guitar in his own home, he recognized the abysmal aesthetics of mass-market guitar stands. Naturally, his designer instincts kicked in and he realized he could do far better.
Edmondson uses natural ash and walnut wood sourced from a mill in White Plains, NY. While ash and walnut are the two standard wood options, Hudson Valley Hard Goods will craft a bespoke stand from a custom wood selected by the customer. They are then cut, assembled and finished into a line of three modern stands: the Hyla, a circular wall-mounted stand that holds the guitar up by the neck; the Bord, a solid block of wood with a groove tailored to fit your specific make and model of guitar; and the Stol (pictured), a collapsable stand that will accommodate guitars both large and small.
On their own, Hudson Valley’s stands are almost as worthy of display as the guitar itself — they’re well built, beautiful pieces of contemporary design. But since they’re elegantly simple, once you add the axe into the mix they do not in any way overshadow the guitar’s design. If you’ve spent the money on a well-designed guitar and a well-designed home, Hudson Valley’s stands are the final note that makes your domestic layout complete.