Proline Keyboard Stands – Are They Good Or Garbage?

Proline is a company that formed in 1984 in the music business. They specialize in making stands and pedals. Proline keyboard stands are the stands that you will see at your local guitar center that they will advertise as one of their premier stands.

My review is that I think Proline keyboard stands are better than On-Stage or other cheap X-style keyboard stands, but I still don’t love them. I’ve used them for the last three years as backup stands to my other stands. I have a lot of experience over the years using all sorts of different stands and I will explain what I like and don’t like about proline keyboard stands below.

X-Style Frame

I am not a fan of the style of stand for any company. Proline makes a lot of the X and double X style stands and the reason is mainly that this style is popular because it’s cheap. These stands are cheap and fairly portable for musicians who are traveling on the road.

Be sure to tighten the bolt the back of your stand so it doesn’t become loose. Your stand can slowly fall apart if this happens.

I think the X-style is not reliable because they break pretty easily when you’re traveling with them. When you adjust the height on the Proline X stands you will notice that the bolt slowly starts to wear out. When it wears out you can no longer lock it into place so this is something I have always hated. This typically takes a lot of wear and tear, but it does happen.

The Build

You have to put these stands together and I have had the displeasure in doing so 5-6 times now. I have been playing keyboards and using stands for over 20 years now, so this is not a user error. A lot of times when you go to put these stands together you will find that the parts are simply just not measured to size. The last two stands I put together didn’t even match the sizes they were supposed to.

I had originally thought I was reading the directions wrong, but that wasn’t the case. I ended up having to drill additional holes through the metal tubing myself to fit the attachments on.

I will say, that these stands do feel better than budget quality stands by a lot. The metal framework doesn’t feel cheap so that’s definitely a plus. If you’re not wanting to spend hundreds of dollars, then I would recommend this stand over some of the other ones.

The Legs

The rubber stoppers on these stands simply suck. They get bumps in them that you can’t get out and when you try to set your stand up it can wobble over time. I have had problems with these on pretty much every stand that I have owned. In time, the stages will slowly wear your stands stoppers out from moving them.

Be careful when touring with a Proline stand because other hardware can reshape your keyboard stand. Your stands legs can bend and warp and as soon as this happens your stand becomes trash basically.

Weight Capacity

I love how much these stands can hold. I have literally put all of my weight on these stands and they don’t budge. I only weigh about 150 pounds, but they don’t budge whatsoever. However, in time they will start to get weaker. Now I know that this will happen with pretty much every stand in time, so keep that in mind.

When you first get a Proline stand it will usually feel really durable. Make sure you keep good care of your stands as they will fade over time in general.

Overall Thoughts On Proline Keyboard Stands

Overall, I think they are decent. They’re not my favorite, but they’re nowhere near the worst either. They’re a great middle of the road product that should get the job done for you. One last frustration I have is if you have a keyboard that has an aluminum bottom, they will slide on the stand.

The stand should have more rubber on the main part to stop keyboards from sliding. A tip is to put velcro strips across the main bars of the stands to prevent them from sliding.

Let me know what your thoughts are on Proline in the comments!