Guitar Collector Forum

I've split this from the guitar cabinet thread as I thought it deserved it's own thread - Paul (moderator)

Those display cabinets (here: http://guitar-collector.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=10) are works of art in their own right, however a bit too rich for my purse I've been looking at a way of hanging my guitars in a wardrobe in my study, and I came across these gizmos, I can't find a supplier in Australia yet, but have any of you guys tried them?
http://www.theguitarhanger.com/

I tried all over the web for those hangars mentioned above, but in the end, guess what, found another use for the good old wire coathanger, no not a new shape car aerial, but a guitar hanger. Probably wouldn't work with heavy bodied guitars or the big body accoustics, but for a very light Verithin theu are pretty good and they come free with the dry cleaning!!!!!

Geoff, when I checked out the guitar hanger link I couldn't decide whether it was genius or a stupid idea! Certainly their advertising showing guitars hanging with the clothes in a closet (below) didn't sound sensible to me, but having seen your Verithin collection all hanging in their own wardrobe I'm beginning to think that a "guitar hanging closet" has some merit. I wondered about getting a standard wardrobe or display cabinet, removing the hanging rail and fitting it out with top-mounted guitar hangers. Not as nice as those custom-built solid wood american guitar display cabinets, but a lot cheaper!

I'm not sure that I'd trust regular wire coat hangers though! Can you post a close-up picture of how you've bent them to hold the guitar head? Have you padded them to prevent scratching? I'm not sure that galvanized steel against vintage lacquer is a good idea!

Like this..

I'm not convinced by this hanging guitars in the wardrobe idea! Using a wardrobe as a guitar cabinet is a good idea, but hanging the guitars from the cloths rail like hanging a suit doesn't make sense to me. They look good in verithingeoff's picture, but in practice do they really hand neatly like that? Don't they knock into each other, causing scratches and dings?
Red Paul's idea of using proper guitar hangers in a wardrobe appeals to me more, as each guitar would be properly positioned in its own space. Instead of top-mounted (ceiling mounted?) guitar hangers you could use the type you see in guitar shops that are wall mounted hangers but hold the guitar at 90 degrees to the wall.

It's an interesting idea... and when I Googled "Guitar Closet" I got this patent application from 1998..

Title:Closet guitar hanger
Document Type and Number:United States Patent 5911396
Abstract:
A closet guitar hanger system, for storing at least one guitar having a neck and a head, in a closet having a closet rod, comprising a frame and a cradle attached to the frame. The frame comprises an upper frame and lower frame which are adjustable with respect to each other for accommodating guitars having different sized heads. The frame has a closet rod cache for hanging from a standard closet rod. The cradle comprises a c-curve for accommodating the neck, and a pair of supporting members for supporting the head. Spacer rods extend horizontally into spacer rod holes in the frame for separating a plurality of guitar hangers from each other while located on the same closet rod, for preventing guitars supported by said guitar hangers from touching each other.

At first I thought this was describing "The Guitar Hanger" mentioned above, but reading more closely: <<Spacer rods extend horizontally into spacer rod holes in the frame for separating a plurality of guitar hangers from each other while located on the same closet rod, for preventing guitars supported by said guitar hangers from touching each other.>> It sounds like they might have solved the problem forseen by SunburstStrat!

Here's another option:

Hercules GSP40WB long arm guitar hanger

Screw-in standard wall mounting system
Adjustable yoke allows you to face your instrument left, right or front
Auto Grip System yoke safely and securely holds your instrument
Specially Formulated Foam completely covers the yoke
Arm Length: 275mm (10.8”)
Load capacity: 7kg (15.4lbs)

The only problem I can see is that you'd need a very strong back mounting (i.e. a wall) due to the leverage of a long bracket. But imagine 4 or 5 of these in a row in your wardrobe, with all your guitars firmly held and nicely spaced!

Having looked again at the long reach hangers, I think top mounted hangers make more sense for a guitar display cabinet, whether it's a custom made one or an adapted wardrobe.

This looks like the ideal sort of arrangement to me:
These are actually mounted in a sliding rail to allow them to be repositioned left or right - ideal for a changing collection of electric and acoustic guitars that need different amounts of space.

(photo from here: http://www.guitarcollectorshowcase.com/ ... age_id=3#f)

The guitars just sit like that quite naturally, I'm going to devise a method of stopping them swinging though, still working on that. In answer to another question, the coathangers are plastic covered and I hang the guitar by hooks under the lower tuning knobs. Also remember that my guitars only weigh 3 kilos. Here are a couple of pictures of how they work. I may try the hangers mentioned in the first post if I can get hold of them, but for now my bits of car radio aerial will do just fine

Things move on.......I got fed up with the hangers, as someone said they tended to clang together everytime I wanted to remove one of the centre ones. So I took a different approach. A nice strong shelf across the cupboard and 2, 5 guitar racks display racks, with room underneath for 3 of the flight cases. Here's the result, I'm pretty pleased with it.