Jaspers, a German keyboard stand company, was founded in 1985 by Hermann Jaspers and has been producing stands and racks for close to 40 years. Even after all this time, the operation is still a family operation with Hermann tasked to do much of the design work. The company is known for its study stands and has many different designs to choose from if you’re looking for a studio or stage solution.
We obtained one of the stalwarts of their collection the 4R-140B. The 4R specifies that there are four tiers and the 140 is the interior width in centimeters. The B denotes Black, as opposed to Silver, the two anodized aluminum color choices available for all of their offerings. With this in mind, you can review all their products and gain a quick understanding of the specs. Most of the Jaspers stands come with the front either slanted or boxed. It’s a personal preference, but for our review purposes, we opted for the slanted version to see how it would handle not only keyboards, but sound modules, drum machines and even semi-modular synths.
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The 4R-140B Keyboard Stand for the most part is well made with a solid aluminum spars and plastic joints to hold the assembly together. The directions were adequate, but “certainly could be better” with antiquated graphics and limited instruction. Anyone who’s put together something from IKEA, should have no issues, but certain pieces, like the tongue and groove definitely need better explanations. Our 4R-140B was supplied with casters, but instead of robust wheels, they were made with plastic ingredients that won’t stand the test of time if the unit is moved on a regular basis.
Plenty Of Accessories To Support Your Gear
Once you decide on how many tiers you want, as well as the width and height, it’s time to delve into the accessories section. Here you’ll find a multitude of options to suit exactly what gear you have and how you want to arrange them. Not only are there various Holders to choose from to support your keyboards and modules, but also monitor platforms, microphone boom arms, music and laptop stands, iPad adapters, and even computer monitor jigs. This enables the musician to fully customize their setup for efficiency and workflow, but they do have to be mindful of how much weight is loaded onto the Jaspers. The bottom tier of the 4R-140B can support a substantial 40 kgs, which is enough to handle a large, digital mixer and the upper tiers can bear 14 kgs. If you’re worried that you loading too much on the 4R-140B, you can purchase another support spar.
The only caveat is that if you’re like most electronic musicians, your setup changes – a lot. Thus, many of the original accessories will need updating and Jaspers often has limited stock. In addition, because it ships out of Germany, it can take quite some time to arrive. Therefore, it’s imperative that potential customers take some time to deep think their rigs and plan accordingly.
In our long term test, the 4R-140B held up well, but the unit did threaten to come apart when moved under load. The reason is the plastic clamps just don’t have enough tenacity to really crank down on the aluminum, A methodology for the clamps to “bite down” would certainly be something that Jaspers should consider going forward. This unfortunate circumstance happened twice, once on stage and once in a studio setting. In both cases, the evaluator was moving the 4R-140B slowly and was able to save the rig’s integrity before a keyboard or a synth had an “unscheduled dismount.”
While the Jaspers has definitely got several things going for it, one of the things it doesn’t is the price. The 4R-140B will set you back €462 and only comes with four pairs of holders, which is only good for four keyboards. We obtained another four pairs of holders, which set us back another €168. And this doesn’t include 19% VAT if you live in the EU. That’s €750. For a keyboard stand. OUCH!
Jaspers 4R-140B Keyboard Stand Features:
- Can hold four keyboards
- Black or Silver aluminum support spars
- Height: 140 cm
- Outer Width: 150 cm
- Inner width: 140 cm
- Depth: 50 cm
- Plastic roller wheels included
- Plastic clamps for the upper shelves
- All shelves are height-adjustable and can be tilted
- 40 kg Base Level Load Capacity
- 15 kg Upper Levels Load Capacity
- Made in Germany
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Conclusion
If you’re going to pay €630 – 750 for a keyboard stand, it better be the most robust, reliable, attractive and supportive keyboard stand in the world. Unfortunately, the Jaspers 4R-140B isn’t. Worth A Look.
Jaspers 4R-140B Keyboard Stand Rating: 83%
Cheers:
+ Solid Aluminum frame
+ Options
+ Versatile
Jeers:
– Eye-Watering Price
– Plastic Wheels
– Clamps Aren’t 100% Reliable
– Mediocre Instructions
– Accessories Not Always In Stock
– Holders Are A Pain To Connect To The Aluminum Spars
Jaspers 4R-140B Keyboard Stand starts at €462 and is available now.
The Future: Going forward, Hermann should say to himself, if I’m going to sell a keyboard stand for upwards of €750, I better not cut any corners…
The design of the clamps definitely needs to be revisited so there’s zero chance of them disengaging. The wheels should also graduate to metal casters so they glide smoothly when moving the 4R-140B. Finally, attaching the keyboard holders to the horizontal aluminum spars are downright annoying and poorly thought out. Something needs to be done here.
