Surefoot
Mic Stand bases and Accessories

The Surefoot information has moved to http://www.surefootstands.com

Custom Applications and modifications:
Larry Gatlin's Guitar Stands
Ultra High Stability Orchestral Music Stand
Lighting fixture ground support
Boom Modification kits
 

We toured for a number of years, and our goal is to manufacture robust and versatile microphone support products that we would want to use ourselves, and in some cases, could never find.

We hate lame mic stands, and we are really unhappy that manufacturing of almost all of them has been moved offshore, with far less than adequate resulting quality.

There is a disposable cheap product market, but we are not interested in that market.

Our products are field serviceable and we support them. If someone finds a flaw in our products, we're going to fix it and make a retrofit available.

We have sought out onshore companies: Foundries, machine and CNC shops, tubing suppliers, precision plastics machining houses (tube slides), and paint suppliers/jobbers; who employ people stateside. We require assurance that parts and services that we use originate onshore. We visit facilities to know our suppliers and develop relationships.

This is a Pro Product, and we hope to see them in wide use in touring and high-end installations.

We hope that when people buy tickets to productions, that some little part of that ticket winds up going back into the American economy, and specifically the manufacturing economy.

This "onshoring" has been challenging. Key manufacturing in the US has been eroded to the point that it's tough to find these suppliers. Some things we need are only made offshore, but we have no quarrel with quality manufacture in Europe, and some component pieces are European through US Distributors.

 We can live with that.

Starlite Theater - Branson, MO Mic stand upgrade

Compare the footprints of the Surefoot bases on Kick and Snare with the conventional base on the overhead to their right.
Drum riser congestion solved.

When backline riser depth is at a premium, Surefoot will free up more room.

Again, compare the footprints of Surefoot and a conventional lightweight tripod stand.

Dailey and Vincent at Starlite - Soundcheck

                              The Surefoot Line and Options

What started out as an effort to retrofit and improve existing mic stand products has grown into a developing line of high-quality, rugged, Made In USA bases; as well as retrofit kits for existing products and special or custom applications.

A line of stand poles, booms, and other accessories/Modifications/Enhancements to other products are in development, along with a line of truck-pack dimensioned trunks and transport cases.
Our stand poles and boom tubes will be available in 6061-T6 aluminum, or 4130 Chromoly steel.

All threading is compatible and compliant with industry standard microphone hardware and poles, 5/8", 7/8", and 1 1/8" tubing and standard threading pitches.

Other tappings are available on order. If we can get a tap for your threading, we can do it.

 

Left to Right -  Longfoot with lighting fixture ground support adapter, Longfoot with Atlas MS20 pole, Surefoot with Atlas MS12 pole, and Surefoot with K&M 199 pole.

Folded and ready to pack.

3rd St. R & D will, in the first quarter of 2014, release the first new folding cast iron mic stand base design in 25 years, which folds down into a very tidy and easy to pack form and is mic stand trunk friendly.

                         Rapid Setup and Tear Down On The Road

The leg flanges are heavily reinforced with cast-in ribs.

All of our Mic Base products and retrofit products, as well as our future proprietary boom products feature locking levers for rapid setup and tear down. No longer is it necessary to screw bases on and off of stand poles every night when loading out. A few quick flips of the levers, and in seconds the base / pole combinations are ready to drop vertically into a compartmented road trunk. Tomorrow you pull them out of the trunk, flip a few levers, and they are ready to go.

 

BASES

There are two versions at present, the Surefoot has a footprint slightly larger than a quality round base, while the Longfoot has a larger footprint for greater stability while remaining much smaller than imported lightweight tube bases and stands.

Surefoot is available tapped for either 5/8" or 7/8" poles. The 5/8" tapping is specifically intended for direct attachment to specialty mics like Audix Microboom Choir/Orchestra mics.

Longfoot is available tapped for either 7/8" or 1-1/8" poles.

If you like your existing 7/8" thread poles, they will screw right on to our bases.
Note: Some inexpensive Music Store stand poles have welded washers instead of jamnuts and interfere with the rotate and fold function of the legs.
But, they are badly threaded and you wouldn't use them anyway, right?

Adapters for other stand poles
K&M makes nice poles that are favorites of road techs.
Shown at right is a K&M 199 pole fitted with our adapter "slug" that coverts it to standard 7/8-27 thread so that it can be used with Surefoot. Great pole, with half the footprint. The weight of the combination goes from 3.3 lbs. to 8.5 lbs, resulting in significantly better stability.

We have put much effort into developing strong castings, correcting stress points by forming reinforcing ribs in the castings themselves, and shot-peening the finished castings.

We work with a custom foundry to insure consistent iron formulations across multiple runs.

Tired of tip-toeing around on a riser to keep from bending or breaking lightweight tripods? You can step on these without fear of breaking or bending.

Surefoot

Longfoot

Surefoot and K&M 199 Pole with adapter
See special applications

"I'm SICK of badly threaded and machined stands."

All holes for stand pole threading are machined, not drilled;  using CNC machinery and very tight tolerances so that the fine thread pitches involved are cut to the correct depth with precision taps.
Our threads are so sharp that you can actually use one of our bases to chase the threads on a stand pole.

"How big are they and what do they weigh?"

Surefoot and Longfoot footprints compared to a quality legacy round base, and an imported lightweight tubular base.

The Surefoot weight is a little less than a quality round base, and the Longfoot is a little more.

These bases are ideal for drum mics and straight stand or boom stand vocals that do not move about. The stability is superior to round bases, and the footprint is much smaller than lightweight folding stands.
You can't have stability without either a big footprint or a weighted base. On a densely populated drum riser, we maintain that the small footprint of a weighted base is better.

 

"How stable is stable?"

In this picture, a Longfoot base with an Atlas MS20 stand pole and a modified AKG 211 boom are suspending a gallon of water ( 8 pounds or 3.6kg ) beyond the base radius.

The base can actually support that weight farther out, but it will bend the boom.

This 211 Boom is modified with a lever lock and locking clutches to take and hold the weight.

Why A Gallon of Water?

The heaviest microphone out there is generally considered to be the legendary RCA Model 44 Ribbon Mic at a little over 8 pounds, followed closely by the AEA 44 Reproduction at 7.9 pounds, so that is our reference.
You're not likely to run into them on the road, but for weight, they are the big dogs.

Anything else is a piece of cake.

"How far into that kick drum do you need to go?"

This is almost too much to ask even of a quality boom like this modified K&M 21140, (note the bow in the boom tube) but even the smaller footprint Surefoot is capable of supporting an RE20 at this reach.

You probably would not want to use this combination at this reach, and this is at the upper right corner of the stability envelope for the base, but it is THAT stable.

After testing multiple powder coat formulations we've chosen a semi-satin wrinkle finish that diffuses strong direct light and does not gleam or glare under stage lighting. (Lower)

We've also chosen a more aggressive wrinkle finish for other products, such as the heads of our booms. (Upper)
 

Baked Power Coat is about as durable a finish as you can get, but nothing is impossible to mar. With reasonable care, the finishes will last very well.

Update on finishes:

Powder Coat is great, but we've noticed that due to the thickness and mass of our castings there are issues with consistent powder coat curing. Powder coat has to be heated to 400F and held at that temp for a period of time, and the thermal hysteresis of the castings makes that inconsistent. There is also the issue of field repair and refurbishment. A primary goal is for the user to be able to maintain these products.

If power coat does get nicked or chipped, it is very difficult to do satisfactory touch up. Therefore, we are currently painting the bases, starting with a rust-inhibiting red oxide primer coat, then two coats of wrinkle finish. The wrinkle paint  finish can be touched up and cured in the field using a par can, IR heat lamp, or other hot fixture to cure the touchup. It takes about 10 minutes to touch-up and cure the paint, and it only takes 200F. The high-quality wrinkle finish paint is readily  available.

We will continue to use Powder coat on our poles and booms, since we anticipate that they will have less tendency to get chipped or marred.

Proudly made in the USA!

Other applications:

* Lighting fixture ground support
* Low-Angle Video camera ground support
* Single pole stands for small keyboards and personal monitor mix stations
* High stability base for music stands (in cooperation with a manufacturer of quality music stands)
* High stability base for guitar stands (a custom modification to a well-known instrument stand)

* Reduced cost Contractor / Installer versions with bolt/wingnut leg attachment