Kintaro 5 I researched intensively for weeks. The Hercules and the Ingles cello stand seem the most popular globally. The Ingles is only available in America and was too expensive to ship to Japan. Initally I bought the Hercules, available in Japan. I have reviewed this fully on Amazon Japan. Simply put: the Hercules cello stand is plain bad. With the cello pin out, the cello back does not touch the Hercules stand and wobbles dangerously from side to side - as bad as just leaving it against a wall. The picture on the box is totally misleading. I returned Hercules.Then I found this KC stand. The first I ordered had minor issues with tightening the arms, so Amazon kindly sent me a replacement. It is really excellent. Small, padded arms adjust to hold the cello stably. There is a special holder at the base where the pin sits and the cello is held high up across its body - there can be no yawing or sideways movement. For the first time in months, my son's cello is standing with no danger of falling (barring earthquakes!), even if bumped. All parts of the stand are fully adjustable (unlike the Hercules') - including height and the width of the arms (very important as if the endpin length changes so does the part of the cello which the arms accommodate) and all parts are well padded. And though there is no bow holder I simply hung a cheap black S ring from "can-do" on the arm - et voila! The only minor aesthetic issue is that the two small arms that stick out to cradle the sides of the cello side can only be tightened angled slightly down rather than up, as on the box picture, but this makes no difference at all to its function. This stand is stable, adjustable, works exactly as it should and is cheap. It also looks great. I could not be happier!!
