Stabilizing wobbly legged Gibson CG

[Martin Lindsay]

Acquired a nice ‘53 Console Grande recently and plan to add a stable stand to it with the supplied new screw-in legs and threaded mounts.

Before I simply cobble together a nice frame with cross braces for the legs, I thought I’d see if others had taken on this sort of project and might offer some advice/tips.

When I nod my head, hit it with a hammer,
Martin

[Erv Niehaus]

I had a Console Grande with the same problem.
I bought flanges and screw on legs from Sill Music and installed them.
Problem solved.
Erv

[Martin Lindsay]

I have the new legs and sockets but am a bit reluctant to simply screw these on. Any chance you could send a photo of how/where you installed these on the base?

Many thanks.

-Martin

[Erv Niehaus]

You need a couple of Forstner bits.
A large one to counter sink the flange and another smaller one to counter sink the part for the legs to screw into.
I installed the new legs at the same location where the original legs were located.
Erv

[George Piburn]

That inner hole is a 1-1/4 forstner -- home center's

Really it is all you need if you leave the outer edge of the Socket (1/4) exposed --
My Personal Choice and much easier and less expensive + the hole is less deep easily drilled Carefully by hand.

If you want those flanges, Flush to the bottom - Then as Erv said you need to use a full 3" forstner to make the Countersink so to speak. Plus the inner hole too. I found my 3" Forstner (1/2 shank) at Rockler, for Clocks.

Hope this adds to this discussion.

[Stephen Cowell]

I bought one of these... the dog-ear pups, right? Mine's a T-8, a real beast. When I got it my buddy had someone screw flanges to the bottom and it came with a bag of pedal steel legs... still not real sturdy. Thankfully they didn't Forstner-bit it, it's pristine except for the screw holes.

Mine has the single-wing nut and expander mechanism... the legs fit in, then you tighten the nut to press wedges against the legs. I've heard if you tighten these too much you can split the cabinet, not a good thing to happen. I've found with judicious tightening and care the original legs work for me.

[Martin Lindsay]

Finally getting around to this, with a better idea after checking the CG with the Sill sockets.

It appears that the existing channels are pretty close to 1-1/4” so that fit seems straightforward. I was a bit concerned re assuring exact leg angle, but it looks like if I do an accurate job of marking screw holes at 0 / 90 / 180 / 270 degrees, it’ll achieve the perfect leg angle/orientation. I plan to countersink the sockets, and it looks like the best socket center pt is about 2-1/8” from the side so that the flange edge just covers the channel end of the original leg slots.

Thank you for all your insights. Nice to have veteran guidance.