An inventor, an aluminium frame and a speaker that needed lifting.

Ultimate Support Systems tells its own origin story in one image. The company says its roots go back to 1977, when its founder, the musician and inventor Darrell Schoenig, wanted an alternative to the “unwieldy and unsightly” speaker stands of the day and built “a compact, durable, aluminum stand crafted from parts of a hang-glider.” That prototype, it says, was the first of a series of stands for speakers, keyboards, guitars and more. The account has appeared on the company’s website since at least 2012, according to archived copies; we found no independent source for it, and the company does not say where the first stands were made, so we give it as the company’s account.

For most of its documented history the company was a Colorado business. In 2012 its website placed its corporate offices in Loveland, Colorado, north of Denver; MMR described it as “Ultimate Support Systems Inc. of Loveland, Colorado” in 2013, and Pro Sound News said in 2018 that it was based in Loveland. By 2022 its home office was in nearby Windsor, Colorado.

The owner who shaped its recent history came from the sales side. In an August 2018 interview with Pro Sound News, Mike Belitz described starting as a professional keyboardist, becoming a product specialist at Alesis around 1990 and working for the start-up Event Electronics before founding Sonic Sales, a sales-rep firm for the western states. Sonic represented Ultimate and became its top rep firm, and Belitz then bought the company. The same article gives the year of the purchase as both 2007 and 2006.

Air-powered speaker stands, Apex keyboards and a patent win.

Ultimate’s range is broad. Its catalogue covers keyboard stands — the Apex, IQ-X, V-Stand and Deltex series — guitar stands under the Genesis name, microphone stands in its Pro, Studio and Classic series, speaker stands including air-powered and TeleLock models, studio furniture under the Nucleus name, acoustic panels as Ultimate Acoustics, and a lower-priced sub-brand, JamStands. Its 2015 website highlighted the TS-100B speaker stand, with an air-powered telescoping column that helps raise and lower heavy speakers, and the Apex AX-90 keyboard stand with its then patent-pending “Quad Pod” design. In January 2026 it added gig bags for acoustic guitar, electric guitar and bass at the NAMM Show.

Reviewers have tested the stands against rivals. In a March 2013 comparison for Pro Audio Review, Rob Tavaglione called the Pro Series ST “my favorite straight stand tested” and the short Pro-T-Short-T tripod “also a top performer,” though he criticised the boom on the taller Pro-T-T for failing to hold its position.

The company has long talked about patents: its website claims “hundreds of design and utility patents” over its history, a figure we have not checked. One dispute is documented. On 23 March 2011 K.H.S. Musical Instrument Co., the maker of Hercules guitar stands, sued Ultimate, claiming that its GS-1000 guitar stand, with a “Self-closing Yoke,” infringed a K.H.S. patent on a self-locking neck holder. MMR reported in April 2013 that a federal court had granted Ultimate summary judgment, finding no infringement either literally or by equivalence, and describing the parts in question as “the exact opposite of what the claim recites.”

Stands, studios and stages.

Instrument stands are a quiet trade, and most of the names in it are owned by larger groups. Three of the brands in this set make broad ranges of stands for every instrument. Hercules belongs to KHS Musical Instruments of Taiwan, which says it has existed since 1930 and makes its products in company-owned factories. On-Stage is a division of The Music People of Berlin, Connecticut, which says it was founded in 1979 and is now “an Exertis | JAM business.” König & Meyer says it was founded in 1949 at Wertheim am Main, in Germany, by Karl König and Erich Meyer, and that almost all the metal and plastic parts of its products are made in-house.

Two grew up around keyboards and the stage. Ultimate Support says its founder, Darrell Schoening, built his first A-frame speaker stands in 1977 from salvaged hang-glider tubing; the brand now belongs to ACT Entertainment. Quiklok says it was founded in 1983 between Castelfidardo and Recanati, in Italy’s Marche, and that its first products were the QL/606 and QL/642 keyboard stands.

One is a drum-hardware specialist. Gibraltar was among the percussion brands that Fender’s KMC Music sold to Drum Workshop in January 2015, Music Inc. reported, and it came under Roland when the Japanese company bought DW in 2022, MusicRadar reported.

The last is a wall-hanger maker. String Swing says it was founded in 1987 by Paul Thieman and Anne Tainter, who ran a small dairy farm in Elroy, Wisconsin, and that its entire product line is still made in that state.

This guide sets out what can be checked about each brand — who founded it, who owns it, and what it says about where its products are made — and marks clearly what rests only on the company’s own word.

From a Colorado owner to a North American distributor.

Under Belitz the company grew sideways. In January 2018, Pro Sound News reported, he and the Vancouver private-equity firm Regimen Capital Partners bought Radial Engineering of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, with its Primacoustic, Jensen Transformers, Hafler and Dynaco brands; the two companies were run separately, with about 150 employees and contractors between them.

In September 2022 ACT Entertainment bought Ultimate Support Systems. The deal was announced on 15 September at Ultimate’s home office in Windsor, Colorado, according to ACT’s release, which MMR and Music Inc. reported. ACT’s chief executive, Ben Saltzman, said Ultimate had “a passion for innovation at its core,” and Belitz thanked dealers and customers for “the nearly 16 years of owning and operating Ultimate.” ACT calls itself North America’s leading supplier of entertainment technology, with brands such as Ayrton, MA Lighting and Robert Juliat, and describes itself as the exclusive North American distributor of Ultimate Support. The brand’s contact page now reads “Ultimate Support/ ACT Entertainment, Inc.” and gives a mailing address in Jackson, Missouri.

Where the products are made is only partly stated. The company says its stands are designed in-house, prototyped on CNC machines and “researched and tested in the U.S.,” and it labels its Nucleus studio furniture “Made in the USA.” Its page for OEM customers refers to “offshore manufacturing capabilities” and to its “manufacturing partners”; for most stands it does not name a country of origin. Ultimate-branded products carry a limited lifetime warranty, which excludes JamStands.

For a design guide, Ultimate Support shows how an engineering story — aluminium, air pistons, patents — can do the work of a logo. Compare König & Meyer, the German stand maker that still makes most of its parts itself, and Hercules Stands, its rival in court. For this guide we use anodised black, aluminium grey and a clear blue with a condensed sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Ultimate Support’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.