Mic stands/booms

I think I'm starting to develop a bad attitude about the quality of mic stands and more specifically, the boom arms. Stands, generally speaking, haven't caused as much grief for me as the boom arms. They all start out in life as OK but over time, the booms tend to suffer from what I call "sag". You can tighten them to death and they still won't hold the mic up any longer.
 
I have one boom arm here that is like a miracle in boom design. It works perfectly and it's like butter to tighten it in place. Unfortunately, I don't remember where I got it and there is no brand name printed on the boom.
 
What do you guys like in the under $150 range for general purpose use?
 
PS - I'm mainly interested in the smaller booms like you'd find on a normal mic stand. Or for drum/amp use.

I got pretty tired of that too, Larry.  I use Senn 421's on toms, and it takes a lot of torque to keep those heavy suckers in the air.  I ended up purchasing a bunch of the LP Claw's.  About the same price as a cheap stand, but much better craftmanship.  And much less room to store them.  In fact, small enough to just leave the mic attached, bag it, and throw it on a shelf for the next use.

That replacement clutch that bitflipper found is a great solution if you're not wanting to get rid of the stands.

I just start with KM 210 booms and they seem OK.

skullsession


I got pretty tired of that too, Larry.  I use Senn 421's on toms, and it takes a lot of torque to keep those heavy suckers in the air.  I ended up purchasing a bunch of the LP Claw's.  About the same price as a cheap stand, but much better craftmanship.  And much less room to store them.  In fact, small enough to just leave the mic attached, bag it, and throw it on a shelf for the next use.

That replacement clutch that bitflipper found is a great solution if you're not wanting to get rid of the stands.

I have some of these and I agree they are great. I've used them as micstand headphone holders too :-)  But they aren't always the best choice.

Listen here: http://www.ryancanestro.com/hrs/hrs.069.mp3