In September of 2023, I decided to put up a slat wall so I could mount my guitars and basses on the wall instead of using the single guitar hangers that were somewhat permanent. Once you screw those into the wall, they’re not easy to reposition and you’ll probably have to patch some holes. A slat wall would let me move the instruments around and if I wanted to hang some other things on the wall, I could get some retail-type hooks and put them up there.
I got a set of two 24″ H x 48″ L panels in grey. They are made of a pressed, cardboard-type material, sandwiched and glued together, not solid wood. Looking at them now on Amazon, there is an option for metal inserts. I wonder if I could’ve or should’ve got that. More on that later. The panels were easy enough to install to my drywall: find the stud in the wall and use 3″ sheetrock screws to anchor them down. They weren’t going anywhere. For hanging my guitars, I chose a couple different mounts, below.
This extra strain on the slat is the hanger’s and this particular slat wall’s downfall, at least with heavy instruments.
The problem with the hanger on the right is that the long arm acts like a fulcrum and puts pressure on the inside of the slat where the top lip of the mount is resting. The bottom of the mount isn’t anchored, so it sits flat against the wall/panel and all of the weight is resting on that top lip of the mount. It doesn’t provide any extra stability in the slat below, unlike the String Swing hangers, but you get what you pay for. Two String Swing hangers are the same price as SIX of the ones above, right. If you take the above, right hanger off the wall, it disassembles, and the slat wall plate (the part that makes contact with the slat wall) will most likely fall to the ground. Trust me on this.
This extra strain on the slat is the hanger’s and this particular slat wall’s downfall, at least with heavy instruments. Note only one guitar ever fell off the wall and that was a 30″ scale baritone guitar/bass VI.* So I’m sure there’s a weight consideration for these hangers. That coupled with the construction material of the slat wall itself was something I did not expect to be a big pain for me. Once the weather got a little more humid and I think the heat of the morning and afternoon heated up the outside of the house where the slat wall and my guitars hung, the slat wall material delaminated. I would hear a bang in the early morning, only to find one of my basses on the floor with the offending hanger next to it in 2 pieces. This went on for months. I tried lowering the guitars on the wall, one slat down, but that didn’t really help. One of the other things I tried was wall anchors, with washers, so I could secure the material above the offending slat to the drywall. That kind of helped but it looked terrible. The hangers on the left never gave me an issue. I even hung a heavy double neck guitar on 2 of those. They never budged.
I saw String Swing was having a sale, so I got permission from the wife (yes, we tell each other when we’re spending more than $100 on things) and bought their system. Their system consists of a 24″ metal slat panel and 3 hangers. As you can see from the photo on the left, the top and bottom of the hanger are secured to the wall. The bottom uses a plastic clip. Metal construction makes me sleep better at night–seriously. Plus the padding they use in the part that cradles the headstock of the guitar is safe for nitrocellulose finishes. The cheapie ones above are not and a few guitars have those scars.
I’m very impressed with the String Swing system. It had great instructions, it was packaged well and so far is very secure. I did order a single hanger from them to try out with my existing slat wall a few moths ago but interestingly that was the baritone guitar that fell down.* The plastic clip that holds the bottom of the hanger to the slat below snapped and the guitar fell down. I guess it wasn’t as secure in the fiber/cardboard slat versus the metal slats of their own system. On the String Swing website, I did see they had issues with their plastic supplier and have replaced the offending clips. I bought a few spares just in case.
-Terry, October 2025