Basement studio in West Virginia: build diary

[toolance]

Thanks for the info.

[sandledfoot]

Britune,

kinda just checking back in, and man, your setup looks great! I love the album covers on the acoustic panels, nice work.

Sandled

[lowemae]

I second the build on the panels. They look really good.

[britune]

sandlefoot and lowemae- thanks for the compliments!

I'd like to put up my guitars on wall hangers in the studio. To use the drywall anchors that I'd like to use, I'd have to drill about a 5/8" hole in my wall (x 8 guitars, which would be 16 holes). These drilled openings (holes) would only be about 2/3 filled up by the screw. I was thinking of filling the extra unfilled opening with acoustical caulk, so the opening would be totally filled.

Does anyone know if this would be OK, or would I be risking losing some of my isolation?

[daveminer87]

Hiya!
Love the diary. I'm in the planning stages for a similar type build. I'm curious if you have a running total on your project. I saw some $$ at the beginning. Any thoughts on a ballpark of what you've spent to date?
Also, what is your final ceiling height in your control room and drum room?

Thanks!
David Miner

[adam]

Britune, never mind losing isolation, you'll lose the guitar! I'd never use less than a couple of 3 inch screws (pre-drilled) into the stud behind the drywall for guitar hangers. As an added bonus, you wouldn't lose any isolation with that either.

Watch out for resonating strings being amplified by the hard connection to the wall - you may need some way of dampening the strings if you'll be recording or mixing in the room while your guitar is hanging up.

[britune]

David- I don't have a running total, but I would guess about $20K. That includes a full bathroom. The control room ceiling is 7' 3". The drum room ceiling is 7' 8".

Adam- There are no studs lined up with where the guitars could be hung. I think these anchors are very strong (see photo). And I would have two screws per hanger. I'm not worried about that. The resonance might be a problem. Usually I have 4-5 guitars in the room when I record and mix, without any problems. But like you said, these would be connected to the wall.

I'm mostly concerned if I'll lose isolation.

[BriHar]

Not familiar with that particular anchor bolt. Is there a hinged part in the middle to hold the bolt while you poke it through? I am more accustomed to the butterfly wing type but the principle is probably the same. Once you get it in pull it tight and push some backer rod to the back then fill with good acoustic caulk. Attach the mount and tighten it before the caulk sets. Give it time to set before using. Mechanically you should have no problems - these bolts won't come out without substantial damage to the wallboard, so the guitar would have to be pretty heavy. I assume at least 1 layer of 16mm plasterboard? Two even better.

[RJHollins]

those are similar 'toggle' mounts that I used to hang my 80+lb clouds off my ceiling ...
4 bolts/ cloud.

I did force a bit of caulking in the hole before inserting the bolt. To be honest ... I've not
noticed any leakage.

As a side note ... when it came time to mount my broadband absorbers on the wall, the
number of holes that I needed was a big concern! What I ended up doing was screw a
1x3 onto the wall ... straight into the studs [walls are 2 x 5/8" drywall]. And then used the
1x3 to screw into any hooks that I needed for the panels. This minimized the number of wall
penetrations ... and, yet, gave a solid piece of wood to screw into [rather than drywall].

I hate to put ANY EXTRA holes in the walls or ceiling.

just my 1/2 cent.

[BriHar]

Good advice RJ. I used exactly that on my balcony ceiling edge (nothing to do with acoustics here though) I needed to put up hooks for Xmas lights but the ceiling is plasterboard over insulation afixed to concrete - i.e. the hooks wouldn't hold, so rather than a bunch of holes and plugs I decided to put up a wooden slat around the perimeter using fewer but sturdier molly bolts.

Britune, molly bolts are another option you might consider, as they require smaller holes. Another option would be threaded drywall anchors which in fact I have but forgot all about them when doing the balcony.

[britune]

My 13 year old daughter has been playing drums (kit) in the middle school steel drum band Pandemonium. They came over Sunday for a 2 hour recording session and cut 10 songs. It was crowded in the hallway between the drum room and the control room. There were two sets of triple pans (bass), two sets of double pans (mids), and two lead drums. They also have a drum kit and bass guitar that were together in the drum room. Their band director has done a great job with this band.

This was quite a different recording project than what I'm used to. I used Rode NT5 mics for the leads, Sennheiser MD421 mics for the triples, and a Shure SM7 and Neumann BCM705 dynamic for the doubles. It was a lot of fun. Here's a link to a story about it from a local news website.

I have been getting a little bit of work done, putting up ceiling tiles in the hallway.

[Ro]

cool

[britune]

I finally got around to putting up the hallway ceiling. As you go down the steps from my house, in the basement there are two closet doors, then the drum room, then the control room, then an outside door, and a storage room door.

I still have to install the wall hangers for my guitars and make room measurements with the REW software.

[Soundman2020]

Looking VERY nice!

- Stuart -

[britune]

I finally installed my guitar hangers using the wall anchors I had a picture of previously in this diary. The Swing String hangers are very solid and they rotate to accomodate Telecaster and Fender headstocks. Between the anchors and hangers, I have a very sturdy solution. I always thought guitars would be the coolest artwork I could display.