My New Studio Build (perhaps overly detailed)

[silky smoove]

Would rubber bumpers on the sides of the acoustic panels help with any potential contact when removing or replacing the instruments or do you have enough space between them?

I don't think they're necessary. The vast majority of the time it will be me using the hangers, and I trust myself not to use them recklessly. At 19.5" that leaves about 2" on the sides of all my basses and even more on my guitars. It's easy enough to thread that needle. My acoustic guitar is definitely a tight squeeze, but I might not even hang that since acoustic instruments have a tendency to resonate when loud things like drums or mic'd up amps are doing their thing.

 

[Stumbo]

Yesterday at work I had 7.5 hours of meetings.

As a result I was completely exhausted last night and got very little done in the studio. I marked all of the spaces between the wall treatments so that my wife and I can snap all of the lines required for me to finish installing the remaining nine wall hangers.

It's an interesting perspective shift. A few months ago "I'm too tired" meant that I wasn't up to the task of lifting uber heavy sheets of drywall. Now "I'm too tired" means that I could put some pencil marks on the wall with a tape measure, but snapping a chalk line is a bridge too far

Adrenaline does wonders.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I don't think they're necessary. The vast majority of the time it will be me using the hangers, and I trust myself not to use them recklessly. At 19.5" that leaves about 2" on the sides of all my basses and even more on my guitars. It's easy enough to thread that needle. My acoustic guitar is definitely a tight squeeze, but I might not even hang that since acoustic instruments have a tendency to resonate when loud things like drums or mic'd up amps are doing their thing.

I find that acoustics, being more delicate, are best left in their cases to keep the temperature and humidity more constant.

 

[silky smoove]

Working on the hangers. Got all the holes drilled for the remaining nine.

This is the required hardware for each one... not including my feet.

 

[silky smoove]

The room feels decidedly more rock n roll with my Bird flying.

 

[Stumbo]

The room feels decidedly more rock n roll with my Bird flying.

View attachment 3288222

Will the hanging stock create any Echo or sympathetic vibrations?

 

[silky smoove]

Will the hanging stock create any Echo or sympathetic vibrations?

If anything it’ll create more dispersion in the midrange. If there’s any weird flutter echo I can just throw a Gruv Gear wrap on all the instruments. Initially testing by blasting my monitors shows very little change in the room with them up. Frankly, there’s so much treatment in here that it will take a lot to mess anything up acoustically

 

[silky smoove]

Three of my basses and my Tele are flown. I need to pick up some additional washers to keep going. I’m busy all day tomorrow, so I’ll do that on Sunday and finish this then.

 

[Stumbo]

Three of my basses and my Tele are flown. I need to pick up some additional washers to keep going. I’m busy all day tomorrow, so I’ll do that on Sunday and finish this then.

View attachment 3288257

Looking like an art project!

 

[silky smoove]

Looking like an art project!

Thanks!

 

[Stumbo]

All the hanging objects tone down the blue and it really highlights everything. Very cool.

 

[silky smoove]

All the hanging objects tone down the blue and it really highlights everything. Very cool.

I agree, and thanks. The blue was my wife’s idea, which I was quite resistant too initially. Then she pitched the brown ceiling idea and I came up with the dividing white ceiling trim, and suddenly I loved the idea. The concept was to make this dark but vibrant backdrop for things to sit in front of and come alive. I’m quite pleased with how it’s coming together aesthetically and I’ve never seen another studio with this color palette. I’m glad people are digging it.

 

[markjazzbassist]

Are those status necks on warmoth bodies or just fender mm with a replaced neck? Also why the graphite?

 

[silky smoove]

Are those status necks on warmoth bodies or just fender mm with a replaced neck? Also why the graphite?

Status necks. The G4 is a Warmoth body, the Thunderbird is a Lowe Custom Guitars body, and the Stingray is a Ray34 body, pickguard and bridge, but the electronics have been replaced. Why not graphite?

EDIT: The Tele is all Warmoth, and there’s a Warmoth/Status Jazz not yet pictured as well. The only off the shelf bass or guitar I own is a Taylor Celebrity acoustic guitar.

 

[CryingBass]

Righteous

 

[Door County Bass]

As a loyal follower, I’m interested on a few levels...first, would you ever again take on a project of this magnitude? If “yes”, what would you consider doing differently?
Second, how close is the nearly final studio to your original mental concept/s?
Your build has been very inspiring as well as informative. Congratulations to you (and your wife).

 

[silky smoove]

As a loyal follower, I’m interested on a few levels...first, would you ever again take on a project of this magnitude? If “yes”, what would you consider doing differently?
Second, how close is the nearly final studio to your original mental concept/s?
Your build has been very inspiring as well as informative. Congratulations to you (and your wife).

Nope. If I sell this house and want a studio elsewhere I’ll have it built.

As for things I’d do differently: Better planning of the door swing (stupid center of mass and decoupled drywall...).

The original concept isn’t that different structurally, but many items were either refined or omitted.

 

[markjazzbassist]

Nope. If I sell this house and want a studio elsewhere I’ll have it built.

As for things I’d do differently: Better planning of the door swing (stupid center of mass and decoupled drywall...).

The original concept isn’t that different structurally, but many items were either refined or omitted.

I believe you stated it would be something like 2 times the price with a countractor or was it 4 times? Albeit would have been done in a matter of months rather than 5 years. But I think your issue was there aren’t a lot of qualified sound absorption treatment building contractors around?

Sorry I’m forgetting and trying to paraphrase.

 

[silky smoove]

Orders of magnitude more expensive is how it would have shaken out.

 

[silky smoove]

I believe you stated it would be something like 2 times the price with a countractor or was it 4 times? Albeit would have been done in a matter of months rather than 5 years. But I think your issue was there aren’t a lot of qualified sound absorption treatment building contractors around?

Sorry I’m forgetting and trying to paraphrase.

Orders of magnitude more expensive is how it would have shaken out.

Expanding on this more (my post earlier was immediately after concluding my first day of snowboarding since 2007 and I was wrecked):

The estimates that I got for just the building ranges from $15,000 (what I paid), all the way up to $40,000. Once you consider interior finishes the cost differential gets nutty. Excluding the items that I had contractors do (gutters and downspouts, electrical, drywall mud and tape, mini split final hookup, and sound door installation) the costs for everything else would have more than doubled. The contractor would have to pay for the materials just like I did, but they’d also need to make a profit on those materials and in doing so would “mark up” the costs. Additionally, and certainly more expensive, is the cost of skilled labor. This isn’t the kind of job you can hire a few guys from Home Depot to complete and expect good isolation. A common contracting idium is to take the cost of materials, which would be higher than my materials costs, and double it for labor. So conservatively the cost would have been in the range of 2.5 times my cost having done the bulk of the labor myself. I’m in the ballpark (all in, including the contractors listed above and the original cost of the building, as well as permitting and the demo and removal of the old garage) of $45,000 on this project. So...

$45,000 - $15,000 = $30,000

$30,000 * 2.5 = $75,000

$75,000 + $15,000 = $90,000

I’m sure some breaks could have been found along the line to get down to $80,000-85,000 is my guess. With that difference of $40,000 I was able to reconfigure our basement to be a beautiful working medical office for my wife, tear off and replace the roof on the house, plant a huge row of arborvitae along our property line, furnish our living room, and a few other things that I’m probably forgetting at this point.

I would not do it myself again, but I’m happy that I did it this time around.