Home practice area - what does yours look like?

Thats a pretty sweet setup. I've got 3 guitars, two electrics and an accoustic, two kids (one toddler) and I live in a shoebox. Any tips for getting my gear in a nice safe place? :)

I would love to wall mount my guitars, but with it being rented and the landlord a complete twat, I'm worried I'll make a mess of the wall. Anyone have any experience with fitting these things to the wall?

I'm also looking for a nice stool that gives me a good leg up for playing guitar. I play slouched over and its starting to really annoy me and impact my attempted playing. I've also got to get myself a nice stand for the music books, and a shelf to put them all on... again the landlord is the person stopping this happening.

I only need an ickle corner to live in, but alas I'm a wanderer in my own home with my six strings on my back.

Kroikey,

If you have a stud finder (usually built into DIY cable detectors) find a couple of studs and put a board on the wall screwed to the studs - attach guitar hangers to the board, add ice, shake, er, sorry, I'm day dreaming again..... When you leave, you'll only have a couple of small holes to fill.

I have a bar stool, which, unfortunately has sort of become a bookcase for guitar magazines and tab printouts (those that won't fit on the music stand, you know what I mean :D )

I am renting a house. as long as you have spackle and the same color of paint that matches the room, you should be fine. That's what I have for when i move out

Spackle?

My study has a bookshelf along one wall with all my music on it together with guitar magazine CDs and some CDs full of sound samples. Next to that is the PC, which routes out through a small hi-fi for music playback and there's also a set of powered speakers which I use to listen to my 4-track recorder. There's a printer too.

Along the right hand wall is a mirror, so I can see my hands when I play (you lot have got dirty minds). higher up that wall is my ACIB certificate - I'm a qualified banker.

Along the front wall, in front of the wondow, is two music stands and a mic stand. Higher up is the registration certificate for the Rollmop Music domain.

The left hand wall accomodates my keyboard, with a Marshall MG30DFX, a Marshall MG10 practice amp and a small 15W Yamaha bass amp underneath it. A couple of tambourines hang on (and usually fall off) the keybord stand. Next to that is my 24-track Hard Disc recorder and studio monitors. Above that lot is my collection of Grade Certificates from where I've passed my guitar grade exams and a Gold Disc. It's not my Gold Disc, it belongs to my girlfriend's son - we got it for his birthday off e-Bay the other year and we're looking after it while he travels the world, he doesn't write his own material (yet).

There's a big office chair at the PC desk, and a dining chair in the middle of the room for when I sit in there playing my classical guitar. If I want to stand up and play my electric, then the dining chair gets thrown back in the dining room. When I'm not teaching in there, I've also got a large gig bag full of batteries, mics and FX pedals in there.

A :-)

I have a few areas where I play guitar. but this is my main room for recording or jamming with buddies. I use the computer and monitors to play a drum track to jam to and I also run the mics through the computer. actually, I run it thru the recording program on the computer. I haven't done much sound treatment. just cloth on the slanted ceiling. I do get a little echo or bounce this way, but I don't mind it. sometimes it works. most times the room ambiance is drowned out by the other tracks and the reverb I stick on the recordings.
I like my upstairs studio. I can look out my window and watch the birds feed and my garden grow.
the room is air conditioned in the summer and humidified in the winter.
all my recordings are done right here.
show is my Hwy1 tele, my late 80's strat plus, my 1936 Rickenbacher lap steel, my fender Vibrolux amp, a pile of cords, mic and stand, old green chair from the 50's and my messy desk.
it is cozy.

thanks for the guitar practice pic idea. I'd like to see more pics form all of you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spackling_paste

As above, each hanger will only put two holes in the wall...fill the holes before you leave. Best to screw into a stud. I actually just moved the hangers from one area of the house to the other and the 6 holes they left ended up being quite small.

I have a 2 and a 4 year old. The area I set up my practice area in is the "office". We have a lock on the door and the kids know they are not supposed to go in there - or course, they are always trying to break that rule... but we try. (only 16 more years to go and I *might* be able to take over one of the vacated bedrooms to turn into my own music/man room)

Generally, I just keep everything out of reach and have tried to teach them to be gentle with the guitars. I used to tell my 2 year old that the guitars were HOT, like the stove... that worked for a while.. but he has since figured that one out.

As much as I have "enough" room for everything, my little corner is really that... little. We have a huge L shaped desk in that room too and it is only about 8x8 in size. But, it works for me... and I have yet to hit the guitars against the walls, etc, so it is big enough for what I need - plus it is nice having the computer nearby.

The chair I am really looking for is a piano stool like this:

I also have a small wood box (about the size of a shoebox) that I keep on the floor to keep my knee elevated. I will probably pick up an actual adjustable foot stand next time I am in a music store.

Keep your eyes out on your local used sites like Craigslist and Kijiji... you should be able to find a cheap bookcase. That is all mine is - $50 at Wallmart (3 feet wide, 6 high, about 5 shelves). Nothing special, but the wood matches my desk. Nothing attached to the wall, nothing the landlord can complain about.

I ended up getting the wood music stand off Kijiji too... it was broken and being sold really cheap as a handyman special. I just took it apart, re glued it, filled the cracks. Sturdy as a rock and looks great.

I made my own wall mounts using these instructions... they work great, and end up being about $4 each. I used an old piece of stairway hand rail I had lying around:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Guitar-wall-hanger/

I've got about a 20x24 room I use pretty much just for practice and sometimes to drink beer in..Ha.

We also use the room to practice with the band so on one wall there are all the amps, two guitar and one bass amp and the PA. On the other side we have the drum set. We stopped micing the bass drum because we don't need it but we have 4 vocal mics that we use when we practice.

I have all the lyrics in plastic sheets in a 3 ring binder(if someone puts them back) or the end up all over the room. I also usually have my computer if we are working on a new song to listen to the song I connect it to the PA.

we have a couch some chairs a TV and a bathroom. The beers in the garage

Cheers for the info guys and gals! And that 20x24 room....sheesh...you yanks get all the space!

kroikey,

well there are pluses and minuses to everything. I forgot to mention I also have a dart borad so usually after practice on fridays we'll play darts for a few hours, which is one skill I actually do have.

But two of the guys I play with are single so they want to come over everyday and hang out. I used to be one of those guys too but now when I get home most nights I just want to be alone and either practice or chill out.

But I need to find better competition I'm tired of always wining :D

i had a whole room to myself to practice, then i got married and only had the attic. then i had a baby, and i lost the attic as storage.

i now have - a chair. thats right, a single chair where i use headphones and play through a pod 2.0. i cannot expand my practice area out of the chair :(

when i am done my guitar is returned to its wall hanger, and the headphones go in the drawer.

When i was living in an apartment I didn't have any real practice area. Usually I'd just sit on the end of the bed and play unplugged since the wife was usually in the living room and I never got to plug in.

Now I have everything right there next to me but I still practice mostly unplugged and then every other day or so I will crank up the PA and play along to a CD of whatever song I am learning plus a few others.

at least then I can stand up and play like I would if I were really playing somewhere

Old picture, but just the amps are different. Substitute a Blues Jr. for the Hot Rod Deluxe, and a Vox VR15 for the slant-cab Bassman25

My practice area is my bedroom, which I share with the computer, the bird's playstand, the ferret's play area, and occasionally the puppies (two 10 week old Shihtzus) who come in and visit. Fortunately the bedroom is large, the rest of the house is not. :roll: