Former Indy Mars employees?

[notCardio]

Are the any former employees of Mars in Indy around here?

And yes, this has to do with studio design, so that's why I put it here. If I don't get any responses here, I'll try another forum, so please don't bitch at me for cross-posting. Anyway, to the point.

Does anyone know what the dimensions were of the what I called the 'Martin room' at Mars? They had a big acoustic guitar room, 'L' shaped, with the small 'L' leg divided into two sort of 'alcoves'. The first alcove you went into was where they kept the Taylors and Gibsons, then at the back (second alcove) was where they kept the Martins, along with a glass case in the wall that had the artist/collectible models. Here's why I ask: One time, there wasn't enough seating in the main room to try out a guitar ( a cheapie, of course - hey, it's ME ), so I took it back into the 'Martin room'. Guess what? After experimenting to verify my discovery, EVERY GUITAR, no matter how cheap a piece of crap it was, SOUNDED FANTASTIC IN THAT ROOM! Hell yeah, you're gonna see the big improvement in sound quality when you move from a Tak or a Yammie to a Martin. IT WAS THE ROOM! Now, I'm not saying that a Martin isn't a Martin for a reason, so don't flame me on that. I'm just saying I want to recreate that room in my basement. I was really pissed that I had to be out of town when they closed, or I was gonna go in and measure it myself, and even try to buy the cedar walls and glass case.

Anyone who can help me out will be GREATLY appreciated!

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Can you approximate the dimensions. No doubt the wood had the right absorption/reflection characteristics, and the glass display with a glass front added to the hi hz reflection component, and MAYBE even abosrbed a bit of mids as a panel on the front of a box. The box itself, with a gap at the glass MAY have even acted as a Hemholtz Resonator, with guitars also acting as resonator boxes inside. But hell, who's to really know. Small rooms like these definitely need acoustical treatment to sound good. Personally, I would build 2 of the walls as John Sayers INSIDE OUT construction, whereby the isolation is on the opposite side of the studs as the room, and Rigid Fiberglass insulation in the stud cavities with fabric over it. Then i would cover ONE of these walls with varying width wood slats with variying width slots(use various diameter nails for spacing) as this will provide a nice Hemholtz(Slat) Resonator to the room. A few patchs of fabric covered Rigid Fiberglass on the ceiling, and VOILA!! A nice guitar booth. Of course, a nice wood floor too for ambience
Thats my best .02
fitZ

[curtiswyant]

I think some of the guys might be working at IRC Music in Castleton...

[DDev]

I know the acoustic guitar room at the old Mars in Kansas City was constructed using tongue and groove wood for walls and ceiling (kind of the log cabin effect visually), and the floor was wood or some kind of lookalike laminate.

I think part of what Rick hinted at is the real reason they sounded so good: you've got all those guitars hanging around that are resonating sympathetically with whatever you are playing and those resonances are creating that awesome acoustic sound.

So, the moral of the story is, build a wood room and hang 100 acoustic guitars of varying quality in there

Darryl.....

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

So, the moral of the story is, build a wood room and hang 100 acoustic guitars of varying quality in there

Why not just build them into the walls.........ie. Thats why I suggested a SLAT absorber wall!! Same thing!!
fitZ

[notCardio]

Originally Posted by curtiswyant

I think some of the guys might be working at IRC Music in Castleton...

I didn't recognize anyone from there, I'll ask next time I get up there. I just bought a couple of cheapies from there for beaters. Everytime I walk into a music store I have to repeat my mantra - 'I do NOT need any more cheap guitars! I do NOT need anymore cheap guitars! Doesn't work though. They're like scruffy little mutts at the pound, saying 'Take me home, pleeeease?'

Yeah, I can approximate it, and I could go the route you mentioned, but I really wanted to try to recreate it. And the 'Martin room' wasn't much more than 10x20. I'm sure one side of it being open to the relative infinity of the larger acoustic room had something to do with it, but it was really mostly the nearfield reflections off the cedar walls. Industrial carpeting, BTW, not wood floors.

Oh, well. IRC had some stuff left I hadn't bought yet anyway. There was this one blue one...