weather

[Ez]

My parents just granted me use of the garage for my studio. The problem with this is that the garage is very poorly insultated, and commonly very cold. Im wondering what the effects of the cold will do to my equipment. Any ideas? Is there an ideal temperature for equipment to be kept at? Will the cold even matter at all?

[John Sayers]

Turn it all on and get a big 400watt per side power amp and it'll heat your place up.
But seriously any insulation you put in will help the acoustic as well so a double wammy there.
cheers
john

[kristian]

if i take my nylon stringed guitar outside in the cold right now, it takes about 1/2 a second to go out of tune. i imagine that electric guitars and metal stringed acoustics would take longer with their truss rods.. but that would be a big downer and reason to get insulation.

[Kelly Holdridge]

Yeah, we have to heat our "room" up a good hour before hand to attempt any tuning at all. John, we use 200/side @ 8ohms, our Crown doesn't get too hot at all. Soon we'll be running 375, I hope you're right...

Kerosene is good and bad. It smells like shit and you'll need to move it IMMEDIATELY after you extinguish the flame. But it uses no electricity and it's very portable.

Insulation? Helps, but don't count on your room staying "right" for over twelve hours. That is, if you practice twice a week, like we do, you'll need to remember to heat up early (electric is fine for this, maybe 3 hours beforehand) and if it's an independent structure, you'll probably want an auto-heater. Ours features "FreezeGuard," something that's supposed to keep our room from ever freezing.

I'm undecided on the humidity deal. Our heater also features a humidifier, which can help to make the room seem warmer. I'm tempted to say, "Look, cut that out," but you see them in serious studios on occasion (the humidifier, that is). We also have a DEhumidifier, so after practice, that gets turned on.

Wax On Wax Off. Anybody?