Using Guitar Wall Hangers In Your Studio

D

Doctor Varney

Cave dwelling Luddite
I notice many of you have your guitars hanging on the walls, so it seems like standard practice. I have a small collection of my own hanging in the place where I record and when I make noise, the acoustic likes to join in with a bit of reverberation of it's own. I'm not sure it affects my recordings badly at present as I use a directional/ dynamic mic but the potential might be there if I got myself a more sensitive mic in future. Was wondering if anyone else experiences issues with hanging guitars? Or guitars lying around the place in general.

Regards

Dr. V
 
I had guitars and basses hanging near where I record vocals, so I move them around a corner on a wall away from the area. I'm sure string vibration adds to any unsavory sounds you're room may have.
 
I have all my guitars on hangers....and it's a decent number...all around the studio.

With the acoustic/semi-acoustic guitars I take a small piece of foam....about the size of your finger....and I slide that in-between the strings and the body or the pickup...etc....wherever it will fit snugly against the strings and stop them from vibrating, and also help to deaden the body resonance.

That way...when I am doing vocals or whatever near the guitars, there is little or no sympathetic vibration coming from them, though honeslty, your mic would have to be up pretty high to pick that stuff up.

Drum kits are much worse, so I do similar deadening of the drum heads and cover the cymbals with a towel of my studio kit when it's not being recorded...because a full drum kit just sitting there can really give off a big reverberation from sounds in the studio.
 
miroslav said:
With the acoustic/semi-acoustic guitars I take a small piece of foam....about the size of your finger....and I slide that in-between the strings and the body or the pickup...etc....wherever it will fit snugly against the strings and stop them from vibrating, and also help to deaden the body resonance.
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+1 to that.
 
miroslav said:
I have all my guitars on hangers....and it's a decent number...all around the studio.

With the acoustic/semi-acoustic guitars I take a small piece of foam....about the size of your finger....and I slide that in-between the strings and the body or the pickup...etc....wherever it will fit snugly against the strings and stop them from vibrating, and also help to deaden the body resonance.

That way...when I am doing vocals or whatever near the guitars, there is little or no sympathetic vibration coming from them, though honeslty, your mic would have to be up pretty high to pick that stuff up.

Drum kits are much worse, so I do similar deadening of the drum heads and cover the cymbals with a towel of my studio kit when it's not being recorded...because a full drum kit just sitting there can really give off a big reverberation from sounds in the studio.
Click to expand...


I had an acoustic guitar hanging as well and I noticed an EQ change just from the hole in the acoustic. I think there may be a bit of an issue besides the vibrating strings on an acoustic.
 
I have several hanging up in my studio area and noticed the resonant ringing last year.

I folded up a small (4"x6") notepad paper into a strip about 1/2" wide and strung it through the strings over the sound hole. Problem solved at zero cost.
 
miroslav said:
Can you be more specifc....what/where was the EQ change...?
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It's hard to explain; there was a time I didn't have any strings on an acoustic hanging on the wall about 3-4' behind me. I have heard after a somewhat loud vocal passage, a resonating sound coming from the hole in the acoustic. A reverberating vocal gathered in the acoustic and changed timbre. I don't know how much of that would be picked up by a mic, but I'm sure it will add to a collective room sound.
 
I throw a blanket over my drum kit, & I don't worry about the gtr's.

Though I do wonder what it would sound like with a mic up close to an acoustic guitar giving off sympathetic reverb? maybe 2 in stereo?
 
I had the joys of recording a mates bands EP in their attic come practice room come music room come general store room a couple of years back. The room was full to the brim with guitars and basses (some playable, some in varying states of repair) of which some were hanging on this weird tree shape guitar stand whilst the others were just floating around, 3 drum kits (1 set up, 2 stacked under this weird overhang where there was also a collection of working and broken amps and a shonky PA), and some steel drums; the room almost sang back at you when you played anything in it! I thought it was ace (it was like some kind of Aladdin's cave of musical instruments) but for recording it was....well.....less than ideal. in the end we dampened as much stuff as we could and then, when we'd run of blankets/tea towels/t-shirts and anything else we could find to dampen stuff with, we just started moving stuff into other rooms in the house.... there is something quite beautiful about seeing an acoustic guitar, a steel drum, a kick drum, a couple of toms and a snare in a bath tub :D
 
ibleedburgundy said:
Guitars should be stored in their cases. Strings corrode faster when they are left out.
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Maybe where you live....but I've not seen that at all, and some of my guitars have been hanging with the same set for stings for months and months, because I just don't play them as often as others...and I'm not one of those guys who changes strings every few days...or hours. I go weeks and weeks without changing them, and I NEVER seen corrosion.

Mostly that happens to people who have sweaty hands that are on either extreme end of the pH scale....or if you live near the ocean or very humid climates.
 
Back several many years agowhen Guitar Player magazine had a regular recording section (cassette portastudio & such) there was an interesting diagram & tip about hooking up a semi acoustic guitar to the machine whilst it stood in front of a speaker playing tracks from a recording session so that the string'd respond to the sound and generate some interesting sounds for the recording.
I had an upright piano in my recording room for almost a decade and whilst the strings were dampened by the key pads the 'box" would pick up some sounds/notes in the room and resonate.
I think I saved the pages. I'll scan & post if I can find them.
 
GtrHRsupp.jpg
I had a few details wrong - Guitar magazine, Home Recording suppliment and it would have been the very late 90's as I stopped buying it when I no longer walked by a newsagent on the way to work. The Digitech Vocalist Performer and the Roland VS-880 Xpanded were advertised in the suppliment so that should help narrow the timeframe.
 
miroslav said:
Maybe where you live....but I've not seen that at all, and some of my guitars have been hanging with the same set for stings for months and months, because I just don't play them as often as others...and I'm not one of those guys who changes strings every few days...or hours. I go weeks and weeks without changing them, and I NEVER seen corrosion.

Mostly that happens to people who have sweaty hands that are on either extreme end of the pH scale....or if you live near the ocean or very humid climates.
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It can be quite humid here in Northern Virginia.
 
ibleedburgundy said:
Guitars should be stored in their cases. Strings corrode faster when they are left out.
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I was going to mention that too...I've always heard from *good and knowledgeable* guitar techs that it is best to keep your guitars in cases. I don't fancy myself an avid guitar player,but I do own an electric, and acoustic and a bass. While it would be nice to have them out and hanging simply for aesthetic, I'd worry that I since I don't play them much (hence doesn't change the strings much) that the wood and strings of the guitar would just deteriorate or age faster. Especially in a basement studio. So for a guy like me who rarely plays, I guess it's probably best keeping in cases, eh? My only issue is that having them in cases takes away from visual appeal, but a guitar in a case on the floor or leaning on a wall takes up space! Especially 3 or more of them!
 
And that's pretty much what I was always told.
"Keep yer guits in da case."

But I'm not sure if that had to do with living in Montana and now Nevada cuz of the extreme temp differences or the humidity (or lack of)
???

I dunno but I figgers they're probably a bit smarter than me so I just keep mine in cases.
 
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