Chet's studio floor

[BillB]

Cool pictures! There are some things in there that a person could think about for a home studio.

On another note, I wonder if that solid-body is Chet's Peaver leaning against the wall in the first pic.

Bill B.

[Mike Nye]

YES . . . The flooring appears to be charcoal or black indoor/outdoor carpeting . . .

[Norm]

Paul used to tell about how Chet was always changing things around looking for something different.

On his "Workshop" album it looks like he may have had a light colored vinyl floor of some kind. He lived in that house a long time and I'm sure he renovated the recording area more than once over the years.

John Knowles would certainly know.

[guitarchuck]

On another note, I wonder if that solid-body is Chet's Peaver leaning against the wall in the first pic.

Bill B.

It looks like it probably is the Peaver to me Bill. Here's a photo from Chet's control room that Claes Neeb sent me. You can see the Peaver hanging on the wall back behind Chet. Pat Bergeson told me that the Peaver hung on the wall in Chet's control room. When I got the Peaver, I asked Paul Yandell if it ever had a case. Paul said it didn't have a case since Chet used it in the studio. Paul said that Chet probably used a gig bag the few times that he used the guitar in public.

[Norm]

http://tinyurl.com/7hydnf8

Earlier days, apparently before the dark carpeting. Hard walls, too...
I do know he constantly upgraded his hardware in the recording area so he probably redid the walls and flooring too.

So when inquiring about Chet's room textures you'd have to ask yourself 'when?' too...

[Mike Nye]

If you want the SAME EXACT acoustic wall panels, go to Staples, cuz they're nothing more than one-sided office cubicle privacy division panels . . .

[John Knowles]

As I recall, the floor is Chet's studio was like an indoor/outdoor carpet. The room overall was pretty dead. When Chet recorded my classical, he placed the mic at arm's length, out from the 12th fret. In a live room, most engineers would place a mike within inches of my classical. When I look at the photos, I recognize the burlap over padding (probably fiberglass) on the walls.

My spare bedroom has a wood floor and an area rug that covers 2/3 of it. The ceiling is wood and is sloped like the roofline. I bought some rigid-fiberglass panels and some covers so I could move them around in the room. Placing them diagonally in a corner, cuts down on odd bass-note resonance. Placing them flat on a wall, reduces the bounce echo. (Stand in the middle of your room and clap.) The next variable is where you sit or where you place your amp. I learned a lot by moving things around and listening/recording. I spent several hundred bucks and I can move everything to my son's house where he records demos.

Recently, I've been recording my Quarterly CDs with a single condenser mic and letting the room add a little life. I want my playing and talking to sound natural... like I stopped by your house to play a few tunes.

John

[John Knowles]

As I wrote about Chet's studio, I thought about my recent experience of recording "All I Want For Christmas" with Tommy Emmanuel. Our engineer/co-producer Kim Person placed Tommy and I in two different rooms. Tommy's room was smaller than Chet's studio and on the dead side. Kim placed the mics pretty close to Tommy. My room was larger than Tommy's but still smaller than Chet's and it was pretty live. Kim placed a vintage stereo mic above me and far enough out that I couldn't touch it. This gave Tommy and me two, distinct sounds. Tommy... close-mics on acoustic in a smaller, deader room. Me... distant mic on classical in a larger, livelier room. On "Jingle Bells," Kim moved me to Tommy's chair so I could overdub my solo in Tommy's acoustic space.

A lot of you have heard Tommy and I play acoustically... alone and together at CAAS. You could probably hear some of these differences on the album. It's easier to make subtle observations on the CD vs. an mp3.

And if you don't have the CD, you can get it at http://www.johnknowles.com