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Folks,
Because I love my wife and nobody should have to hear my playing, I'd like to try and soundproof my "guitar room" the best I can.
Does anyone have any tips on materials, methods, installation, etc on how I might spare her the ugliness?
Thanks!Last edited by DMgolf66; 01-15-2024 at 01:27 PM. Reason: Bad title
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01-15-2024 11:56 AM
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Sound treatment and sound proofing are very different things.
Sound treatment makes your room sound better but does very little as far as soundproofing goes.
Soundproofing involves either mass or decoupling. Mass like a concrete bunker with a double door, heavy doors. Decoupling as in floating a room inside of a room which is what's done in professional studios.
Both are pretty unpracticable for a home. If you have a basement, you may be able to pull it off without it being really expensive.
But if you just play quietly, like an acoustic guitar, maybe you can have a music room that is isolated from where your wife usually is. A closed door to a hallway which also has a closed door to the rest of the house does decouple quite a bit.
A much easier solution is amp sims and headphones or a practice desktop amp like the THR or the NUX.
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I just don’t plug my guitar in, it’s a lot simpler!
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Thanks, I guess I should've described it as "sound reducing".
Originally Posted by fep
I hate headphones, unfortunately, so was hoping for other options. We don't have a basement.
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Well, yeah, haha. Originally Posted by grahambop
My objections are thus:
* I have a few nice amps and I love the sound of electric archtop. Acoustic playing is ok, but not near preferred.
* I'm a beginner and if I play unplugged, so to speak, it sounds ok, but when I eventually plug in again it sounds like two cats fighting. Sloppy. I want to hear every mistake so that I can learn to play clean.
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You need to make a room inside the room. So you have the existing room, install high density rubber matting along the walls, ceiling and floor. Now, build a new floor suspended from the ceiling this will pull vibration up to the attic instead of down through the floor. Now, drywall the whole thing in leaving a gap between the rubber on the old wall and the back side of your new wall.
Now you need to build a door that seals tightly and is about 8” thick, drywall, insulation, rubber, drywall.
All that’s done, your room is at least 30% smaller, your thousands of dollars and weeks of work into this. You fire up the Marshall and… she can still hear you.
Better to just close the door and focus on your practice. Keep the amp as small as you can, or don’t use one. You won’t get any better chasing tone.
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cheapest and easiest bang for
the buck
is to air seal around the door
…. stick on rubber draught-proofing
on three sides and a draught excluding ‘sausage dog’ along the
bottom of the door
(and practice acoustic)
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Get the amp off the floor, point the speaker at your head, and turn it down.
And then keep practicing until your wife enjoys hearing you play, then you don’t have to worry
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besides soundproofing the room i'd suggest to dampen the archtop with a cloth from f hole to f hole (end on both sides into it) and get a practise amp (or similar) which can switch off the speaker and allows using earphones. If you do this the room won't need so much soundproofing. You write you hate earphones - try open ones if you didn't so far. The "open" Sennheiser HD earphones which are light and comfortable feel very natural.
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There's a reason why they call it WOODSHEDDING.
Best solution, build a shed out back and keep the "work" out there. Seriously. A home is a home. A practice room is a practice room. In a big house, you can provide isolation in space and insulation between spaces, otherwise I'm afraid the integrity of your house will conspire against you.
What makes your house a home: solid structures, are what carries vibration and sound throughout.
I live in a house that has upstairs neighbors. There's a sax player up there. It's like having him in the room every time he runs his scales.
Mattresses on the basement walls, egg cartons nailed to the paneling, boxes in boxes, good luck. When people win Grammys, make a lot of money, they have a house built...around the isolated studio.
It's a tough picture I'm painting here. Believe me, I'm still looking for a solution I can live with.
I practice quietly, amp output goes into a mixer and amplified signal comes to me through headphones or very low volume. Acoustic guitar is not a problem but still not pleasant when I'm working through cycles.
One reality, a home is not a music school. You owe the wife a big vacation far away from any unwanted sounds of work.
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Here’s an important question. Does it bug your wife? If she doesn’t mind, don’t change anything.
I practice 2 hours a night at the kitchen table after the kids go to bed. My wife does her thing and isn’t bothered by me. Unplugged Epiphone Broadway, if I’m learning something I’ll just play it on my phone. I’m not into backing tracks or chasing tone. So you might want something different out of your time.
Back to my original point, does it bug her? If not, do nothing.
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I used a trailer, and then built a room in it. Parked it in the backyard. Given that the climate was moderate (Santa Rosa CA), it was very useful. When I moved to a hotter climate (Fresno CA), I had to add air conditioning. It still worked but not as well.
I had to run the air conditioning before turning on stuff (amps, synths, sampler, mixer, outboard gear), and let things cool. Heat is hard on electric stuff.
When I moved to a small lot, right next to other houses. The trailer became even less useful. That is when I started to use attenuation on amps.
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I don't understand the headphone suggestion for an archtop. It's going to make noise acoustically so headphones are not any quieter than just unplugging. I'd rather hear the acoustic voice and work on getting a good tone than play through headphones, which always sound unnatural and distracting to me.
I wake up every morning at 5 am and I practice very quietly in the morning in the living room without disturbing the household. My trick: grab a strat or tele and plug it in with the amp set low enough that it just blends in a bit with the acoustic sound of the strings. An archtop will always be too loud acoustically for me so I don't play an archtop in the morning. Guess what, a solid body with just a bit of amp blend is a beautiful electric guitar sound and it's a very honest representation of your playing. Your mistakes will be extremely apparent, you won't have the amp to give you extra sustain or even dynamics.
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Consider getting an interface, a computer-based amp sim, and closed-back over-the-ear headphones. Then your wife won't be able to hear you at all if you play a solidbody.
Examples (not exhaustive nor the ne-plus-ultra best, just what I happen to have):
- Interface: FocusRite Scarlett 2i2
- Amp sim: Scuffham S-Gear (both standalone and VST implementations)
- Headphones: Beyer Dynamic DT770 Pro (32ohm for best result with a low-power headphone amp)
- OS: Windows 11 Pro
Additionally I use Gig Performer VST host if I want to go down the rabbit hole of processing my signal or playing with backing tracks. Band-in-a-box and Reaper DAW are next on my list of apps to learn.
I agree provisionally withomphalopsychos' comment about archtops, but like most things, it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. Sometimes amplifying an archtop over headphones for practice is appropriate for quiet practice.
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A private music room would be a dream....and if dreaming might as well toss in unlimited hours to spend in it a day playing. Instead I start my practice around 10:00 pm after my wife goes to bed. It's a struggle but a hobbyist has gotta make the time somehow.
I'm on the same page as Omphalopsychosis. Archtop is usually unplugged, or blended with the amp low enough to get a slightly thicker acoustic sound.... Though played with any commitment and enthusiasm, still can be pretty loud.
The other option is to go fully suppressed: that is a solid body unplugged. Nylon saddles and TI flat 13s on my Les Paul is surprisingly sweet toned. Brain fills in the rest. When the house is absolutely dead quiet, it's a great option as there is no mental inhibition worrying about waking a toddler.
Barring that, at my early stage of development, using quiet time for transcribing, reading and writing is equally valuable as playing.
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Practice on a solid body and use headphones.
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The OP writes: Originally Posted by omphalopsychos
"My objections are thus:
* I have a few nice amps and I love the sound of electric archtop. Acoustic playing is ok, but not near preferred."
Amplification can make the guitar a total "different animal", not only in terms of sound, but also for "touch" and "phrasing".
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Put a white noise machine near your wife.
Then become a noise detective. Have something playing loud in the practice room. Leave that room and close the door.
Then take a mic feeding a DAW so you can see the waveform -- and use that to figure out where any leakage is. Typically around the edge of the door, of course, but sometimes around the frame or below the sill. Weather stripping type stuff maybe made for sound and foam filler if necessary. Not free and not all that easy, but not hugely difficult either.
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Hang some nice persian rugs on the wall ( ideally suspend them about 1" away ) they dampen sound and add a nice vibe .
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The only thing I can suggest is playing through a small amp off the floor barely loud enough to be heard over the acoustic sound of the guitar. I do this with a Roland MicroCube, and it’s only faintly audible outside the room. But if I break out a “real” amp and turn it up enough for the tone to be satisfying, game over. Originally Posted by DMgolf66
I’ve done other things, like surround the amp with pillows or put in a closet when recording, but the sound in the room is not great.
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