Guitar rooms with carpet or no carpet?

[Mulesoldier]

When setting up a space for a guitar room in my case 10x14 with 8 foot ceiling which would be better having carpet or no carpet?

 

[paintguy]

I have carpet in mine but my guess is acoustically it would be better without carpet.

 

[elron hoover]

I prefer a Persian rug... for acoustics.

 

[Charlie_Pace]

No carpet!

 

[omfg51]

What, no Big Lebowski reference??

 

[mtperry85]

Acoustic engineers have told me that unless carpet is very thick and shaggy it has almost no absorbent properties... but it is still better than concrete or hardwood.

 

[=JL=]

Acoustic engineers have told me that unless carpet is very thick and shaggy it has almost no absorbent properties... but it is still better than concrete or hardwood.

For recording yes, but playing guitar just for pleasure is always more fun in a lively room than a dead one, especially with a non-reverb amp.

 

[techjunky]

For recording yes, but playing guitar just for pleasure is always more fun in a lively room than a dead one, especially with a non-reverb amp.

My guitar room has thick, shaggy carpet, but I just play for pleasure. I have to use reverb the majority of the time to liven up the sound. Sounds stale otherwise usually unless I'm using multiple effects.

 

[Jordan63]

No carpet. You can always add area rugs if needed and put acoustic treatment on walls. The difference from playing an acoustic in my carpeted basement to upstairs on hardwoods is night and day. It sounds sooo much better with the hardwoods adding some reflections, sounds much more dead with the carpet. I don't notice as much as difference with electric, but there is a reason you don't typically see recording studios with carpeted floors.

 

[Luke]

In a properly treated room all surfaces have hard and soft attributes. On the hard floor you usually see area rugs here and there.

 

[pbmw]

Mine has hardwood and a Tibetan rug.
My studio is carpeted.
The Studio is 1200 sq ft with a smallish control room
My music room upstairs is about 10 x 14

 

[buddastrat]

In the 8X10' room I gave guitar lessons for years, I put carpet all the way up the walls. I did it just for the look. I loved what it did for the sound compared to before. Very warm sound and focused/present. Could hear everything and it sounded rich, even the tinny solid state amp suddenly had a nice thicker tone.

In clubs, I loved when we played bars with lots of wood. Hated, no HATED the ones with mirrors or bricks.

 

[TDJMB]

It took years for me to realize my carpeted room sounds awful. I've been investigating this because I want the room to sound good for recording but also just for playing. Go read everything at www.realtraps.com. And then Ethan Winer's comments on gearslutz.com about flooring. Everyone in that thread seems to say carpet absorbs enough high frequencies to throw things off and what you really need is bass trapping. They recommend a hard surface for the flooring (they like concrete but say it doesn't make much difference as long as it's a hard surface) and then acoustic treatment for bass trapping & controlling reflections.

 

[Ron Kirn]

Consider... the more "soft" Walls. floor, ceiling. etc. the more anechoic the room becomes... much like a recording studio.. what that translates into is the room can no longer skew the sound as it bounces off hard walls and floors... resulting in a more articulate, clear sound...

More times than not, the problems "you" have with sound when giggin' is due to the poor acoustics on the room you're in.... often a converted what ever with hardwood paneling. vinyl tile floors, and not much for a celling... the exact opposite of a recording studio..

so.. yeah, carpet on the floor, and anything else you can find...

Ron Kirn