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GALLERY: Show Us Your Gear - Practice and Recording Spaces

See where Premier Guitar readers practice, record, and jam


"Greg Papakostas describes his recording space as, ""nothing fancy--I'm a dad on a tight budget."" The Squier on the right is his son's first guitar."
Todd Nemphos' Jam Basement"Todd Nemphos jams in his friend's basement, lovingly nicknamed ""Asbestos Hill Studios."" He explains, ""It's a rotating cast of characters and we always have a good time!"" The group refers to themselves as ""The Cellar Dwellers,"" and ""The Rusty Pipes."" He notes that they haven't worked the washboard in the third picture into their music -- yet!"
James Regan's Other Studio"James Regan of the Deadlies also shared a very different studio -- the TV studio where his band films ""Creepy KOFY Movietime,"" a show that airs in the San Francisco Bay Area. He describes his rig for the show, ""Dr. Z's Carmen Ghia and Z 28, Jason Keeley's custom neon green cases, a '64 Strat and a Burny Les Paul with Floyd and Sustainer, as well as Bob '70s P-Bass. On top of my amps is my Furman Power Conditioner which goes with me everywhere!"" Inset is a photo of James with Bryan Kehoe from Jim Dunlop and the Kehoe Nation."
James Dunham's Practice Space 2"In this photo, James Dunham describes the rest of the gear as ""a mixture of equipment that's been pieced together over the years."" This includes Peavey speakers, Yamaha and QSC power amps, and a Yamaha mixer."
Ron Johnson's TRaSh '80s Practice Home"Ron Johnson shared this photo of his drummer's basement where his band, TRaSh '80s, practices. Ron explains, ""His house, garage and basement is a museum of drum history. Randy Rainwater is the drummer and he has well over a 100 complete drum sets and vintage snares that date back to the civil war era. Randy is also a Zombie fan and his practice space consists of many Zombie parts, toys and even autographed pics of the zombies from ""Night of the Living Dead."" The Ludwig image on the wall is signed by ""The Chief"" himself, William Ludwig Jr. There are also Gene Krupa autographs, Kenny Aronoff, Carmine Appice, The Romantics and loads of Cheap Trick stuff along with vintage guitars. Oh yeah Ren & Stimpy are there too. Pretty cool and historic place to practice. Pictured: guitarist Mark Loy, drummer Randy Rainwater, and bassist Ron Johnson."
Lucas Benkenstein's Rehearsal SpaceLucas Benkenstein of the band Mata Moquito sent us this photo of his band's rehearsal space.
Eugene Lee's Practice Space"Eugene Lee sent us photos of his space all the way from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Lee says he's been playing for the last 17 years, teaches guitar, and hopes of getting a record deal soon. ""Excuse the messiness,"" says Lee, who just moved into a new house. Lee's setup includes his main guitar and amp along wth a mixer, acoustic DI, tuner, drum machine, and homemade A/B box."
Joe from Pennsylvania's Gear Room 2"Joe also shared a picture of his guitars: a 55 Fender Esquire Clone, 1984 '57 RI Candy Apple Red Strat, 1984 '57 RI Sunburst strat, Squire Classic Vibe '60's strat, Agile Goldtop Les Paul, and various Fender lap steels."
Daniel Kerwood's Rehearsal Garage"14-year-old Daniel Kerwood got his dad to give up his garage so his band could practice for their gigs, and get his Marshall Plexi out of the house. Wait--Marshall Plexi? Yeah, this young guitarist (who also plays classical, piano, and cello) has quite the rig. ""I have a Mackie 1402-VLZ3 mixing board, and a ProTools interface and software on a Toshiba lap top for recording. My guitar gear includes a Gibson Les Paul, Epiphone Les Paul, Jackson Dinky, Fender Telecaster, Marshall Plexi 1987X head with a 4x12 vintage 1960 cabinet, Dr Z Air Brake, Mesa Lone Star Special, Fender Pro Junior tweed, Dunlop Wah, Keeley-modified Tube Screamer, Boss Metal Core ML-2, and a Way Huge Fat Sandwich on a BOSS BCB-60 pedal board."" says Kerwood. ""The rest of my practice space includes a Pearl five-piece drum set, a Yamaha 88-key piano with a Roland KC-150, a Takamine EG334RC acoustic/electric, a Takamine classical guitar, and a German-made cello from the 1950s."" Will your parents adopt us?"
Frank Sicilliano's Home Studio"Frank Sicilliano shared a photo of his old studio space in Scottsdale. He recently moved, and has yet to re-set it up but is looking forward to it."
Todd's Home Studio"Todd calls his home studio, ""basically a big overgrown Mac system."" He describes his rig as, ""some electric guitars + basses + guitar synth + mesa boogie+lexicon+tc electronic+roland+all kinds of stuff."" He also has a line down to the downstairs where acoustic drums and percussion and keyboard synths are mic'd and routed upstairs. "
Eugene Ames' Midnight Jam Space"With a wife and two kids, explains Eugene Ames, ""I do most of my practice around 11 p.m. It needs to sound good and it needs to be quiet."" "
Gary Lear Rehearsal"Another one of our one of our readers lucky enough to have professional studio space is Nashville recording artist Gary Lear, who sent in this photo of him rehearsing at Soundcheck in Nashville."
Nial McGaughey's Recording/Writing AreaNial McGaughey of Solid Cables sent us this photo of his personal recording and writing area where he also tests prototypes for the company.
Jason Lisle's Practice Room"Jason says, ""My practice room in my basement is where I spend most of my time. Currently out is my 2001 Taylor 314ce, 2006 Eric Johnson Strat, and a 1968 Gibson EB-0 bass. The amps shown are a Budda Superdrive 30 II with a Budda 2x12 cab, Vox Night Train with an Avatar 1x12 cab, Vox AD-30VT, SWR Workingmans 2x10c, Silvertone 1472, and an Earth Sound Research Concertmaster with a Carvin 2x10 cab. Also shown is my current Pedaltrain board configuration with a Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde, Keeley Blues Driver, MXR Dynacomp, Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe, Vox V847, Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Electric Mistress, Loop-Master A/B box, MXR Carbon Copy, Boss CH-1, and finally a Korg Pitchblack."""
Cameron Mizell's Practice Space"Cameron says his practice space is squeezed into a corner in his tiny Brooklyn apartment, but is quick to point out that it's ""complete with a cubby hole for my cat under the guitar stand."" "
Dave Cooley's Recording Space 2"The other half of Dave's ""inner sanctum"" includes all of his guitars, and has since added a drum kit. Dave keeps his acoustic guitars in case when they're not in use because he lives in Phoenix where the humidity is near non-existent."
Andre Gluharev's Practice Space"Andre Gluharev sent photos all the way from Kiev, Ukraine where his band JINN is from."
Ross Hatcher's Practice and Recording Room
Dave Gonsalves' Outside-the-Box Rig"Perhaps the oddest practice setup comes from Dave Gonsalves, who explains that he wouldn't let a dead amp stop his jamming. ""I recalled seeing an input jack on my old Kimball organ,"" says Gonsalves. ""Sure enough, it worked!"" The rig consists of an MJ Guitar Engineering Roadster Jr., DigiTech RP255, and Kimball EP12."
Joe from Pennsylvania's Gear Room"Joe's amp wall includes a Hiwatt Mini Stack, '77 Fender Champ, Super Champ XD, '74 Princeton Reverb, Mission Amps Tweed Deluxe, Hiwatt DC40, Sound City 50 plus, and two WEM 2X15 cabs. The effects are a '76 Dynacomp, SUF Civil War mig muff, Boss BD-2, Barge Concepts VBjr, Boss CE-2, MXR Carbon Copy, Boss DD-2."
Lance Allyn's Home Studio"Lance Allyn says of his home studio, ""Most of my sessions are done in pro studios, but I do have a Mac and a Zoom 1608 recorder here for working out parts or recording smaller projects."" He adds, ""I have nice drums, cymbals and percussion, a PA system, as well as bass rigs and synths, in addition to my guitar arsenal of axes, amps, and effects."""
Michael Cannon's Blues Guitar Man Cave"Michael Cannon describes his man cave and rig, saying ""Far right I have a Fender 60th Anniversary Reissue Stratocaster used with a Fender '59 Bassman Reissue 4x10s and a Fender Deluxe 60th Anniversary Reissue 1x12. The key to this amp is to change the three 12AX7s to 12AX7ms--what a big difference it makes. The next guitar to the left is a Buddy Guy with Lace pickups. I had put on Dunlop 6100 frets that gives my playing a lighter touch, it's a great live guitar. I like to match guitars with amps, I think that's important. I use very little pedals, and when I do, they're always true bypass. I like the sound that just the guitar, the amp, and my hands give."""
James Dunham's Practice Space"James Dunham and his Oklahoma band nighTTrain practice at Dunham's house in a converted garage. ""I've been playing guitar for over 30 years and love classic hard rock,"" Dunham says. His rig is shown in this first picture, a 1960 Gibson Les Paul Classic and a 1985 Marshall JCM 800 2210."
Dredge's Practice Space"RoadDog from the band Dredge from Dubuque, IA shared this shot of the band's practice in the basement."
Daren Whitehorn's Practice Space"Daren Whitehorn shared this picture of her practice space, where she basks under the glow of a neon guitar, plus some other cool guitar wall art."
Teel Merrick's Polk Street Studios"Teel Merrick is one of our lucky readers to records and jams in a real-deal studio. He explains, ""This space was opened to provide a vibey space for local players to come and hang out and record."" Merrick uses the space for rehearsal with his band from church."
Andrew Johnson of Mike's Music 2
Daniel Zelonky's National Recording Studio"Another lucky reader with a real-deal studio is Daniel Zelonky of National Recording in Milwaukee, WI. He says ""While we can't afford to have every kind of amp on hand, we're trying!"" The amps pictured are, ""a killer little Pine 6V6 amp made in Canada in the sixties, an Orange Tiny Terror, Magnatone 460, Hilgen, Cordovox Leslie and Marshall 4X12, Fender 1954 Deluxe, Magnatone cabinet, Fender Pro Jr, Marshall JCM 800 combo."" Inset is Joe Chatham tuning up Zelonky's Masterbuilt Tele Thinline in front of a Farfisa Deluxe Combo Compact and a Wurlitzer EP-200a. The building was built in 1870 and Zelonky says, ""the vibes are superb."""
Andrew Johnson of Mike's Music"Andrew Johnson of Mike's Music in Fond du Lac, WI says that ""these two rooms have birthing rights on my last five records. Always a good time."""
Dave Cooley's Recording Space"Dave Cooley keeps his recording space very organized, keeping a flow diagram that he keeps updated as he changes the configuration. He says, ""Voice recording is done through an MXL condenser mic, a tube preamp, a Behringer stereo compressor/expander, into a Boss BR-600 eight track recorder. The electric guitars go through a Digitech RP-500 effects processor, into a Peavey Encore 65 which is mic'd, then into a Behringer mixer, through the other half of the compander, through a bunch of pedals, to the BR-600. Acoustics go direct to the same mixer."" He adds, ""It's really not as complicated as it looks. The clock on the acoustic amp is because I lose track of time while in there."""
Tom Schupbach's Practice Space"Tom Schupbach's practice area was specially built in his basement, fully insulated with 4"" thick walls to keep the noise confined. ""It's normally not this neat!"" says Schupbach. Tom has a Twin Reverb with Boss SE-50 on top, Parker P42 on the stand ready to go, An Epi Les Paul, Epi SG and Strat in the three slot folding holder, music stand and Boss DB-90 metronome (""cursed instrument of torture!"" he says) beside the stand and my pedal board with a Boss TU-2, Vox wah and Boss DS-1 on it. There is an Ibanez AS-73 and an Austin Bass that is just outside the picture. ""My main ax is the Parker,"" he says, ""it's just a P-42, but it plays better than anything else in my collection!"""
James Regan's Rehearsal Space"James Regan of the California band the Deadlies rehearses in a surf shack behind his house. He says, ""I use my trusty Dr. Z Carmen Ghia and my new Swart ATOM that is just amazing. Bob uses his Ampeg Port-flex which out-classes all other bass amps. This is where we worked all the tunes on our new CD, 'Meet the Deadlies.'"""

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Click here to download a printable PDF of this lesson's notation.

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