My music new music room-

[Joe Gall]

I've mentioned this in a couple of other threads but I thought I would start my own thread to show the progress of our bar/saloon/music room that we are creating in our home.

I am incredibly fortunate to have a supportive wife who not only support this hobby but also plays bass and enjoys the hobby as much as myself. She is right there with me helping to create this room, swinging hammers etc. doing what she can to help. In addition, our 14 y/o Son is also right there along with us helping all the way as he does all the cutting as I can no longer do this due to my vision issues.

Anyway, here are several pics of the room that we are working on:

Here is what we started with:








Turning the closet into a bar:










Playing some music:








Now the stage is being built as of tonight:






The stage is 6'x21' and the one end has a full 4'x8' on the "L" part of the stage for the drummer. We are currently installing a 3" PVC pipe coming down the wall from the PA head down under the stage to the front of the stage to all the mic cables etc. can run under the stage.

Also all the outlets on the wall behind the stage have been wired on their own breaker and also with a ground lift so there is NO hum/buzz in the PA and or amps whatsoever! In addition, there will be 4 outlets in the floor along the front edge of the stage for the guys who use effects/pedal boards etc. and need to power them. Therefore there will be NO wires, cables, power supplies running all over the stage every time we jam!

[Joe Gall]

Oh yeah, there will be full length swinging doors coming into the saloon from the kitchen. There will also be a flashing neon sign (of some sort) soon as I can find one on craigslist for a decent price. Then there will be 4 bar stools at the bar once it's complete. Then there will be (3), three person bar height tables with chairs around the outside the perimeter of the room along the walls. Then there is the large table in the middle that seats 6 now. So all in all we will have a decent set up once it's all done. I am also currently looking for a pool table light to hang over that table in the middle of the room. Something like a Budweiser light with the horses above it etc. I am watching craigslist for that as well...

[Ken Lang]

Congrats on building that music room and the stage. I know how hard that is. It looks great so far. Can't wait till it's done.

[Mike Neer]

At least you have your priorities straight: music room and bar! And you don't even have to leave the house.

[Joe Gall]

Thanks guys, I am quite excited as you can imagine. We have hosted a couple of jams already and the room has been a hit. Now it should be even better yet!

[Joe Gall]

At least you have your priorities straight: music room and bar! And you don't even have to leave the house.

[Barry Blackwood]

I'm still trying to figure out why there is a ceiling fan way over in the corner of the room ... Other than that, nice job.

[Joe Gall]

I'm still trying to figure out why there is a ceiling fan way over in the corner of the room ... Other than that, nice job.

LOL They were already there when we bought the house. They are in each of the three corners of the room. Not sure why either. However, they are actually not bad as they are at each end of the stage and move some air when these guys get cookin on stage! LOL

[Joe Gall]

Also, the pics don't do the room any justice. The room is much larger than it looks in the pics and the fans are not really into the corners as much as they look. Hard to get a decent perspective of this room with my camera for some reason...

[Joe Gall]

Carpet goes down tomorrow and outlet covers as well. My wife is making a valence for over the windows with material that is white with black music notes. Then the curtains will go and just put up wide slat blinds and that's it.

The 3/4" plywood really did the trick. The stage is rock SOLID! ALL of the materials were donated by our local builder's supply place here in town. The owner will be our house drummer for our Saturday night jams as well.

We put a 3" PVC pipe under the stage that dumps out in front of the stage and runs up the wall under the PA head. We ran all of the mic cables and speaker cables through it and also left a heavy cord hanging out of both ends for future pulls...

Then as mentioned the full length swinging doors and a flashing neon sign needs to go somewhere and we will be in business.

[Joe Gall]

Update:

Only one thing left to do, rope lights along the front edge of the stage which we are doing now...





The gentleman who donated the lumber for the stage is also donating a complete set of acoustic drums with a full set of Zildjian cymbals and two more mics with stands and cords. So we should be all set for our jam this coming Saturday!

You might recognize the carpet. This is commercial grade indoor/outdoor used in all the new Walmart Stores being built here in FL. I know the guy who has the contract installing their carpet for them. He sells the cut offs which are sometimes huge. I bought two 12'x25' for $75 each three years ago and have had them rolled up ever since! LOL

[Roger Kelly]

Joe, I've played a lot of gigs in places that didn't have as good a stage/setup as you have. You have done a bang-up job buddy! Oh yes, don't let the Bass player stand too close to the Bar.

[Joe Gall]

Thanks so much for the kind words. It's all thanks to my wonderful wife and son who are ready and willing to help me make this all happen. Everything thus far has been on a major shoe string budget as well. Then to top it off a great friend whom I have recently met donating the lumber for the stage as well.

So I can not complain that's for sure!

[Joe Gall]

The drummer is the one who has it made! Never has to get up to get a drink!! LOL

[Joe Gall]

I will also say this, since I bought this Cavin PA system off Craigslist a couple of years back, I will never own anything but! Man does this system ROCK! It has FOUR separate, 300 watt amps, then each has it own 7 band EQ, TWO separate monitor sends and the list goes on and on. And we push everything through just the two Carvin floor monitors with the two small HotSpot stage monitors and the sound volume and quality we get from this system is just amazing.

My Dad then sent me a 15" Carvin bass speaker to replace the original Fender speaker in the Fender BXR 300C bass amp I have. Again, that 15" Carvin bass speaker just absolutely ROCKS!

I must say I am sold on their PA/speaker equipment as I have owned and or used just about everything over the years but this stuff just blows my mind every time!

Just thought I'd through that out there if anyone is looking for a nice used PA system you might want to check them out...

[Leslie Ehrlich]

That's a great idea for someone who has the space and doesn't want to struggle chasing after what's left of the bar gigs that are out there. You've created your own venue and you can play whatever music you want to play.

[Joe Gall]

That's a great idea for someone who has the space and doesn't want to struggle chasing after what's left of the bar gigs that are out there. You've created your own venue and you can play whatever music you want to play.

Exactly the plan. We will be jamming on the 1st & 3rd Saturday of each month going forward beginning this coming Saturday. We had 26 people here at the last one 7 musicians and 19 non, plenty of food and drink and lots of fun! The guys have been calling and musicians whom I have never even met have called asking if they can come, asking for info, directions etc.

So all in all I believe we are creating something that should be fun for everyone and something that people will look forward too etc. My folks have been doing this exact same thing in their basement for over 25 years now and still going strong! Carrying on a family tradition you might say...

[Joe Gall]

Well, the stage was a hit last night at the jam with all the guests and all the musicians! We had a blast last night. We played everything from Your Cheatin Heart to They Call Me The Breeze! We even web casted our jam live over my parent's website as they web cast their jams every other Saturday night and last night was their off weekend so we used their site.

A few pics:

[Joe Gall]

We have been working on finishing the bar. Our 14 y/o son has been doing all of the cutting of all the trim since we bought this house as I can no longer cut with the chop saw due to my vision loss. Prior to moving into this house this kid had never used a measuring tape, chop saw, nail gun etc. He has learned so much and has been my right hand throughout this entire house project!

This old closet no longer looks like a closet:

[Joe Gall]

We can seat 20 people now and last night we exactly that. We had a total of 7 musicians (well, 6 and one wannabe). We started at 7pm and plated non stop until 12am and never once took a break! We had food, drinks and music and lots of laughs. What more can anyone ask for?

I am so blessed!

[Michael Wolfe]

This is too cool for words.

[Joe Gall]

This is too cool for words.

LOL Thanks! We really enjoyed our music room last night I can tell you that! As did everyone else who was in attendance. Our friends had a lot of nice comments about the room.

Our friends who watched our first live web cast thought it was pretty cool. I have to get a better HD camera, better lighting over the stage (LED lights instead of the rope lights (this is what my Dad did and it solved the lighting problem) and I need to relocate the USB mic further away from the stage to get cleaner sound for the web cast. Then we should be good to go!

[Joe Gall]

The gutted Peavey Deuce amp carcase in the bay window will soon have a neon light installed in front of the grill. I am going to move the speaker grill back in further (deeper) inside the cabinet then mount a neon light like a "Bud Light" sign inside the amp (in front of the grill clothe). Then make a wood piece to go across where the chassis would be, paint it black with a flip switch to turn the neon sign on/off with a red jewel red light. Then mount this on the wall, it will be an amp shadow box/neon sign combo and should look pretty cool when it's all done and on the wall. I'll post pics of it when it's all done and mounted. I've already got an order for two of them and I don't even have the first one done!

[Joe Gall]

Just have to love Craigslist, bar stools from an Eagles Club who says they were buying new one because the legs were getting rusty. Well, we get them home and spray them all down with a commercial grade Orange Cutter cleaner.

Well the gross yellow "rusty legs" weren't rusty! They were stained with NICOTINE! We sprayed the chairs down with this cleaner and forgot about them. Went to the store and left them all out in the misty light rain for hours. Well good thing we did, because it gave the orange cutter stuff time to cut through years of cigarette smoke on the chrome legs and vinyl etc. Then we took a full bucket of water and a hand broom and used the hand broom with the water to clean off the orange cleaner. We had to change the water for EACH chair because the water was completely dark brown like mud within seconds of each chair! All I can say is this orange cleaner stuff is AMAZING! It took that stuff off the legs like it was nothing! Not too mention the guy told us that they tried to clean these chairs up the best they could and the "rust" didn't want to come off!

I have NEVER ONCE ever tried a cigarette in my entire 43 years of life, I can't even imagine. I don't mean to offend anyone who smokes, but if I lived to be 1,000 years old, it's the one thing in life that I will never understand!

[Joe Gall]

The chairs from the Eagles club with the "rusty legs" were a Craigslist score at $10 each and the tall, small round bar tables were another Craigslist score from a monastery that was closed down, $20 each!

Now I am searching for an old time pool table light that used to see in bars like a Budweiser style etc. to hang over the large rectangular table right in the middle of the room. That will really look nice and add to the whole theme.

Then also the full length swinging doors coming into the room from the kitchen will look pretty cool as well!