The Steel Guitar Forum

With all your gear (and yourself) on stage, how much floor space do you usually take up? 6x6? 8x8? I'm trying to figger out if the room I've reserved for a jam session will be big enough. I've got 1000 square feet of floor space and 14 steelers. Some of the floor space is occupied by assorted cabinets, stowed tables and chairs (maybe 100 square feet is lost to these). That leaves 900 square feet. If I allot 7x7 to each steeler, that leaves about a 14x14 common area in the middle for foot traffic 'n' stuff. If that's too tight, I need to work on getting a bigger room. (Soon.)

So how much room do you need to set up?

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<font size=-1>Bill L | My steel page | Email | My music | Steeler birthdays | Over 50?</font>

Not much, probably 7 x 7 is a good estimate.

What are the physical dimensions of the room you have? How does it compare to where I used to have the jams?

I will talk to my daughter's dance teacher about maybe using her studio. I think she has lessons on Saturdays though. Her big room could probably hold 30 steelers if we crammed.

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Carter D10 9p/10k
Richard Sinkler

I can routinely fit in a space 3' x 4.5' quite comfortably with steel, packseat, and amp. Steel and packseat fit in a 3' x 3' space themselves, how far back the amp sits determines the remaining distance.

Racks and extra speaker cabinets of course add to the dimensions, but my bare minimum is 3 x 4.5.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

I'm very comfortable in a space that's 5 feet wide and 7 feet deep. I can get tighter if need be, down to 3.5 x 4. Sorta hard to get in and out, though.

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<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic) Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)

3 1/2 wide by 6 deep does it for me. One steel, one amp, and a little "breathin' room" for the sound! On some gigs, I've had to sit on the amp...not the preferred way of doin' things, though.

Richard,

The room I have reserved right now is 37x27. That's just about 1,000 square feet. It has other stuff in it (as mentioned above) which will take up about 100 square feet. My guess is that 14 steelers would fit, but that would be cozy especially if the number grows. Plus we need room for guests and space for people to walk around, and fit in a PA system or two. I'm looking into an option of getting adjoining classrooms instead with a total of 2,000 square feet, which would be more than enough. I think the bigger room would be better to (a) make sure there's no doubt about accommodating all players, gear, and guests, and (b) the acoustics would be better. Your old shop was great because there was room to spill out toward the rear if needed, and the combination of those milling machines sitting around plus the insulated ceiling made for good acoustics (the machinery actually broke up the sound and prevented echos). I should know in a day or so if we can get the 2-room combination. If not, I think we'll fit into the one room, but we'll need to squeeze a bit. I hope the 2-room combo works out.... we have people coming all the way from Southern California and maybe even from Texas, and I want to do this right!

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<font size=-1>Bill L | My steel page | Email | My music | Steeler birthdays | Over 50?</font>

The 2-room, 2,000 square foot combination came through! No more question about space. We're all set. Still, it is nice to know how much acreage the average steeler uses. Now I know the rest of the story.

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<font size=-1>Bill L | My steel page | Email | My music | Steeler birthdays | Over 50?</font>

Bill, does this mean that we'll have two simultaneous jams going - one in each room?


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<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (Emaj9, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic) Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)

b0b, the rooms have one of those big, retractable folding separators which I planned on having opened up. That makes for one, big, undivided room. The idea of parallel jams did cross my mind, and I think we can explore that perhaps for future sessions. One possibility would be a split between greenhorns and pros, but that might deny greenies like me from looking on at how it's supposed to be done. Keeping ability levels mixed up 'evenly' in two separate jam rooms would allow for more learning and sharing. And smaller groups would provide more playing opportinities in the round-robin scheme. Coordinated breaks would allow for all to socialize. There may be drawbacks or objections to a split jam which I haven't anticipated, however. I'm open to discussion! But at least for now, I'm expecting the 8/3 jam to be one big hullaballo.

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<font size=-1>Bill L | My steel page | Email | My music | Steeler birthdays | Over 50?</font>