Sting mutes: yay or nay?

[basstriaxis]

Let's hear your opinion: are mutes useful, or only for pansies?

I'm sort of a pansy. I took the mute that comes with the Warr (I think it's the material used for keeping rugs on the floor), and cut in half. It keeps the strings from ringing, but doesn't kill the open notes.

[rockola]

Depends on your style of playing. I've installed another mute on the melody side of my ADG to make sure the open strings don't ring.

[vsteele]

Pansy here!!!!

V

[traktor]

I use the mute, for I don't use open strings at all, and want to kill the dead strings. I cut the mute so as to be just able to play the note at fret one.

(ie: if it's too hard to sound the notes at fret one, then make the mute less wide. If the strings ring too much, make the mute wider.)

The material can be found in any hardware store as "shelf liner", though I understand it is also used under rugs and in other places. Someday perhaps hardware stores will sell smaller packages of the same stuff, labeled 'tapping instrument string mute material.'

[Freaky]

Well, I have no other choice but to use a mute, since I can't afford a Chapman Stick or a Warr, but when I did try out a Stick, I preferred it with the mute on.

[rockola]

I have no other choice but to use a mute, since I can't afford a Chapman Stick or a Warr

Not so. For instance, Jesús Auñon taps just fine on his PRS without a mute of any kind. We really should get him to do an MP3 for the benefit of those poor souls who don't have either of his CDs...

[Freaky]

Originally posted by rockola
Not so. For instance, Jesús Auñon taps just fine on his PRS without a mute of any kind. We really should get him to do an MP3 for the benefit of those poor souls who don't have either of his CDs...


Yes, but my bass's neck isn't the best in the world, and neither is my technique, so I prefer to use a mute.