That thing that cuts out needless ringy strings

[WhiskeyJack]

What is this thing called?



I am thinking @Lt. Bob or @muttley may have the quick answers here. And i'd like to maybe start looking for some.

given how i play i find that to my ears and with less gain / overdrive my little e and b string have a tendency to ring out with certain ways i strum / fret chords or while i play my shitty leads. I think whatever that thing is could help curb some of that when i don't want it. I am sure it is nothing more than something the guy in the picture above DIY'd, but if there was an actual tool available that did that job I'd probably grab a couple to keep on my everyday guits.

I know some of you may think i don't play daily but i do play even if it's just for 20 mins or something. I just have nothing to show for it lol.

[Lt. Bob]

What is this thing called?



I am thinking @Lt. Bob or @muttley may have the quick answers here.

I dunno but I have seen them used by lots of folks ..... often for 'prepared guitar' stuff.
It's a mute on the nut but i don't think I've ever heard the term 'nut-mute' ...... but I'm afraid to google it ..

seems like it'd be easy to take a velcro cable wrap, glue a little foam to the side meant for the fretboard and use that

[WhiskeyJack]

What is this thing called?



I am thinking @Lt. Bob or @muttley may have the quick answers here.

I dunno but I have seen them used by lots of folks ..... often for 'prepared guitar' stuff.
It's a mute on the nut but i don't think I've ever heard the term 'nut-mute' ...... but I'm afraid to google it ..

seems like it'd be easy to take a velcro cable wrap, glue a little foam to the side meant for the fretboard and use that

Dam son, great minds think alike. I was thinking velcro cable wraps as i have a few rolls of it here but the addition of foam is an even better idea!!!

Also your really hit the nail on the head. While, i agree with you that i am not going to google nut mute on my work computer a google on my phone for "string mute" lead me to exactly what i was looking for.

https://guitargearfinder.com/guides/str ... ret-wraps/

this will get me headed in the right direction. thanks lt!!

[Greg_L]

What is this thing called?



I am thinking @Lt. Bob or @muttley may have the quick answers here. And i'd like to maybe start looking for some.

given how i play i find that to my ears and with less gain / overdrive my little e and b string have a tendency to ring out with certain ways i strum / fret chords or while i play my shitty leads. I think whatever that thing is could help curb some of that when i don't want it. I am sure it is nothing more than something the guy in the picture above DIY'd, but if there was an actual tool available that did that job I'd probably grab a couple to keep on my everyday guits.

I know some of you may think i don't play daily but i do play even if it's just for 20 mins or something. I just have nothing to show for it lol.

I'm sure Mrs whiskeyjack has a "scrunchy" hair tie thing laying around somewhere? There ya go.

Or you use use one of those cool 70s style sweat wristband things..

[WhiskeyJack]

What is this thing called?



I am thinking @Lt. Bob or @muttley may have the quick answers here. And i'd like to maybe start looking for some.

given how i play i find that to my ears and with less gain / overdrive my little e and b string have a tendency to ring out with certain ways i strum / fret chords or while i play my shitty leads. I think whatever that thing is could help curb some of that when i don't want it. I am sure it is nothing more than something the guy in the picture above DIY'd, but if there was an actual tool available that did that job I'd probably grab a couple to keep on my everyday guits.

I know some of you may think i don't play daily but i do play even if it's just for 20 mins or something. I just have nothing to show for it lol.

I'm sure Mrs whiskeyjack has a "scrunchy" hair tie thing laying around somewhere? There ya go.

Or you use use one of those cool 70s style sweat wristband things..

reckon she does yes!! Thanks!

Also I have been thinking of getting a headband for yard work. the toques are getting a bit warm and i still need to be able to see through my hippy hair. I'll see if i can find like a kit or something.

[vomitHatSteve]

Or you use use one of those cool 70s style sweat wristband things..

I've seen that technique used a few times.

I've also seen tape. I've used rubber bands woven through the strings since it's what I had on hand.

[Armistice]

I can see the use behind the nut, or perhaps if you're recording and you know you're not going to need any open strings for a particular solo or bit, but I like open strings to much to find them useful in general life.

I used to use similar things behind the nut when recording acoustics, although it was generally just a strip of felt wound through the strings.

[muttley]

Whatever form of mechanical mute you us it will ultimately be unsatisfying and lead to introducing more lazy technique. You can mute with either hand and or both, stick with those.

[Armistice]

I think it needs a better name.... 'grunchy' anyone?

[WhiskeyJack]

Whatever form of mechanical mute you us it will ultimately be unsatisfying and lead to introducing more lazy technique. You can mute with either hand and or both, stick with those.

Lazier than a kid not bothering to learn how to play a guitar strung properly becasue it "didn't feel right" ? Think of who you are talking to here.

It's not really that big of a deal, it is one of those micro things i nit pick about my sound and recordings. But i have a guitar tuned to B full time and that guitar definitely needs it. the e and b on that thing has a persistent undertone if those strings aren't muted. If i ever get the inclination to get a video or sound nugget of it to show you i will.

[WhiskeyJack]

I think it needs a better name.... 'grunchy' anyone?

I'm down with that.

[CrowsofFritz]

McCartney used something like this on his bass a lot.

[vomitHatSteve]

Whatever form of mechanical mute you us it will ultimately be unsatisfying and lead to introducing more lazy technique. You can mute with either hand and or both, stick with those.

If I was trying to be a good guitarist, maybe. I'm not interested in that tho. Just good enough to accomplish what I need.

Honestly, I approach a lot of guitar challenges as engineering problems rather that technique ones. I think it's perfectly legitimate to build or modify your instrument around how you want to play it rather than always modifying your playing around how the instrument was originally designed.

[Lt. Bob]

I think it's perfectly legitimate to build or modify your instrument around how you want to play it rather than always modifying your playing around how the instrument was originally designed.

and can lend itself to new musical ideas and sounds.
I totally agree ......

I'm old and I play in standard tuning ..... doesn't make the great stuff that's been done in alternate tunings any less great for example.
I don't do 'prepared guitar' but I've heard some amazing stuff from those who do.
Not interested in pursuing that myself but I appreciate the stuff that others accomplish with it.

And some will say why not learn some of that?
Because I've been playing the way I do for 58 years ....... I have my hands full just trying to get what I do to where I'd like it to be and if I DO have some free time I'd rather spend it writing and recording than learning some new technique, plus I'm already trying to get my new-ish Aerophone into the mix.

But unlike many old people set in their ways, I don't look askance at newer ideas of how to make things work.
Music is an art and all art busts out of whatever constraints the established artists try to impose.

yeah .... there's a lot of crap but there's lots of genuinely interesting stuff.

And gear too ...... take the current slight interest in old Silvertone 1485's ...... first off ..... absolutely everyone called them Silvertone twin-twelves.
And having grown up with them I can tell you that I know very well what horrible sounding terrible reverb POS they were.

We were freakin' THRILLED when we moved up to Fender Supers and Deluxes .... I took a saw to my 1485 and made a couple of single 12 monitor cabs outta it.
And I have a friend who has a mint one and a couple of years ago I was at his house and thought, 'maybe I misremember' and hooked it up and got to crank it and really give it a good playing.
Dudes ..... what a terrible sounding POS ...... reverb is unusable .... just a nasty nasally sounding amp.

And yet, there are things I've heard that were thru those amps that sound great in the way they used them.

I've said before that I don't believe in rules when it comes to music and I just don't.

I reserve the right to say, "No, I don't like that at all" but one mans art is another mans trash.

[WhiskeyJack]

I think it's perfectly legitimate to build or modify your instrument around how you want to play it rather than always modifying your playing around how the instrument was originally designed.

and can lend itself to new musical ideas and sounds.
I totally agree ......

I'm old and I play in standard tuning ..... doesn't make the great stuff that's been done in alternate tunings any less great for example.
I don't do 'prepared guitar' but I've heard some amazing stuff from those who do.
Not interested in pursuing that myself but I appreciate the stuff that others accomplish with it.

And some will say why not learn some of that?
Because I've been playing the way I do for 58 years ....... I have my hands full just trying to get what I do to where I'd like it to be and if I DO have some free time I'd rather spend it writing and recording than learning some new technique, plus I'm already trying to get my new-ish Aerophone into the mix.

But unlike many old people set in their ways, I don't look askance at newer ideas of how to make things work.
Music is an art and all art busts out of whatever constraints the established artists try to impose.

yeah .... there's a lot of crap but there's lots of genuinely interesting stuff.

And gear too ...... take the current slight interest in old Silvertone 1485's ...... first off ..... absolutely everyone called them Silvertone twin-twelves.
And having grown up with them I can tell you that I know very well what horrible sounding terrible reverb POS they were.

We were freakin' THRILLED when we moved up to Fender Supers and Deluxes .... I took a saw to my 1485 and made a couple of single 12 monitor cabs outta it.
And I have a friend who has a mint one and a couple of years ago I was at his house and thought, 'maybe I misremember' and hooked it up and got to crank it and really give it a good playing.
Dudes ..... what a terrible sounding POS ...... reverb is unusable .... just a nasty nasally sounding amp.

And yet, there are things I've heard that were thru those amps that sound great in the way they used them.

I've said before that I don't believe in rules when it comes to music and I just don't.

I reserve the right to say, "No, I don't like that at all" but one mans art is another mans trash.

I like this post Lt.Bob. The last line really sums up my thoughts entirely.

[Armistice]

I learnt a lot about acoustic guitar playing at a recording level when doing the complex fingerstyle stuff I was doing in the past by having to deal with and mute ringing resonant strings on the fly - and in dealing with them I simply had to learn how to play better (particularly for recording) and everything else in my playing improved, so I get where @muttley is coming from on this.

There were no mechanical devices that would help - apart from the aforementioned muting behind the nut, so I had to learn to play at the next level. And getting there myself, when I tried to record other people who weren't at that level their inability to play cleanly really held them back, but often until they were recorded and listened back to what they had played, they simply didn't hear it. Penny dropped for a few people when they realised how awful they sounded recorded.

I have a pet hate for rock bands that do the obligatory acoustic ballad and the guitarist picks up an acoustic for the first time in a long time and proceeds to mangle out a few chords full of timing issues and massive string scrapes because they're different instruments with different dynamics and need to be played differently.