Does anyone play with, or have any of you experimented with mutes?

[Phil O'Keefe]

You know - the old Carol Kaye trick of putting something over or under the strings near the bridge to dampen overtones. Have any of you ever tried it? Do you still use it, and if so, what sorts of things do you find useful for mutes?

[lug]

My band suggested using mutes. The drummer even suggested putting a mute over every fret but we compromised on a mute at the bridge, 12th fret, 7th fret, and 3rd fret. Whilst playing in this configuration I noticed the amount of horror in my sound was somewhat reduced, so I took them off and threw them on the ground.

[WRGKMC]

I used to do that, but mostly with guitar. I take a thin piece of foam rubber and put it under the strings close to the bridge so it gets the palm mute effect. The guitar winds up sounding like a ukulele. Makes for some cool retro/jazz type stuff.

 

On bass I often palm mute when I use a pick to get short powerful attacks. I suppose I should try the foam trick instead of palm muting because the tone picking down near the bridge is often too bright. Using the foam then picking closer to the neck would produce deeper tones and the mute would shorten the sustain so you can get faster transients between notes.