diy foam mute

[herb nice]

Mutes are an easy way to dull your decay and tame some of those overtones. Some of the old EBs used to ship with them. Lots of favorite players from the 60s used them to emphasize the thump. (jamerson, mccartney are two obvious examples). I love the sound of a muted bass, especially with flats. I've jammed all kinds of things under the strings over the years, from socks to sound foam. I've even used mutes on guitars when I wanted a particular sound for recording.

 

Anyway, I found a piece of foam pipe insulation kicking around the other day, and cut a couple of mutes of varying thickness to jam between the strings and the bridge. You can see it right up next to the saddles:

 

I found the 4mm piece was a bit too much, the 2mm piece I am rocking in that photo sounds just about perfect for what I like. Didn't seem to affect the intonation at all, either.

 

I actually liked the 3 point bridge design for this tiny mod as it made this the easiest mute install ever. Cheap, easy, sounds great, looks good (especially compared to my past ghetto mutes). My SG bass is really starting to develop some soul.

 

Just another idea for you guys that like to tinker.

[Lungimsam]

Nice the way it fits just right under the strings. Good idea!

[Bassilisk]

I use a one on several of my basses though it's not really a mute. In other words, it doesn't affect the sustain. I first tried it after reading about Carol Kaye's use of it.

 

I use relatively soft foam, like what's in a pickup box and cut a strip around 1/4"-3/8" wide. I get it high enough so that it only just touches the bottoms of the strings when located right in front of the bridge saddles. The sustain and intonation are not affected, but any resonant overtones get eliminated making for very clean sounding notes overall.

 

Some people like to jam enough in there so the sustain is affected and you get quick decay - a true thump. It's easy enough to experiment for the results you want. I don't use them on all of my basses, but I feel several really benefit from this.

[herb nice]

Yep, the fatter mutes I made were thumpier, but I also prefer the sound of a mute that's not pushing too hard on the strings. I cut 4 different thicknesses out in about as many minutes, and settled on the thinnest one- it makes the sound more smooth and thumpy, but not outrageously so.

[Morkolo]

I tried foam under the bridge of my Precision before and although it sounds nice it makes playing too one dimensional. It took a lot of practice but I like my mute to be in my technique. I watched a video a long time ago of Anthony Jackson playing bass and he would mute with the edge of his hand/pinky. It works really well and you can vary how much mute you want to use. Then there's the left hand muting which will get you that Jaco/Rocco finger funk sound.