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Bil Stahl - Posted - 04/05/2013: 09:43:24
I don't know if this has been suggested before by someone else, but pipe cleaners (craft stores call them fuzzy sticks) make a great, inexpensive banjo mute. I just weave the pipe cleaner through the strings right above the bridge. It really dampens the volume, but still lets me hear the actual notes.
Rick McKeon - Posted - 04/06/2013: 20:12:34
Good idea. I have some really nice banjo mutes, but I'll give this a try with my guitars.
Rick
Old Hickory - Posted - 04/18/2013: 14:55:54
Wooden clothes pins are also cheap and effective. Especially the spring-loaded kind. I've got a pair of unusually shaped plastic clothes pins that I picked up for 10 cents at the drug store where I clerked while in college in the 70s. I press one onto each side of the bridge. They work great and look strange enough to appear designed for this purpose.
banjobilly32 - Posted - 04/19/2013: 12:28:11
Edited by - banjobilly32 on 04/19/2013 12:29:52
banjobilly32 - Posted - 04/19/2013: 12:28:48
Don't overlook old faithful!!
GlennWillard - Posted - 04/26/2013: 01:29:46
Try rolling up a piece of cloth and place it under the strings at the bridge.
Calv - Posted - 05/06/2013: 15:24:46
T-shirt, towel or similar stuffed being the head on my open back does a nice job.
Wooden clothes pegs on the bridge as suggested earlier are great too.
Calv.
steve davis - Posted - 05/09/2013: 03:26:21
I like how quick and effective clothespins work as a mute.
Mike Moss - Posted - 05/09/2013: 05:44:27
A cork cut to size and fit between the perch pole and the vellum, right underneath the bridge, is a very effective mute and it is virtually invisible. Also, rubber Tourte violin mutes can be kept on the strings between the bridge and the tailpiece and slid into place.
Helix - Posted - 05/24/2013: 04:59:29
This is a 1930's model airplane clamp, I glue felt on the blades, I use these as clamps.
c colborne - Posted - 08/11/2013: 01:13:57
For what they cost mikes mutes are worth the out lay
Helix - Posted - 08/11/2013: 11:55:13
here's another way, see the ebony shoes? cork would be great, some use pennies, the shoe approach is from the era of skin heads,
Madame Twang - Posted - 08/19/2013: 03:57:54
I like Mikes Mutes too - fits on standard bridges, and also works on curved Moon bridges. Great tone too...but quiet!
jem589 - Posted - 08/19/2013: 05:32:21
Violin mutes are $3-5 and really quiet things down. On some of them you have to cut notches in the ends since they're made to fit all the way around a violin bridge, but that only takes a minute.
