I've purchased Mike's Banjo mute after seeing the disppointed look on my wife's face when I started practicing at 10 pm with the Goldtone mute. I live in France in a tiny appartment no bigger than a hen house where banjo related kabloings aren't taken too kindly especially after dusk. Mike's mute is of a totally different make. It doesn't plush like the Goldtone and it works. It works really really well, it looks nice, it's easy to fit on the bridge and It seems i'll be able to resume family life under peaceful terms whilst blinging my kabloings under the starless smoggy sky dreaming of the big rock candy mountains and its little streams of alcohol.
Thank you good people at Mike's!
He really needs to call it "Mike's Marriage Saver." Best mute ever. I have three generations of them. I kind of prefer the brass screw versions.
Hobo Baggins Adding weight to the bridge makes it quieter. Mike's is simply much heavier than the Goldtone. (I did a demo adding more and more; see photo.) However, it also increases sustain and systematically takes highs out of the timbre. An alternative is to mute the strings on the playing side of the bridge. This produces a feel and sound that's much closer to unmuted -- but quieter. I first saw someone using foam as in the photo. Someone on BHO commented that a rolled up piece of paper towel works just as well -- and is easier to adjust to spec.
What a surprise - banjo players are hugely creative when it comes to mutes! I like Mike's mute too, it's a great design. I also like mutes for changing the tone, not the volume. I have tried replacing the brass bar with a hardwood bar. Didn't work that well. Never tried the foam. Currently experimenting with placing art putty on the backside of the bridge, it can cut out some of the frequencies and you can dial it in quite well. The search goes on!
All things considered, Mike’s Banjo Mute works very well on my resonator banjos. I have two Mike’s Mutes, one for flat topped bridge and one for radius bridge. Because radius bridges come in several curvature options, I had to tweak the mute to get it to match the curve of my particular bridge in order to prevent string buzz. I did not contact Mike to see if he would custom bend the top plate of the mute but it’s possible that he would.
On a flat topped banjo bridge that is under string tension, the middle leg of the bridge sinks farther into the banjo head making the bridge and its top sag slightly creating a gap between the bridge and Mikes Mute, which can cause string buzz. I have found that cranking Mike’s Mute down really tight actually pulls the bridge straight and alleviates potential string buzz.
I will say that I think Mike’s Mute is the best mute on the market. I find the sound of my Mike's muted banjos to very harp like and pleasant to listen to.
Edited by - Pick-A-Lick on 08/04/2024 12:15:42
I tried my share of mutes and mute hacks. My best results have come from stringing an electric guitar with 5 strings, tuned like a banjo, and played unplugged. Then just this year, I folded up a hand towel, to stuff between the co-rod and head, putting a slight amount of pressure on the bottom of the bridge. Perfect. I’ve been practicing with this set up ever since. Why didn’t someone tell me this 20 years ago? Someone probably did, but I was too pigheaded to try it. I feel like an idiot for not knowing this.
I like Mike's as well and glued a piece of rubber where it makes contact with the bridge top. This eliminated some buzzing I was getting and some tinny sounds on the 1st string. I also roll small bubble wrap up like a burrito and put inside the rim. Works well.
I'm not yet comfortable with experimenting too much at this stage (very little "me" time available), so Mike's Mute was the best-off-the-box effective solution for me. But I'll definitely take up on the advice that was provided in this tread and check out DYI solutions. Being a total beginner on banjo (and stringed instruments overall) + the baby + job with long hours made me go for the bourgeois alternative of shedding 50 quid on the very functional gadget to make sure that I can use whatever time I have left on practice, practice and practice. So for those with a different situation, obviously: don't think that this is the only way to go :)
For those living in auld Europe: there's an extra cost in the form of import tax which is supported by the buyer (you), for me it was an additional 20 EUR, so the total cost is definitely not cheap (for my Goldtone AC1 it means adding approx 20% of the total price into this). I
I like the goldtone mute for it's speed of use and compactness as well as being cheaper. The Mike's is quieter though, depends on your requirements I suppose.
I have Iucci, Gold Tone, and Mikes. You get what you pay for IMHO.
The first 2 (same design) both have the same problem with not really doing much to dampen the strings on the open end of the mute, and the sound is really not pleasing (you can try and put some bend into those 2 and it will help a little as to capturing the far end of the resonance.
The Mike's Mute is infallible and always sounds the same, and it's really pleasant.
The first 2 are less hand contact as they don't rise above the bridge...which is the only bonus. Mikes tends to rise a tad above the bridge, but that tends to make me aware of my hand position. I've stopped using the first 2 and the latter is my go to mute when needed.
The thing Ive observed/heard is the sound of my attack angle on the strings is much more apparent when using Mike's, which helped me clean up and stabilize my picking. If I pick with the mute on for warmup, my non-muted picking afterwards is always much better.
YMMV.
