Hi Dean

Interesting post. Here in the UK, most people (including me) live in high-density housing where a degree of consideration for one's neighbours is essential if everyone is to have a happy life. In my 50+ years of playing banjo, it's always been difficult to play without upsetting my wife/neighbours/anyone within a 500 yards radius. Professional-quality bluegrass banjos are designed to be loud and it broke my heart to ruin the tone of my expensive instruments by applying a mute of any kind as they all altered the tone beyond recognition. My solution has been to use a Nechville Meteor for my home practise daily sessions. Very much more expensive than fitting a mute, but the Meteor still sounds very banjo-like, and is a mere whisper when compared to my Chief.

I spent many years playing my Telecaster strung and tuned like a banjo, for that whisper of volume. And it’s unplugged plunk and sustain was more banjo like, than a banjo stuffed with foam or a towel. I never had much luck with the clothes pins idea. But Mikes mute changed everything, in that I actually like the tone, and could play my Sierra as hard as I wanted, and keep the peace. I’ve gone from 90% of my home practice on my Tele, to 90% on my muted banjos. About the only time the mute comes off, is band practice or gigs. Or the rare moments when my lovely bride is out and about, and I’m positive that my condo neighbors are not home.

I think Mikes mute is the superior design but it’s nice to have choices.
I tried the Gold Tone and the fabric on the interior eventually worked its way off.

Why mute? If folks (i.e. neighbours) can't appreciate a badly played cheap banjo that's their problem!

If you can find one I'd recommend a Fielding-Cutler banjo mute. It really knocks down the volume and gives the banjo a nice, sweet tone. Mike's mute is a slightly modernized version.

Throw your banjo mutes away and cut a piece of foam or sponge and slide it under your tailpiece where you cant see it! remove witha pencil when finished with it!

short pencil and rubber band,,, can also work as a capo if you in a bind.

Cool post. My wife cannot stand the sound of me practicing the banjo (though she doesn’t mind it with a band?!) — so by far, the majority of my playing time has been performed in the basement with a Mike’s mute attached.

That was the first and really only one I’ve tried, but happy to hear it seems to be pretty well regarded.

I think the tone is pretty good — and as an aside — it has helped me to identify issues where action may be a bit low and strings are bottoming out on the frets, or where a bridge/nut slot needs to be reseated. Those sorts of issues, often masked by the various resonances/overtones/ringng/buzzyness and sheer volume of a banjo at full blast, become very obvious with the mute on.

One drawback though — is it reduces your overall picking dynamic range and can interfere with the development of how you pull “tone” from a banjo. That is, you still hear differences between picking close/far from the bridge, and how you attack the string… but the way this translates to the non-muted banjo isn’t 1:1, at least in my experience. The sweet spots are different with and without the mute.  And in my case, I tend to play even louder than I need to with the mute on — reinforcing my bad habit of picking to aggressively in general.

This has been a consistent problem for me — takes me a while to relearn the sweet spots of my banjos at rehearsals/gigs, or when trying record, when the mute isn’t on… but that may just be a "me" thing, or my relative inexperience compared to a lot of folks.

>or where a bridge/nut slot needs to be reseated<

I had one 4th string slot that wasn’t deep enough, and that definitely needed correcting, to get Mikes Mute to sound good. I also had trouble with the plastic screws bending, and the whole thing tipping… so I replaced them with metal screw, problem solved

> takes me a while to relearn the sweet spots of my banjos at rehearsals/gigs, or when trying record, when the mute isn’t on… but that may just be a "me" thing, or my relative inexperience compared to a lot of folks.<

Me too… I have to use some restraint at rehearsal, not to over play out of the gate, and blast everyone. I also find that the mute can smooth out some minor volume/tone imbalance between strings, that can show up when the mute comes off. But small prices to pay, for years of peaceful practice. The mutes can also come in handy for warm ups at rehearsal or gigs, without blasting everyone.

i know this probably won't help ,,but i never in 49 years of picking banjo ever bought a mute.... i found out early on when the wife said either take outside our put a sock in it.
well i took her advice to heart and just pulled a sock between the bridge and tail piece and wah-laaa mute !!!! free and works fine.

if you want more mute just find a paint stick, cut it in half slide it behind the bridge then pull the sock thru over top of it ,,covers more head surface thus muting more also...free and works.

The advantage of the mute is it doesn't cut the sustain. So you still get the feel of playing without the volume. At least with clawhammer. Other styles may vary.

I have the Gold Tone mute, bought it many years ago, no issues with the fabric. I like it best on my Goodtime strung with nylons - it's like I'm playing through a fuzz pedal. Partly because the bridge I use is full maple and quite thin (made by Sam Hutchins), so the mute doesn't grip as tight.

On my Prat (12", steel strings), it cuts out a lot of the boom, but the sustain remains.

That Mike's mute looks too fussy for my flavor.

I like my Mike's mute on my penco bottle cap. It takes out the loud harsh twang and (on this banjo) sounds like little tingling christmas hand bells or Swedish candle chime thingies. Sustain can be to long if you let it, but so pleasant it's hard not to.
With either a std. Grover bridge or a compensated Grover it takes me all of an mind boggling work intensive 10 SECONDS to put this mute on and off, including tightening the stock plastic screws until they start to bend as per instructions.
I have no other experience with any other mutes... so there ya go, no comparison value here!