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DIY Bass mute


TRBboy
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Hey folks! 

Had a bit of a tinker yesterday and made myself a bass mute. Works really well I have to say! 

Had an offcut of Auralex foam in the shed from an isolation pad I made a few years ago, cut it to size, cut a piece of softwood to size and painted black, glued them together and cut slits in the foam. 

IMG_20200628_224617.jpg

IMG_20200628_224226.jpg

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Looks great! I slide foam under my strings and like that method because I can stop before the G string and leave it unmuted for accents. I guess you could do it with this type by moving the block up a string. 

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33 minutes ago, ped said:

Looks great! I slide foam under my strings and like that method because I can stop before the G string and leave it unmuted for accents. I guess you could do it with this type by moving the block up a string. 

Genius @ped, never even considered that! 

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That’s me 😂 

I used to have one of those switchable Bassmute.eu devices which was great but it went with the bass when I sold it. I’d quite like another but not sure they’re still being made and tbh I quite like the DIY approach. Does your design alter the intonation at all? I find foam under the strings does slightly, but probably not enough to worry about. 

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22 minutes ago, ped said:

That’s me 😂 

I used to have one of those switchable Bassmute.eu devices which was great but it went with the bass when I sold it. I’d quite like another but not sure they’re still being made and tbh I quite like the DIY approach. Does your design alter the intonation at all? I find foam under the strings does slightly, but probably not enough to worry about. 

I've not noticed any intonation issues, but then the beauty of this DIY design is that you cut the slots to your string spacing, so the strings aren't having pressure applied on one direction (like with foam under the strings), the foam is literally just damping the string vibration. 🤷‍♂️

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  • 3 weeks later...
23 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

What’s the best kinda foam for this kinda thing? 

 

I know it doesn't answer your question but... just try anything and everything. I find that different materials can work differently and give you a slightly different vibe. You may like more than one type!

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On 18/07/2020 at 15:44, LukeFRC said:

What’s the best kinda foam for this kinda thing? 

Hi Luke, the foam I used was an offcut of Auralex Platfoam I bought years ago to make an isolation (gramma) pad. https://www.studiospares.com/Brands/Auralex/Auralex-Platfoam_461330.htm

They do a product called corner fill as well which is cheap (only 2" square) but might do the job

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33 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Are those neck mute strap things any use? I have never used a mute, but there are probably some times where it would be easier than doing it with my hand

Different tool - those will only dampen open strings and I think they are designed for people who do silly things like tapping on their bass. In the past I have used them to stop harmonic resonance of adjacent strings when playing a freless which just seemed to want to come alive when you touched it!

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