Help, back playing after 7 years off and need a bit of help!

[troymcclure72]

Just bought myself an Ibanez SR600 and seem to have a real nightmare muting strings that I never had before.

When muting strings with my left hand there still seems to be a harmonic that carries on for a few seconds. I’ve got to the stage where I use both hands (few fingers on left hand) and palm of right hand and it’s still there.

First thought was I’m rusty and technique, but this is getting silly. Could it be the strings, active electronic eq etc? I only ever had a passive jazz bass before...

Any help would be appreciated as it's annoying me!

[Bass Mentor]

I don't think it is your electronics at all-- make sure you are using 124 fingering on left hand and the non playing fingers are relaxed and even touching the strings ( this helps the muting in a very logical way) as long as the fingers are not interfering with the speaking note....with your right hand- make sure you are using your fingers to engage the string that is not being used ( again, it aids muting)

I would have to view what you are doing to drill any deeper....but don't use the palm of the right hand to mute....That's OK if you are doing a specialty sound for a particular song or section of a song...but not good as a steady diet as it will hinder you in tonal development and you will have to unlearn if you get into serious playing and doing stage or recording jobs

good luck!
Steve

[Mushroo]

Make sure you aren't muting the string at a harmonic "node" (4th/5th/7th/12th fret, etc).
In fact it's best to mute the string at 2 (or more) points. I recommend 1 or more left hand fingers plus your right hand thumb or finger (not palm, unless you are a pick player)---that gives me good muting results.

[whitedk57]

Try this for muting...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPVMBPmrblU

Takes a little getting used to at first, but it more than makes up for the effort.