foam muting?

[filter]

Saw a picture in the new bass mag where a guy put foam under his strings. i have seen it before.. does anyone here use that?

[billjr]

I keep some foam in my gig bag, as I go through moods where I really like the muted tone and shorter sustain it gives. It takes out a lot of the string noise, too. It's pretty much an "old school" sound. I had to try a few different pieces of foam to get the right density, as foam that was too hard changed the strings too much, while really soft foam did very little to the sound.

[Lazylion]

I carry a couple of pieces of foam, they mostly affect the D and G strings. I use it on the old school country stuff like Patsy Cline etc. It's fun to play stuff high up the neck on those two strings with a real fast decay. This is just for my own amusement, I don't think anybody else notices. Not even the band.

[klyph]

I've used foam stuffed into "ashtray" bridge covers before, and I currently play a '65 Magnatone Hurricane Bass with an adjustable mute mounted in the body (looks/works like an adjustable tom/bass drum mute, it's not my main gig bass). The sound is killer, but too much pressure on the mute can "displace" the bridge saddle placement, and throw your intonation out. I've developed a muting technique now where I lay my pinky across all 4 or 5 strings right at the bridge and play just with my index finger in a 'hook'. I use this technique in my current cover band for "These Boots were made for Walkin'" and "Hoochie Coochie Man"- sounds good! I'm working more on my one finger dexterity (it's all Jamerson used...) and I'm gettin' pretty good at using my fingernail for a pick sound and "double picking" with it (using both strokes for SPEED). I think I read somewhere Chuck Rainey does this, but I can't think of any of his recordings that feature that kind of sound.

The pinky muting technique is totally pressure-adjustable on the fly, and doesn't seem to affect my intonation.

[excane]

I used to raise the mutes on my Pre-EB Stingray. You can put a sponge or other similar material to emulate the same effect.

[xaxxat]

I use foam when I want to play some reggae.