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Carol Kaye's method of muting open strings with felt

#21
SnakeKappele said:
I spend an hour of my time making a mute and documenting it in an effort to help someone and I get a crappy comment like this? What the hell is your problem? You have nothing better to do than make snide comments to someone who has done nothing to you? Would you like it if someone did that to you?
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Dont get your panties in a bunch, I really enjoyed your posts, I was just joking! :D
 
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#22
JimmyM said:
if you subscribe to carol's picking method (and i 100% do), palm muting can be injurous to your hands. i'm not going to go into the entire method here, but trust me...she's right.

btw, carol tapes the felt onto her bass with double stick tape and uses pretty much any felt you can buy at a fabric store. but she does it for the sound, not the ability to mute unused strings.
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Yup...

Palm muting lends itself really well to playing thumb style, or using thumb with index and middle fingers like some acoustic guitarists do, but I don't how you would utilize that when plucking rapidly with 2 fingers.

I've been making mutes for my basses for a long time, and as noted above, it's for the sound. With flatwounds it gives a really defined thump that jumps out of a mix, whether you play fingerstyle or pickstyle. I leave one on my Precision all the time. It sounds fine without it, but the mute adds a beautiful character to the tone I can't get any other way.

I make mine out of the dense foam they put in Pelican equipment cases, it's easy to cut and shape and it lasts forever. I find a wedge shape with the wide end on the E string works best...the lower strings seem to need more muting than the top ones to balance.
 
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#23
Like others have said, I think the OP wants to know how to mute unused strings while playing with the pick but posted the pic of an all over muting technique. No biggie but two different subjects. I usually hook my pinky and sometimes ring fingers under the G string (depending if I am using that string of course) on my picking hand and use the side of my hand to mute the other strings. It can get tricky when you are jumping around but that just takes practice.
 
#26
Nuclear Guru said:
As seen in the attached image from this website: http://carolkaye.com/www/education/tips101.htm (it's tip 113)

I have recently started playing with a pick (because it sounds awesome). I've been having a lot of trouble with the muting, or lack there of, of the strings I am not playing. I am curious about this method.

Could anyone give me more detail on this? What kind of felt is she using (I'm assuming that all felt is not created equal)? How is it attached to the bass? How far from the bridge?

Less technically, what do you think of this muting method?

Thanks.
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It will mute all of your strings all of the time. If that's what you want, cool. If not, there are ways to do it without devices. Just takes a bit of your time.
:cool:
 
#28
Shove some foam in there! Worked for this guy.

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#36
PJMiDi said:
As Carol has stated herself and Jimmy has said it once on here already

PALM MUTING IS BAD FOR YOUR WRIST! DONT DO IT!(on bass)

I mute with my left hand when using a pick
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I agree if you also hold your pick like Carol does (thumb and first finger). I don't hold mine that way - I use thumb and middle finger, which rotates the wrist more upright and doesn't induce the strain that thumb and first finger does.
 
#38
IME, the foam isn't a way to mute the strings, since they can still ring unintentionally, just not as much/loud. It's more of a tone thing, makes it more thumpy with less sustain.

Muting should mostly be done with the left hand, unless you play fingerstyle of course, and even then, some things need extra left-hand attention.
 
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#39
MNAirHead said:
I took a lesson from a VERY well known bassist..

"I asked him.. what one thing do all of the well known bassists you've played with have in common?"

without a pause

"They all can mute without gadgets in various levels of controlled muting."

We went on to spend an hour correcting my right and left hand technique.

I could see this being interesting if there was a gig of all full on mute tunes (blue grass.. some early motown etc).
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+1 for this.

The avantage of controlling with your palm is that YOU decide the duration of the notes. If a note needs to be longer, you release the pressure on the string which is not possible with a muting device. I should confess that on sessions with really fast lines I do use my cloth for cleaning the bass as a muting device and place it for an even mute sound under the strings.
 
#40
But, I never use mine. They wipe out your sustain. If you're getting unwanted sounds when playing live, try spending some of your practice time playing with all your settings wide open. This makes every squeek and squawk very apparent. Work on making that sound good. Then, when you add the tone back in, and tweak your settings back down, you'll find you're sounding cleaner, and cleaner, as time goes on. Helps me. hrb
 

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