Foam Rubber Mutes.

[James_Hartley]

Hello there,

I am new to this site and was wondering if i could seek your advice.

I am aiming to get the "Motown Sound" on my bass, currently a Fender Jazz, i know i would be best of with a precision when i can afford one but was wondering if anyone knew where i can get a foam rubber mute for my bass like what jamerson used? Does anyone have any information or pictures on what one would look like so i can craft my own?

I apologise if this topic is old hat, its just been driving me crazy trying countless websites with nothing to offer!

Thanks

 

[stealth51]

The foam mute use to come with the Fender bass. I don't know if they still come with the bass. The foam on my Precision dried out and fell off long time ago. When I want to create that '60s bass sound I'll insert a piece of foam at the bridge. Works very well on any bass.

Buy some dense foam from a fabric store. Experiment with different thickness and positioning on the bass until you achieve the sound you're looking for. Hope this helps

 

[envika]

first off, you HAVE to use flatwounds. there's no getting around that. once you have flats i don't think a mute would be necessary, but you can always buy a bridge cover and stick some foam under it.

 

[mikeswals]

The foam mute used to be stuck to the underside of the chrome covers over the bridge. It's just a piece of dense foam...you can use weather stripping you can get at Lowes and Home Depot, just cut to size. But yeah, flats are needed.

 

[Al Heeley]

Pardon my ignorance, why are flats essential?

 

[Darkstrike]

Pardon my ignorance, why are flats essential?

They are more than certantly not!

 

[Jim Carr]

Hello there,

I am new to this site and was wondering if i could seek your advice.

I am aiming to get the "Motown Sound" on my bass, currently a Fender
Jazz, i know i would be best of with a precision when i can afford one
but was wondering if anyone knew where i can get a foam rubber
mute for my bass like what jamerson used? Does anyone have any
information or pictures on what one would look like so i can craft my
own?

I apologise if this topic is old hat, its just been driving me crazy trying
countless websites with nothing to offer!
Thanks

I think you may be able to spot a foam mute in use on a few shots in
the film "Standing in the Shadows of Motown," with which you are
probably already familiar. Bob Babbitt is using one in the image below.

Here is what I did. I got some ~3/4" thick foam rubber from an hobby/
crafts shop. I got a small piece about 12" x 10" x ~3/4". IMHO, it doesn't
need to be particularly dense. In fact, if it is highly compressible, it is
probably easier to manage different amounts of muting.

Using ordinary scissors, I cut a few pieces about 4" x 2". That size is
good for a P-bass. You might need a wider one for a 5-string, though I
only use a mute on P-basses, and then only occasionally. I carry a one
in all my P-bass cases.

To use one, I push it under the strings between the pickup and the
bridge and then work it BACK against the bridge saddles. You can vary
the amount of muting by how far out from the bridge the foam is
damping the strings. Farther out means more muting. You can angle it,
too. Experiment! There is no wrong or right way. Just get the sound
you want.

Here is a tiny picture of Bob Babbitt with a foam mute on his P-bass:

 

[pinchdawg]

Try an ordinary piece of sponge from the grocery store,easy to cut to size cheap and works great.

 

[James_Hartley]

Thanks guys thats a huge help!

I was using a piece of cloth before and the sound is really good but not quite right, so ill deffinately try out your suggestions!

The other thing is though, what was the "bell" that was on the mute?

 

[Jim Carr]

Thanks guys thats a huge help!

I was using a piece of cloth before and the sound is really good but not quite right, so ill deffinately try out your suggestions!

The other thing is though, what was the "bell" that was on the mute?

Bell? That's just a name for the bridge cover. The factory mutes were
3 or 4 small pieces of pretty dense black foam rubber glued to the
roof of the bridge cover.

I don't have a pic, but my '71 P-bass still has the original mutes. The
rubber has shrunken, so they don't actually quite touch the strings
anymore, so they don't mute anything at all.

 

[denton57]

Just this week I discovered the sound I have been looking for is with using a mute. I was cleaning my room and found the unused foam mute from my old 62 reissue that I sold. I took that strip of foam and slid it between the bridge and the strings in front of the saddle screws on my BA2 bridge. It is a perfect fit and is unnoticeable too! We play classic rock and blues stuff, and it sounds perfect.

 

[James_Hartley]

Do 62 reissue P-basses come with mutes on them?

And also, would i put a mute under the strings or over them im slightly confused now, i put one under and and it sounds great!

 

[mikeswals]

Do 62 reissue P-basses come with mutes on them?

And also, would i put a mute under the strings or over them im slightly confused now, i put one under and and it sounds great!

They used to come with a foam strip to stick onto the bridge cover. Don't know if they do anymore.

You can use your self-made mute however you want. Under or over the strings accompishes the same thing.

 

[Jim Carr]

They used to come with a foam strip to stick onto the bridge cover. Don't know if they do anymore...

Actually, in the 60's and at least until '71, the P-bass had the mutes factory installed. Most players I knew who had Fender P-basses either hacked the mutes out with a pocket knife, cut grooves in them, or simply removed the bridge cover.

I think they were one of the less popular features of the design.

 

[The Golden Boy]

I did the mute thing on my 79 T-Bird.

I used an old mousepad- it just happened to be the right height to just slip between the bridge and the strings.

I also scored an old neoprene wristpad that I've been cutting chunks out of for my other basses- it's taken some wrangling to find the right height- mute enough, but not too much...

 

[bobyoung53]

Actually, in the 60's and at least until '71, the P-bass had the mutes factory installed. Most players I knew who had Fender P-basses either hacked the mutes out with a pocket knife, cut grooves in them, or simply removed the bridge cover.

I think they were one of the less popular features of the design.

I bought one brand new in 71 and it came with both covers and the mute, first thing I did was take both covers off, I very rarely saw Fenders even back then with the covers still in place except for older jazz and bass players in accordion trios, it was definitely not cool to leave the covers on. It was common for the covers to be in the case when you bought a used one back then.
Someone mentioned that flatwounds were essentail, maybe they are not essential but are highly recommended as Jamerson used flats on his bass, old ones at that. In fact RW's were extremely rare or maybe even non-existant when he recorded most of his stuff. Fenders cames standard with flats probably until at least the late 70's as did almost all basses. I bought a new 77 4001 and it came with flats. Part of the Jamerson sound came from muted flats.

 

[Fender32]

I tried pretty hard to cop the Jamerson tone on my old US '62 reissue P Bass.

As you can see, it was strung with big-ass LaBella flats and as the bass (made in 2003) didn't come with the optional foam mute, I made mine from mouse mat foam! It's quite dense, so the trick is to layer it to get just the right amount of pressure on the strings. By keeping the mute close to the saddles themselves, you can actually have quite a lot of pressure on the strings, without killing the string vibrations completley.

Another (much overlooked) factor concerning Jamerson's tone, is that he had the action set very high on his bass. That in itself actually adds to the "damped" nature of his tone. The notes tend to remain fretted for a shorter timespan, due to the incredible upward pressure on the strings. It's hard to explain in words, but if you try putting the action up to point that's right on the edge of "playable", you'll soon notice your playing style sounding more "stacatto", even without a mute - try it some time .

 

[The Golden Boy]

Another (much overlooked) factor concerning Jamerson's tone, is that he had the action set very high on his bass. That in itself actually adds to the "damped" nature of his tone. The notes tend to remain fretted for a shorter timespan, due to the incredible upward pressure on the strings. It's hard to explain in words, but if you try putting the action up to point that's right on the edge of "playable", you'll soon notice your playing style sounding more "stacatto", even without a mute - try it some time .

I'm the king of the "too high" action.

I get my instruments set up- and I invariably mess with it until it feels "right" to me. It's different on different instruments. Go figure...

 

[fretster]

Check out the Google Patent Search, and you find this:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Seems that Leo Fender filed for a patent on a bass mute in 1956, and got it approved in 1969. 13 years is a log time to wait. Maybe CBS pushed him to finish that deal. A little while later, Gibson files another patent on bass mutes, adding the feature of individual adjustment per string. Pretty nifty.

Also, looks like Leo's first name is Clarence. Either that or Leo had Clarence file it for him.

 

[Fender32]

..

Also, looks like Leo's first name is Clarence. Either that or Leo had Clarence file it for him.

Right first time; Clarence Leo Fender, to be precise.

Can't help thinking that his name wouldn't get bandied about as much as it is, had he stuck with "Clarence" . No offence intended to any Clarences out there, but it is a bit of a mouthful and doesn't quite have the same macho connotations as "Leo" .

Anyway, I'd still be a Fender fan, even is his first name had been Adolf ..... wait a minute, wasn't that Mr. Rickenbacker's monniker !?