Looking for a mute switch. Thoughts?

[kenny ames]

I haven’t had a very elaborate paddle board, but I recently have been just using my fat boy to DI and I’m getting the sounds that I’ve been looking for chasing my tail with all the pedals.

One of the acts I work with is a bunch of ex- singers from Kansas, Boston, Skynyrd and Journey. Some of the guys are down a half step and some art so I need to use two basses.

I’m not really looking to put something in line, but I really do need something to mute the signal to front of house and into the amplifier while I switch basses.

I had a sonic research tuner, but it definitely thinned the sound a bit.

Anybody have any suggestions?

Is there such a thing as a mute pedal??


All feedback is welcome. Thank you.

 

[Parzival]

Strobostomp tuner. Mini or full. Mute, the best tuner (IMO), and a buffer. I won’t ever put a board together without my Strobo.

 

[kenny ames]

Strobostomp tuner. Mini or full. Mute, the best tuner (IMO), and a buffer. I won’t ever put a board together without my Strobo.

I thought the Sonic Research was a great tuner but it did thin the tone a bit.

Is there any of that with the Strobostomp?

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Parzival]

I thought the Sonic Research was a great tuner but it did thin the tone a bit.

Is there any of that with the Strobostomp?

Thanks for the reply!

Nope. With it in buffer mode, you preserve every bit of your signal and it sounds outstanding.
Like I said earlier, I will not play a gig without it on my board.

 

[Wasnex]

I have an old Boss TU2 that mutes. It causes minimal tone suck. Current model is TU3.

I am sure you could find a mute pedal. Better yet, get an input selector like this or similar.

The Little Lehle can be hooked up different ways.

 

[mcrawfordmusic]

A buffered tuner pedal or an A/B-Mute switch like the Radial or Lehle above would be perfect.

 

[Anemic_SluG]

I have had good luck with this guy. Not anything fancy but does the job.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MuteSwitch--jhs-mute-switch-kill-switch

 

[Killing Floor]

Use your tuner. It definitely did not thin your sound.

 

[Zbysek]

I am using JHS mute switch. The great thing about it is that it works without electricity…

 

[crapusername]

I used to use an ab switch with nothing in one loop, but eventually built one. I used a tb switch and sent the signal to ground when muted. I added a led to show when it was muted as well.
Still works very well some 15 years later

 

[mcnach]

The old "pull the cord at the amp's end a bit" trick would probably work too, no?

 

[blr2]

Get a tuner with a good buffer, like Polytune3 or Strobostomp. I've been using the Boss TU3 for years, and never felt it did anything to the sound. Alternatively, get a cable with a mute switch at the instrument end.

 

[Marc Speed]

Is it the noise from removing your cable from your bass what you’re trying to avoid? If so, replace the 1/4” plug on the instrument-end of your cable with a shorting or “silent” plug. They work well. I prefer the ones from Neutrik.

 

[FullumMusic]

Check out Morley's switching pedal options. You can leave both basses plugged into the inputs, and just mute & unmute them as you need to play one or the other. Some are purely passive mute/unmute. Others have gains so you can balance the signal of both basses.

 

[prndltech]

I use a polytune 3 on one board, and a Dunlop x8 volume pedal on another…

 

[Lowbrow]

Any number of tuners pedals will serve.

 

[andronik]

 

[GrevMarkussen]

I've designed this thing (built by Bright Onion), for just such use cases:
(I wanted something a bit smaller than the (great) Radial Big Shot I/O.)

The green and blue input on the right, are for each of your basses, and you switch between them with the right foot switch. Put the hottest of them in the blue input, as you can reduce its volume with the knob (so you can have them level).

The output with the tuning fork is a tuner out, that's always on. I like this, because I can then stick a small tuner somewhere on the board I don't have to reach it.

The left output is just a regular (buffered) output, that gets muted by the left foot switch.

 

[JazznFunk]

Speaking from experience, use a quality volume pedal to cut the volume totallyy, like an Ernie Ball passive one, or get the aforementioned Little Lehle and slave one side of the A/B function to a tuner. I always recommend against using any tuner in-line due to poor experiences with signal loading and tone suck, regardless of the model of tuner in question. I keep my tuner out of the main path of my bass's signal by using the tuner out function on the amp itself, or by splitting it off. Even the 'tuner out' on the Ernie Ball pedal gave me trouble in the past if I had a tuner plugged in there.

 

[kenny ames]

Nope. With it in buffer mode, you preserve every bit of your signal and it sounds outstanding.
Like I said earlier, I will not play a gig without it on my board.

Sounds great. I’ll definitely look into it.

Can it be powered by a 9v battery? I know a 9v power supply can too. Just want to avoid lugging the Cioks out for 1 pedal.

Thx!

The old "pull the cord at the amp's end a bit" trick would probably work too, no?

Still sending to FOH.