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Double Bass Wire Mute

Paul New

Paul New

Jun 1, 2004
3,420
5,102
deepest alabama
#1
Is anyone else using a Sihon mute? I first saw one on a Kay Mike Bub was playing. He said in an interview that he always has the mute on the bass. Another guy, Kyle Perkins, sells a lot of american plywoods and has a room full, and they ALL have the mute installed. Fitting the mute is part of the setup for him.

So I bought one from Gollihur and bent it to fit my Kay with EP Slaps, and I like it! For bluegrass only. I like a dirty sound, but finally realized that BG musicians are not into that, and the mute cleans it up nicely.

 
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#2
Similar in design to some fiddle mutes that I've seen.

Here's the mute that came with my bass:
IMG_20230415_084135213.jpg

It works!
 
#8
AGCurry said:
Forgive my ignorance, please, but why would we want to mute our basses to play Bluegrass?
Click to expand...

I thought the same, but then saw that Mike Bub uses one all the time, Jason Moore did, Kyle Perkins, etc…so I tried it. You can adjust it up and down the after length to have a subtle impact, no impact, or a lot. I think it mutes upper harmonics on the initial attack, similar to the effect of a foam mute on a p bass but maybe less pronounced.

I’m still in the experimentation stage, but so far so good. It’s solving problems I was unaware of. Great for slap, if you do that.
 
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#14
BassDaddy11 said:
Bob,
Have you any experience with the nino on your upright? I’d be interested to know how you like it. Thanks!
Click to expand...
I did a short experiment on my acoustic upright today. 2013 Upton hybrid strung with Evah light A D G, and Spirocore mittel E; nice sounding bass, good volume, gets good reviews, but nothing special IMHO.

I installed the Nino Mute on top of the bridge, as recommended. Did pretty much what I expected - dialed down the resonance and created a somewhat softer or darker tone. Not really to my liking. I'm not a fan of "thump" or "core" sounds in bluegrass.

Then I installed on the afterlengths, about 1" below the bridge. Reduced a couple of overtones that bother me. If I were gigging with this bass, I would use the mute in this position.

Like everything, I'm sure performance is related to strings, set up, and personal preference.

By comparison, I won't play my Yamaha SLB300 in a bluegrass or roots setting without the Nino Mute. It really shines at cutting down the endless sustain of an EUB.
 

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