Looking for silent practice instrument at low budget.

KlausUS

A very good (yet not cheap) solution is the AJL Quiet and Portable guitar. It is around 1900 EUR but it really feels like a real Gypsy Jazz guitar. It might be worth to save your money for this solution. It has a Bigtone Pickup built in. You can connect Waza Air Headphones and your Smartphone via bluetooth and even practice silently with a backing track.

The headphone sound is excellent with this solution and it is fun,……, and it keeps my marriage alive 😅

Willie

@KlausUS My gypsy mystery guitar cost 550 €. It's in the workshop for refretting, this will cost ~ 200 € = 750 € all in all. I am not very motivated to spend almost 2000 for a practice instrument (and this might turn out to be a burden for my marriage 😉). The school solution will work fine. But thanks to everybody for helping to find a way!

Buco

I did the experiment for you, Willie

https://youtu.be/R1GQXnbwCFY

richter4208

Barbie play kitchen for the win

Willie

@Buco What can I say? In any case a low budget and low tech alternative to the silent guitars on the market. This will earn you the bitter enmity of the relevant industry! Many thanks to you (and your daughter) for making this experiment possible, it really blew my mind!

billyshakes

Liked the soundtrack! Recognized it right off. Also the cool exploding effect when you popped the balloon.

Buco

It cracks me up just thinking what the heck did I do this morning lol. But it needs to a combination of both the inflatable guitar and ear tips to be effective. Or you can just give them ear tips to your wife and save yourself the trouble.

I'm using now the phone app video editor. It's awesome, super easy to use and edit, final processing is done way quicker then my aging laptop, love it. I was just messing around with transitions and effects seeing what it does. Called YouCut, it was something like $15

Chiefbigeasy

The attached is the best solution I’ve found so far. Something about the material, but also the size and easy manipulation make it winner. Adjustable too. The farther from the bridge, the more muted your strings. Really helps me paractice rest stroke and all my playing, even when I’m not too worried about sound.

That said, I sold my silent Yamaha and have ordered AJL’s silent and portable. Great guy, AJ. He’s going to customize it for me and add a little more wood in the upper bout area in order to slant the edge for comfort under the picking forearm. It’s the actual neck he uses for his regular guitars. It will be the best and only way to play a gypsy jazz guitar almost completely silently.

I’m lucky I can afford it, and if I couldn’t, I’d still highly recommend the pictured mute. The price is right, too.

Willie

@Buco: the balloon you introduced in january to dampen the strings is a versatile tool:

https://youtu.be/BlUx9xfDef4

Lango-Django

On behalf of banjo players everywhere, I protest! This cannot stand!