Silencing Acoustic Guitar For Quiet Practice?

jscook777

I'd like to silence a Gypsy guitar for late night practice and my girlfriend's sanity. My old man said I should try stuffing it with pillow-like foam, I'd like it to be very quiet, almost like an unplugged solid-body. Any suggestions? maybe a can of sprayfoam?

Thanks for any input,
Jason

Oh yeah, free live mp3's if anybody want's them. Yipee free music.
www.myspace.com/thecooktrio

MichaelHorowitz

Michael Dunn...the Luthier from B.C., makes these resonance mutes that you put behind the bridge. It's supposed to dampen unwanted harmonics. I had a Dunn with one of these mutes....I found it much more useful to put it in front of the bridge. It totally muted the strings, making each one just thump when you picked it. Was a great way to practice late at night. Worked well, but I still got evicted from my apartment in Amsterdam anyway! I'm serious....I was driving the neighbors nuts!!

jscook777

Thanks Micheal. I just tried putting a sock in it, literally, at the bridge. It helped but I need more. I'm thinking of getting a budget guitar from you and stuffing it full of dense pillow foam and maybe some rubber wrapped around the strings.

Isn't it horrible having neighbours. I'm buying a boat that's it.

BluesBop Harry

You could try Violin dampers...before you buy that boat

Chiefbigeasy

Coming back to this thread to comment that I’m currently using this dampening trick to try to concentrate on picking precision while playing with a little more force. I realized that practicing at home at night in the quiet of my music room, even with a backing track, is not the way I’m going to play in any other venue whether it’s band practice or performance.

Listening to the percussive part of my playing helps me to hear the rhythm of my picking a little better without the ringing of the strings to mask mistakes in timing or missed strings with the right hand or missed pressing with the fingers of the left. I can get that kind of Al Dimeola muted string effect without palming the strings and defeating the rest stroke hand position we work so hard to learn and maintain.

Running through some chromatic and arpeggio exercises or some of the examples from Michael’s Gypsy Jazz Picking book like this for even 5 to 10 minutes, I think, will make a difference in how I play otherwise. It does also have the added advantage of being quieter, if that’s what’s needed.

Anybody else do this or some variation?

geese_com

A trick that I figured out recently is putting a FretWrap (https://gruvgear.com/products/fretwraps-1pk) by the bridge. It works great to mute the guitar to work on right hand technique. I was looking for a solution for practicing while watching TV and just happened to have a FretWrap sitting around. You can hear the notes enough to hear what you are playing but they are muted as if you were palm muting the string.

It does sound quite percussive so it works well for working on right hand technique without being so loud and without having to alter your technique.

I posted in another thread that I initially thought that it does not work well however for rhythm practice, but after practicing rhythm with the FretWrap on for a while it does actually work. You are able to tell what chord you are playing without it ringing out obviously.

Buco

@geese_com are these much more effective than say a double sided strap of Velcro tape?

geese_com

Buco wrote: »

@geese_com are these much more effective than say a double sided strap of Velcro tape?

I am not sure since I have not tried the double sided strap of Velcro tape method.

I do have a decibel meter, so I can do a test between the muted and unmuted guitar if anyone is interested.

DragonPL

Put a sock in it.. literally....under the bridge, that's what we used to do when practicing in hotels, especially in countries which take their siesta seriously

Jazzaferri

I use the palm of my hand to mute the strings. It doesn't rest on the strings it just lands on them slightly before the pick. I only use it when I am watching tv with my wife so I dont drive her completely crazy. Probably not something to do until one has the downstroke and pompe techniques completely under control though.

Chiefbigeasy

Recently, I’ve been taking a small glasses-cleaning microfiber cloth and rolling into a cylinder about the with of the strings. Then I stuff it under the strings and push against the bridge and, et voila, muted strings.

Like I said, I find I can practice more forceful downstrokes than I would tend to do in the quiet of my study. I can really concentrate on the percussive aspects of la pompe, and I can hear more precisely the meter of some of my triplet and chromatic exercises.