Silencing Acoustic Guitar For Quiet Practice?

wim · April 2018

ahah I see you also don't like the too floppy strings on high E and B

Buco · April 2018

Like the guitar @Bones But shims on a brand new build?

Yeah guys, I know all of those little tricks work to some extent. Mostly they take out the high end but I don't think they take away much volume.
@geese_com I still have the old Radio Shack SPL meter but nowadays there are many apps that with the hardware they have behind do just as good of a job.
I wanted to see to what extent can you really silence it. Figured what you'd need to do is kill the sound producing energy, so: weigh down the bridge, dampen the strings, stop the top from vibrating. The silly-cone earplugs did all that until, well you know how that ended.
I really don't have a whole lot of need to silence it, was mostly curious to try things. Although if it was something easily done with noticeable volume reduction I'd use it.

Bones · April 2018

Yeah Buco, that isn't the actual bridge setup. That's just a temp thing so I could string it up unfinished (no lacquer, "in the white" as they say). I always like to string them up rough sanded and not the final setup so I can check everything out in case anything needs to be sorted out. That stuff is all coming off and then final sanding, lacquer, and a proper setup.

Wim, yeah I tried 10s on it but with the short scale the top 2 strings were just too floppy for me. Actually I'll probably string it up after lacquer with a full set of 11s.

Just had a bit of a jam with Scoredog and we traded off this one with his Hahl and his Holo. Pretty fun. I'd say this one held it's own. Can't wait to get the finish on and play it in a bit more.

geese_com · April 2018

Finally found my sound level meter (one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Decibel-Meter-RISEPRO-Digital-Sound/dp/B01EZZ8B5Q/)

I measured it at about 2 feet away and at level height with the sound hole.

Regular:
La Pompe = 77-83 dB
Single Lines = 72-77 db

Muted:
La Pompe = 75-80 dB
Single Lines 62-67 dB

I was surprised that the rhythm playing volume level did not change much but I suspect that is due to the percussive nature of the playing. The notes are muted though so they are not ringing out.

I did notice that the high E goes sharp using my muting method, but the other strings are pretty in tune with each other.

Not drastic reductions in volume but reductions nonetheless.

Here are some decibel levels of common settings for reference:

Buco · April 2018

Well, I got the putty that was safe for wood finish and indeed it was easy to put on and off. Works good.
However after comparing that method and others mentioned here I found that sticking foam earplugs, like @Bones said, is by far the easiest, cheapest and it deadened the sound the most. It really sucks the life out of the sound, for better and/or worse.
Now I have enough putty for my Krivo pickup to last me a lifetime.

PS somehow it seems like it may be beneficial to practice this way, @Chiefbigeasy said something about that too. You can hear way more clearly what the right hand is doing.

Chiefbigeasy · September 2019

Just got around to taking a couple of pics of how I mute my guitar for late night practice. The rolled cloth is just a soft cleaning cloth for glasses. The foam is soft and I cut a few grooves in. Both are easy and both give enough sound to figure out what your're doing. Believe it or not, the cloth does a better muting job. The advantage of this system is being able to pick a performance level, giving you a realistic feedback to your picking technique.

I use this when I'm doing some repetitive timing exercises at the beginning of my woodshedding. I remove the mute and enjoy the acoustic sound when I'm doing something not so repetitive, though I might be playing softer, working through some fingerings, etc.

I still use the Yamaha Silent guitar, but I think muting my actual instrument could be a better solution overall because I'm practicing on my actual performance instrument.

Chiefbigeasy · May 2021

Just when I thought there was no more to say about this topic, I rolled up a couple of tissues and slipped the tissue tube under the strings, et voila: substantially muted sound, but not enough to change the pitch of the string or otherwise affect playability. Fast, easy, cheap.