Mute Bars?

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

I heard of mute bars long ago, when I first started playing, but I never actually saw one until this recent picture of a Gibson showed up in the forum's Classified Ads:

How do these work? Are they spring loaded for your palm? Do you wrap your pinky around them? Seems like it would be at least as difficult as proper blocking, in any case. Confused

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Mike Neer · From: NJ

In lieu of a selector switch, maybe?
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Jon Light (deceased) · From: Saugerties, NY

I don't know the answer but I am wondering---instead of a neck selector switch, maybe this mutes one neck or the other, one on, one off? Just to silence the neck you are not playing? I don't see a pickup selector toggle.

Rob Munn · From: British Columbia, Canada

Hi Bob,

I am the owner of said guitar and as Mike Neer says, the mute bar, whose manufacturer I have to look up again was a stock item on these 1938/39's and they were made before a neck selector switch was installed. Yes, it works (well) by muting one side or the other. This baby really sings and I believe it was played a lot, and was well taken care of. Dials are as smooth as Frank Sinatra and the CC pups are amazing in tone and output. Wish I knew how to play it.
Rob

Glenn Uhler · From: Trenton, New Jersey, USA

Don't know when you started playing, b0b, but I seem to remember mute bars on some six strings when I started playing in the 60's. A couple of the Fender models might have even had them. I know several makers in Germany used them. The mute bars were used to get a "pitzicatto" effect. (I think that's the name for it.) If you didn't have a mute bar, you used the side of your hand to partly mute the strings, like partial palm blocking.
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Eugene Cole · From: near Washington Grove, MD, USA

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

That makes sense. I was thinking it was something you used while playing as a substitute for blocking. Totally wrong. Embarassed

Thanks for setting me straight.
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Former Member · Posted 15 Dec 2012 11:59 pm

I had this thought a few months ago, that it would be cool to have a mute bar you operated with a foot pedal.. was that ever made?

Joachim Kettner · From: Germany

Glenn wrote:

Rob Munn · From: British Columbia, Canada

HI Eugene,

Explained very well. The mute does work and as far as a pizzicato effect, it makes sense now that I have heard 3 recordings of muted notes played on one side of the neck while chording on the other. However, I am sure the main purpose is to just deaden the strings on the opposite side so as not to get any unwanted whines or hums. Nice photo of your CG Eugene. A double eight and it looks pristine! I have been browsing around and somewhere I found two more examples of this "pizzicato?" effect on another string on this forum. Thanks for the Billy Vaughn example Joachim. You would have to be very quick at palm blocking; I'm tending to think that they were using the mute bars for this effect. So cool. Did any players really use the mute bars for this picking style or were they just palm or pick blocking?
See also these old threads:
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/001020.html
Rob

Carlos Polidura · From: Puerto Rico

If it's what I'm thinking the Fender pedal steel model 2000 I used to have had a mute bar on it... never used the mute for any song.

David Stilley · From: Santa Cruz, California, USA

I have an early 60's electric solid body banjo that I believe was made by Kent. There is no name badge on the headstock but I saw another on the web somewhere, maybe a Teisco. Anyway it has a similar device that flips up close to the bridge that is made to give the strings a staccato effect. Without this engaged it sounds kind of like a Stratocaster instead of a banjo.

But I believe that the one on the double neck is just supposed to mute the neck you aren't using. But remember the pedals on the early PSG's were only meant to change a tuning, not to slur notes. So musicians discover things about their instruments and add them to their arsenal of techniques when it is useful to them.
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b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Electric banjo (shudder)... I have a banjo mute in my toolbox. It's a clawhammer. Winking

(please don't post that picture)

I once heard of a steel guitar mute device that only muted specific strings. I assumed that the strings were on the same neck, but now that I see this I understand. The advantage is that the impedance of the guitar doesn't change when you change necks, as it does with a neck selector switch.
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David Stilley · From: Santa Cruz, California, USA

Did someone who played the banjo abuse or beat you as a child or something? I've heard that you have a dislike of them but I never knew that it was so strong! There's therapy that can help with these kind of issues. Most people reserve these kind of feelings for accordions and their players! (Play an accordion and go to jail, that's the law!) Have you seen that bumper sticker? You might raise some money for the forum selling one subbing Banjo for Accordion.
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Bill Hampton · From: Colorado, USA

I'm with b0b, sign me up for one of those bumper stickers! Laughing

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