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Post by Dr. Cloud on Jan 14, 2010 0:35:36 GMT -6
Mike, I was wondering how you mute the strings when you're playing those fast alternate picked runs, because I noticed you hold your hand over the strings whereas most shredders rest their hands on the bridge or something. Thanks ;D
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Post by Maxxxwell on Jan 14, 2010 9:34:30 GMT -6
Mike, I was wondering how you mute the strings when you're playing those fast alternate picked runs, because I noticed you hold your hand over the strings whereas most shredders rest their hands on the bridge or something. Thanks ;D derkcloud, Welcome to the forum! MAB actually uses his left / fretting hand to do most of his muting. While he's playing he'll use the fingers that aren't held down on frets to mute the other strings. Maybe Fullshred or MAB can explain this in a better way. I hope it makes sense. |
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Post by stevus on Jan 15, 2010 15:56:16 GMT -6
I think MAB explains and demonstrates it in "Speed Kills 2." His technique is so good that the fingers on his left hand, fretting the note, doesn't allow room for the string above & below to ring-out.
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Post by jani92jani on Jan 18, 2010 22:16:54 GMT -6
I think MAB explains and demonstrates it in "Speed Kills 2." His technique is so good that the fingers on his left hand, fretting the note, doesn't allow room for the string above & below to ring-out. I can play fast and etc. But I am strugeling with muting aand there is no point on playing fast if you cant mute. Could someone send a pic about Mab's muting. I would really appriciate it  |
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Post by jani92jani on Jan 19, 2010 22:44:25 GMT -6
Like this? I am holding down my e string and muting B. Sorry about crappy quality took it on my phone. Attachments:
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Post by blackjack on Jan 21, 2010 20:21:46 GMT -6
Mike, I was wondering how you mute the strings when you're playing those fast alternate picked runs, because I noticed you hold your hand over the strings whereas most shredders rest their hands on the bridge or something. Thanks ;D derkcloud, Welcome to the forum! MAB actually uses his left / fretting hand to do most of his muting. While he's playing he'll use the fingers that aren't held down on frets to mute the other strings. Maybe Fullshred or MAB can explain this in a better way. I hope it makes sense. I can see how if he were fretting a note on the B string for example, he could use his left hand to mute the adjacent E and G strings. But how about for covering up the rest of the strings? If youre playing at a high volume, you can get feedback or a ringing sound from ANY unmuted string, even the low E. You cant keep all the strings muted so that they dont feedback or make sounds just from vibrating slightly with just the left hand can you? |
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Post by Shredzie on Jan 22, 2010 0:14:17 GMT -6
derkcloud, Welcome to the forum! MAB actually uses his left / fretting hand to do most of his muting. While he's playing he'll use the fingers that aren't held down on frets to mute the other strings. Maybe Fullshred or MAB can explain this in a better way. I hope it makes sense. I can see how if he were fretting a note on the B string for example, he could use his left hand to mute the adjacent E and G strings. But how about for covering up the rest of the strings? If youre playing at a high volume, you can get feedback or a ringing sound from ANY unmuted string, even the low E. You cant keep all the strings muted so that they dont feedback or make sounds just from vibrating slightly with just the left hand can you? Hmm.. I wonder about this too. Can someone elaborate on this? Maybe he just uses amp and pedal settings that don't create much noise on the strings he cannot mute while playing fast? |
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Post by blackjack on Jan 22, 2010 7:42:52 GMT -6
I can see how if he were fretting a note on the B string for example, he could use his left hand to mute the adjacent E and G strings. But how about for covering up the rest of the strings? If youre playing at a high volume, you can get feedback or a ringing sound from ANY unmuted string, even the low E. You cant keep all the strings muted so that they dont feedback or make sounds just from vibrating slightly with just the left hand can you? Hmm.. I wonder about this too. Can someone elaborate on this? Maybe he just uses amp and pedal settings that don't create much noise on the strings he cannot mute while playing fast? Yes, I would love to read a reply from this by MAB, because you know that especially when playing loud, even when playing with proper technique, simply playing the guitar will cause the guitar, including any open unmuted strings to vibrate slightly. This will cause any unmuted strings, even ones you arent touching at all to vibrate enough to ring out slightly and keep you from sounding clean. Yet MAB always sounds so clean to me. Could it be that the volume of the strings he is picking is loud enough to simply cover up any mild ringing of any unmuted strings? Possibly, but at very high volumes they can feedback, and that would certainly be audible. |
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Post by Shredzie on Jan 22, 2010 23:23:45 GMT -6
Hmm.. I wonder about this too. Can someone elaborate on this? Maybe he just uses amp and pedal settings that don't create much noise on the strings he cannot mute while playing fast? Yes, I would love to read a reply from this by MAB, because you know that especially when playing loud, even when playing with proper technique, simply playing the guitar will cause the guitar, including any open unmuted strings to vibrate slightly. This will cause any unmuted strings, even ones you arent touching at all to vibrate enough to ring out slightly and keep you from sounding clean. Yet MAB always sounds so clean to me. Could it be that the volume of the strings he is picking is loud enough to simply cover up any mild ringing of any unmuted strings? Possibly, but at very high volumes they can feedback, and that would certainly be audible. I thought about that too. He does seem to have a very heavy, strong picking technique that might be so loud that it overrides the other strings slight buzz, who knows. It's almost like he uses a special invisible string dampener lol. He always sounds so clean live, even with multiple guitars. When I'm plugged into my T-Rex MAB OD and amp, I try his technique but always get noise and feedback from the unmuted strings. This is probably the biggest secret to his technique IMO. Also, I wish he would divulge his exact sig guitar setup and specs. Like height of action, radius, etc. Maybe one day he'll release a DVD answering these questions in detail and with some examples. |
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Post by stevus on Feb 9, 2010 14:52:17 GMT -6
Something to keep in mind too is that MAB is left-handed, yet plays predominantly a right-handed guitar. That subtle, semi-unique ability may be a key factor in fretboard-muting.
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Post by Shredzie on Feb 11, 2010 13:37:44 GMT -6
Something to keep in mind too is that MAB is left-handed, yet plays predominantly a right-handed guitar. That subtle, semi-unique ability may be a key factor in fretboard-muting. I'm fully aware of that. But I still don't get how the lower strings don't ring out when he is not fret hand muting, or palm muting, or playing on them. |
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Post by Jared Sipos on Feb 11, 2010 14:34:08 GMT -6
The way I do it is just - 1. Not using an extreme amount of distortion. Use a nice amount of smooth overdrive without killing it.
2. Pick accurately. Have a good clean picking technique.
3. Don't accidentally bump any string AT ALL! Make sure you're picking hand palm/thumb doesn't brush the low strings.
If you do everything right, the low strings should not ring out for no reason.
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Post by Shredzie on Feb 11, 2010 16:00:30 GMT -6
Thanks Jared!
I'm amazing at how easy MAB makes it seem. Look at how he's playing on the upper 3 strings in this vid:
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Post by SendHelp on Feb 11, 2010 16:46:28 GMT -6
I don't think MAB uses any noise gate or pedals to reduce the noise, I've seen his setup at over a dozen clinics and he just uses a delay pedal, and his overdrives, plugged into whatever amp may be available, though he seems to prefer marshalls. It can all be accredited to good technique.
If your amp or guitar doesn't buzz when all your strings are muted, then you have the potential to play just as cleanly. It does help to not use as much distortion.
I think there are some videos on youtube about muting. As for myself I mostly mute with my fretboard hand, but I think I also mute the open strings I'm not touching with my picking hand, sort of a hybrid of the two ways of muting.
Though it's the easiest way, I don't think it's good to just palm mute every single string as a solution, because your playing will start to sound muffled.
Anyways I think the reason the top strings don't ring out when he's not touching them at all is because of his meticulous good technique and he doesn't bump them at all with his fretting hand or anything, it's still a wonder though because with some guitars it seems if you bump the body of the guitar with the open strings they'll ring out/feedback.
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Post by Shredzie on Feb 11, 2010 17:09:56 GMT -6
Anyways I think the reason the top strings don't ring out when he's not touching them at all is because of his meticulous good technique and he doesn't bump them at all with his fretting hand or anything, it's still a wonder though because with some guitars it seems if you bump the body of the guitar with the open strings they'll ring out/feedback. That's the thing. Seems like when playing with enough gain, just small vibrations to the body are enough to make the strings start to ring after a while unless you are super careful. |
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Post by Jared Sipos on Feb 11, 2010 17:20:25 GMT -6
From watching MAB I noticed his picking is like this - Rhythm playing, he slightly palm mutes. Sweeping, he slightly palm mutes. Alternate picking fast, he does not palm mute.
This is exactly my approach on picking and I found that it works best for playing clean. I know that the secret behind not having the string noise is by not having over excessive distortion, and simply having good technique.
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Post by Jason on Feb 11, 2010 19:13:19 GMT -6
I've never ever ever had a problem with this personally. I've always used my left hand to mute when picking fast. I don't like the sound of high speed palm mute picking. Practice slow and it should just work naturally. I don't really know how to explain it. I believe if your thumb is way round the back of the neck and you're playing with good technique then fretboard muting shouldn't really be too difficult. Practice slow! It solves everything  |
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matsp
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Post by matsp on Oct 13, 2018 3:55:33 GMT -6
The way I do it is just - 1. Not using an extreme amount of distortion. Use a nice amount of smooth overdrive without killing it. 2. Pick accurately. Have a good clean picking technique. 3. Don't accidentally bump any string AT ALL! Make sure you're picking hand palm/thumb doesn't brush the low strings. If you do everything right, the low strings should not ring out for no reason. That's BS. An example: Pick the G on the eight fret on the B-string and the open G string will vibrate too, no matter how clean you play. |
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matsp
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Post by matsp on Oct 13, 2018 4:23:29 GMT -6
Anyways I think the reason the top strings don't ring out when he's not touching them at all is because of his meticulous good technique and he doesn't bump them at all with his fretting hand or anything, it's still a wonder though because with some guitars it seems if you bump the body of the guitar with the open strings they'll ring out/feedback. That's the thing. Seems like when playing with enough gain, just small vibrations to the body are enough to make the strings start to ring after a while unless you are super careful. It has to do with sympathetic vibrations. Doesn't matter how careful you are. An example once again: Hit the G on the eighth fret on the B string and the open G string will vibrate too. It gets really messy with lots of distortion if you don't mute this open string in some way. |
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