Right Hand Muting

[melp]

Hi All,

Wonder if you have any advice and tips how to effectively do right hand muting on a resonator? I don't have a problem with right hand muting on a non-resonator. But basically the biscuit cover gets in the way. I seem to either loose the picking angle or the muting, what I would like to do is to keep both.

Is it just me? Or does everybody have a problem with this? Especially if you have any tips, other than use the left hand, which I do but sometimes its not the option you would want to use.

All the best

Mel

[snakehips]

Hi there !

I used to right-hand mute with my palm, close to the bridge, when I played regular acoustic guitars.
I too found it difficult at first, when I got my first reso to get the same results, for the same reason as you - the hand-rest.

Rest assure, I soon got over this and still palm-mute butslightly further from the bridge now, as close as the hand-rest will allow. I still can play and get it to sound as I want.

Bear in mind that a reso guitar is a different beast than a regular acoustic - so try and think of it in that was, as something to be positive about, rather than try and try to get it to do what is not possible then be disappointed about.

Yes, you could remove the hand-rest (more recent NRP guitars let you unscrew the hand-rest).
I would not recommend this though. Replacing squashed cones every 3 months will be a million times more annoying (not to mention expensive) than not being able to palm-mute as close to the bridge as you could on regular acoustics. I promise !!

Enjoy your reso(s) for what they are.

Peace, and Happy New Year all !

[Michael Messer]

Hi Mel,

I know some people do have problems with this. I have played Nationals, Dobros and lap-steels with hand-rests for so long that I don't even think about it.

My right hand damping is done very close to the hand-rest - I tuck the heel of my hand right up into the hand-rest. Everyone just has to find their own way around these things.

Shine On
Michael

[andys]

I guess I just seem to do more left hand damping to compensate for not quite being able to damp as much with my right. I am a player who when I have a pick in my hand, and am playing either an electric or an acoustic, tends to damp the strings with the heel of my right hand quite a lot. However on a resonator, I find that having the handrest actually helps, in that because it restricts your damping to a certain extent, it encourages you to not only use more open ringing notes, but also encourages left hand behind the slide damping and left hand chord damping in general. Especially on bass runs of notes, you sometimes have to play a bit more like a bass player does, and cut off the notes with your fretting hand, or spare left fingers, to get a more damped tone.
Its funny that at one time, early electric guitars were sold with handrests and bridgecovers that were soon discarded. There are a few players that keep the ashtray covers on a Telecaster, but not many. And there are very few bass players that kept the covers and rests on their Precisions and Jazz basses.

[Deleted]

Mel

I seem to draw the forearm in at the shoulder so the ball of the thumb rests on the bass strings as my thumb pick hits the strings. This gives a muted sound.

That's what I think I do... but I first started doing it and just now tried to analyse it in a mechanical way!

I wonder if almost always standing to play makes it easier for me.

Best of success

[melp]

All,

Thanks for the advice and encouragement. Will continue to attempt to develop this.

best

Mel