# Palm Muting Technique and Scale Length



## cGoEcYk (Apr 13, 2012)

I recently restrung my 24.7 with some heavy strings and tuned it to drop B (my 27" scale 7 is in drop B with a low F#) and found palm mutes to be super easy to use and control, and somewhat huge/obvious sounding. It's a different experience on this little guitar compared to the 27" scale, which I have generally found a little better sounding in the low ranges but harder to control and get chunky palm mutes out of.

I am kind of new to guitar (old to bass but fooling around on guitar for about 4 months) and just wondered if this was a typical experience or if there were tips for RH technique to get the best out of larger scale guitars.


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## Aevolve (Apr 14, 2012)

If you're using the same gauge strings on the shorter scale length, the strings will hold less tension. The whole idea behind longer scale lengths for guitars is more string tension to keep the low-end tightened up. So, naturally it would be easier to pick strings with less tension in them. That's all man.


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## Andromalia (Apr 14, 2012)

Hence why half the metal bands in the world play on 24.75 gibsons. ^^


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## cGoEcYk (Apr 14, 2012)

I have fairly high tension on my 27" 7 string... I found to get a similar strong attack, I just need to use a heavier pick and play a dash harder. I have a lot to learn, but it's fun.


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## Tesla_1989 (Apr 15, 2012)

I notice the same thing when I got my baritone-7. What gauge strings are you using?


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## cGoEcYk (Apr 16, 2012)

I tried out an Ernie Ball 8-string set for this tuning (drop B, low F#) using- 

13-17-30-42-54-64-74

I like the tension and sounds of the low strings (64, 74, the 54 begins feeling tight), but it gets a little too hard on the higher ranges. Forget about doing bends or playing cleans on the high strings.

At least I got a point of references out of this set, I will come up with something else for the next set with the aim of lower tension.


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## Solodini (Apr 17, 2012)

Just take that set, ditch the 54 and use a 10 for your high E. 42 to 64 may be a bit of a leap but that will be a fairly cheap option, at least.


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## Winspear (Sep 19, 2015)

I'm bumping up this thread becuase I've just discovered I have this problem. 
As some of you know, I have the 29.25-24.75 scale 9 string ViK. This has been my only 'regular' electric guitar for a few years now. 
I've had a couple of years away from playing metal, and, mostly, this guitar. I've been playing a lot of fingerstyle classical, acoustic, archtop etc. 
I thought I'd lost my metal chops with this time off whenever I tried to play fast single note riffs on the ViK recently. But upon trying to play metal on my 24.75 7 string archtop, I notice that's not the case.
I'm experiencing exactly what has been said here and I never really noticed it before.
The strings on my 29.25 are tight, the tone is excellent, I love everything about this guitar as I always say. But I'm noticing an issue with PMd single note riffs on it. Chords and stuff which I usually play are fine, but I'm getting more into death metal and really struggling!
I was blown away by how much more articulation, speed, control, and right hand beef I had when trying to play metal on my archtop.

I wish I had something in the middleground like 27.5" to hand to try. I have the 29.25" because I use a low E and like tight, bright strings so never got on with shorter scale ERGs as much. But that's before I noticed this significant problem in my right hand only when playing a particular style of riff.


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## Deadnightshade (Sep 20, 2015)

EtherealEntity said:


> I'm bumping up this thread becuase I've just discovered I have this problem.
> As some of you know, I have the 29.25-24.75 scale 9 string ViK. This has been my only 'regular' electric guitar for a few years now.
> I've had a couple of years away from playing metal, and, mostly, this guitar. I've been playing a lot of fingerstyle classical, acoustic, archtop etc.
> I thought I'd lost my metal chops with this time off whenever I tried to play fast single note riffs on the ViK recently. But upon trying to play metal on my 24.75 7 string archtop, I notice that's not the case.
> ...



For me about 18-19 lbs of tension are enough even for a low E at a similar scale (29.5"). It requires a bit lighter touch and maybe even a tad higher action to compensate (as long as it's less than 3 mm for the 8th string it's ok I believe). Same goes for the 7th and 6th string. Also I would like to mention that while in principle fanned frets are the t1ts, even at moderate fans such as mine (29.5" to 26.5") I find the playability lacking in terms of the right hand.


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## Winspear (Sep 20, 2015)

Yeah I rock 19-29. Tension seems fine, I even tuned it up a tone and it didn't help much. Just something I've suddenly noticed. I feel like I can definitely work on it, but the response of the string just does seem very different.
I don't think it's the angle of my bridge because this happens playing across just 1 or 2 strings. I understand and extreme fan could be a problem with string skipping and keeping the mute tone even.


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