# I ghetto-rigged my own fretwrap...



## straightshreddd (Mar 14, 2013)

Now, everyone has their own version of things to mute with and I'm sure dozens of you guys have done this same exact thing. But, I thought this came out looking pretty clean and rather nice looking as well as fully functional, so I thought I'd share. 

I was considering buying some Gruv Gear Fretwraps and decided against it because someone in another thread knocked some sense into me, so I decided to make my own. I always used to use my sister's scrunchies and hair ties, but it is a tiny bit annoying having to stretch it and carefully avoid the tuners to remove it. So, I made this little jawn for a whopping $2.05.



They had these little foam paint brushes at Walmart for a dollar and the largest one was more than enough foam.









Copped some velcro for a buck, too.








Cut the foam and velcro to fit nice and perfectly.








And boom. Perfect fit and easily removable. 


















Again, I'm sure plenty of you guys already thought of this, but I just thought I'd share this for the guys still rockin' scrunchies, bare foam, or rubber bands and don't wanna spend $30 on legit fretwraps. I felt like this looked almost nice enough to say I bought it.  So, yeah. Feel free to steal this, bros.


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## DeathMentaL (Mar 14, 2013)

nice, thats certainly one way of doing it.


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## flypap3r (Mar 14, 2013)

You are the damned MacGuyver of djent!


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## straightshreddd (Mar 14, 2013)

flypap3r said:


> You are the damned MacGuyver of djent!





haha I appreciate the kind words, but...


 I don't djent.
























But, seriously.


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## Drowner (Mar 15, 2013)

What exactly does that do?


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## Speculum Speculorum (Mar 15, 2013)

Drowner,

If you place the fret wrap between the tuning pegs and the nut, it dampens the sympathetic vibrations of the strings after you stop playing and mute them. This prevents the "ring" and "ping" noises that can are associated with high-gain playing, especially with palm muted chords.

If you place it after the nut, you can control string resonance for solos and tapping. They're handy.


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## LolloBlaskhyrt (Mar 15, 2013)

Well done  I'm going to make one for me too.


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## Drowner (Mar 15, 2013)

I've been playing for 16yrs and i dont think i have ever heard these vibrations. Maybe i will throw one of the wifeys hairties on there and see if i can hear a difference.


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## Speculum Speculorum (Mar 16, 2013)

For the record, it's most noticed when recording, where every tiny sound becomes a huge issue. Guys have been doing things to get this effect for a long time, whether it's Victor Wooten using a thick scrunchie over his bass guitar, or it's been dudes taping off high strings in the studio when recording rhythm riffs.


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## FooBAR (Mar 16, 2013)

Drowner said:


> I've been playing for 16yrs and i dont think i have ever heard these vibrations. Maybe i will throw one of the wifeys hairties on there and see if i can hear a difference.



Then you have teh l33t skillz, brah !!!!111!!!


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## indrangelion (Mar 16, 2013)

Haha I did exactly the same thing the other day. It's actually something that pisses me off. The fact that companies would charge $30 for these. Granted they are of high quality and looks pretty cool, but why not make them yourself for $0.30? It's just a velcro cable wrapper and a piece of fucking foam really.


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## Seanthesheep (Mar 16, 2013)

Drowner said:


> I've been playing for 16yrs and i dont think i have ever heard these vibrations. Maybe i will throw one of the wifeys hairties on there and see if i can hear a difference.



I have some hairties on my guitars, havent tried anything as heavy dity as the OP but the regular hairties work great if you need to stop stings ringing out for tapping. Other than that it doesnt do much


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## straightshreddd (Mar 16, 2013)

indrangelion said:


> Haha I did exactly the same thing the other day. It's actually something that pisses me off. The fact that companies would charge $30 for these. Granted they are of high quality and looks pretty cool, but why not make them yourself for $0.30? It's just a velcro cable wrapper and a piece of fucking foam really.



Hell yeah, man. Good shit, brah! Looks nice and clean. 

I was just about to say that you guys should post a pic of what you use to mute with so peeps can pick up some inspiration or something.


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## BlackMastodon (Mar 16, 2013)

Think I might have to try this and see if it makes a big difference or not. At the very least it would help make tapping sound cleaner.


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## straightshreddd (Mar 17, 2013)

BlackMastodon said:


> Think I might have to try this and see if it makes a big difference or not. At the very least it would help make tapping sound cleaner.



It's not a day and night difference for the most part, but if you play high gain stuff with sharp, tight pauses and rests, then you'll notice a difference for sure.


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## Randyrhoads123 (Mar 23, 2013)

Just did mine today! Looks good, works good. Definitely worth the $2.


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## straightshreddd (Jun 14, 2013)

Holy titties, man. I forgot all about this thread. That looks excellent, bud!  So cheap, yet so functional.


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## silent suicide (Jun 19, 2013)

Thanks for the idea.
Only I could make everything with stuff from work.
So it was Free, as it says on the 7 string one.












Edit: 100th post


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## AxeHappy (Jun 19, 2013)

Brilliant. A little upset I never thought of it. Haha.


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## Dillski (Jun 19, 2013)

Seems so obvious in hindsight xD


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## Pezshreds (Jun 19, 2013)

Ghetto raps is the best idea ever. Going to the store this weekend to make 3 of these haha


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## Rojne (Jun 20, 2013)

I always put foam under the strings behind the nut on my guitars!

But this is a greater idea for soloing and that shit, might have to create my own ghetto-wrap!


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## straightshreddd (Jun 20, 2013)

Pezshreds said:


> Ghetto raps is the best idea ever. Going to the store this weekend to make 3 of these haha






Rojne said:


> I always put foam under the strings behind the nut on my guitars!
> 
> But this is a greater idea for soloing and that shit, might have to create my own ghetto-wrap!



Ghetto Wrap is now the official name of this device.


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## itsallinmyh3ad (Jun 25, 2013)

Thanks so much for this. Went to Wal-Mart yesterday, and bought the materials. Spent $2.50, and I could probably do around a dozen of those fretwraps, haha. It works great.


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## CaptainLuckeyBeard (Jun 25, 2013)

Soo I bought one of the Gruv Gear fret wraps....but in my defense, it was a St.Pats day special thing so it was only $10 for a single green one that looks pretty bad ass on my bass  It works great too, its more like a fabric thing on the inside though instead of the piece of foam. Probably because the higher density means better sound absorption?  I'm in the middle of recording a full length album soooo its definitely served its purpose already!


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## straightshreddd (Jun 25, 2013)

itsallinmyh3ad said:


> Thanks so much for this. Went to Wal-Mart yesterday, and bought the materials. Spent $2.50, and I could probably do around a dozen of those fretwraps, haha. It works great.



 No problem, bud. 




CaptainLuckeyBeard said:


> Soo I bought one of the Gruv Gear fret wraps....but in my defense, it was a St.Pats day special thing so it was only $10 for a single green one that looks pretty bad ass on my bass  It works great too, its more like a fabric thing on the inside though instead of the piece of foam. Probably because the higher density means better sound absorption?  I'm in the middle of recording a full length album soooo its definitely served its purpose already!



If it works for you and serves its purpose then nice, brah.


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## Fred the Shred (Jun 26, 2013)

The bit of fabric is there with an elastic velcro bit to make sure that it's easy to move while uniformly spreading across the strings without too much pressure (this concerning the actual FretWraps).

As for the ghettowraps, while not exactly something I'd use extensively on the road (especially considering the bombastic combo of "no time" and "amazing DIY skills"  ), the stuff I see here seems perfectly functional, so good one!


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## conjurer_of_riffs (Jun 26, 2013)

NICE POST! Will be making my own!


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