# Is this cheating?



## leftyguitarjoe (Sep 13, 2009)

I use a piece of velcro to mute my higher strings. The fuzzy half, not the hard plastic half. It helps alot. I find that when I palm mute, I make the higher strings ring out when I stop muting even though I never actually played them. Also, the muting helps to clean up solos, decreasing the noise an accidentally picked string would make. I also tap alot, and when you are done tapping, an open string tends to vibrate.

So yeah. I play with the bottom 5 strings muted and the top 2 unmuted so I can play open power chords. Someone accused me of "cheating". I think not. Opinions?


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## Scar Symmetry (Sep 13, 2009)

that is in no way cheating dude.

in fact, professional musicians such as Meshuggah use similar methods of acheiving a more clean live sound


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## Konfusius (Sep 13, 2009)

Calling that cheating is stupid. You could as well tell someone who is using a pick that he was cheating.


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## Empryrean (Sep 13, 2009)

Konfusius said:


> Calling that cheating is stupid. You could as well tell someone who is using a pick that he was cheating.


The teacher in guitar class says this


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## SpaceDock (Sep 13, 2009)

I've seen everything from wristbands, foam, rubber bands, and the MAB mute. Whatever works. Is a delay cheating because your not actually playing those notes at the same time, no.


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## GigantoRobotico (Sep 13, 2009)

You can't cheat at guitar. It's not like it's a game or some shit.

Music is creative and expressive, there are no rules.


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## vampiregenocide (Sep 13, 2009)

GigantoRobotico said:


> You can't cheat at guitar. It's not like it's a game or some shit.



Unless you're Dragonforce.


Seriously though man, its whatever works best  You're still playing the music so you're not cheating at all.


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## SargeantVomit (Sep 16, 2009)

Lots of bassists use similar mutes, it's basically necessary if you tap. Jazz basses used to come standard with foam mutes in the bridge as well. It's not cheating it's just a hardware tweak. I've used a sock tied around the first fret before.


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## xenophist (Sep 16, 2009)

When I record I sometimes use the end of a sock(the ring part that is closest to your knee) to mute select strings. Live I don't bother.


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## fretninjadave (Sep 16, 2009)

I consider it cheating because the whole point is to play cleanly in the first place.keeping the guitar quiet is part of the job.Now if it helps your tone thats a different story .


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## schecter007 (Sep 16, 2009)

can someone demonstrate this method with a picture? i just cant seem to quite grasp the idea of only being able to mute selected strings without doing them all and losing access to say the low e at the first fret


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## MF_Kitten (Sep 16, 2009)

i believe that iif you can play it in person, it's not cheating. muting is just a modification to the instrument to suit your playing.


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## TomParenteau (Sep 16, 2009)

Where do you put the velcro?


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## dexmix (Sep 16, 2009)

can we see some pics? i love seeing people's different mutes.

i usually just see tape. on the strings, or on the headstock, past the nut.


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## SargeantVomit (Sep 17, 2009)

schecter007 said:


> can someone demonstrate this method with a picture? i just cant seem to quite grasp the idea of only being able to mute selected strings without doing them all and losing access to say the low e at the first fret




It mutes them all, and does impede your access to the lower notes. 

To DexMix: If they are trying to mute their guitar from BEHIND the nut, they are failing pretty hard. Thats like that picture of the marshall halfstack being mic"d by the head instead of the cab. Maybe they could effect the harmonics in some way......maybe....




You can clearly see Regi Wooten playing with a couple of hair scrunchies in this video and he can rip on guitar.


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## -Nolly- (Sep 17, 2009)

SargeantVomit said:


> To DexMix: If they are trying to mute their guitar from BEHIND the nut, they are failing pretty hard. Thats like that picture of the marshall halfstack being mic"d by the head instead of the cab. Maybe they could effect the harmonics in some way......maybe....



Muting behind the nut fulfills a different purpose - it keeps the strings from ringing on, behind the nut, when you play something very staccato. On a guitar with a reverse headstock, this can be a fairly big problem if you want to achieve an extremely clean stop/start sound without running your gate so high that you lose the tail end of notes.


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## MF_Kitten (Sep 17, 2009)

exactly. on guitars with string-through-body and TOM, the strings behind the bridge before the body is also a problem area. not as much as the above-the-nut part, but it's audible.


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## SargeantVomit (Sep 17, 2009)

Cool, I never knew that. I'm kinda sloppy myself and don't really play anything "very staccato" haha. But it's good to know what helps. The more you know!!!


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## MF_Kitten (Sep 17, 2009)

i had a buddy once who insisted that muting strings behind the nut would kill the sustain. i tried explaining the physics behind why that'sbullshit, and tried instilling some pure logic into him, but he didn't get it. when he finally got it on his own, he quietly avoided mentioning it, but i noticed he put some tape on his strings above the nut 

same guy said that he didn't mind gibson making weight relief holes in the les pauls, and thought the whole almost-hollowed-out chambered les paul they offer/offered as a "light weight" model was great. i mentioned it ruining the sustain when compared to the normal solid-body ones, and he said something to the effect of "nowadays, who the hell needs sustain?". yeah, because sustain is only for jazzy/bluesy solo playing.

same guy, btw, also believed that all les pauls are hollow. all of them. nevermind the fact that they are "the original SOLIDBODY guitar". he was watching a video on youtube showing some footage from a gibson factory, and he didn't catch the fact that they cut together clips of different guitars being made. so he saw a clip of a les paul being made, then a clip of a hollow-body jazz box being made, and believed it to be one and the same, and no matter how much you'd tell him otherwise, that alone was sole proof of les pauls being hollow.

i'm so glad i don't hang out with him anymore, he always blurted out bullshit like that about EVERYTHING, and would never abandon his post. then when he changed his mind on his own later on, he would deny ever believing the opposite. i guess we all know the type, eh? 

anyways, i got way off topic, so i'll add that i usually just work extra hard on muting with my hands when i do tapping stuff. i don't do tapping sweep stuff though, so that might be different.


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## Dickicker (Sep 17, 2009)

GigantoRobotico said:


> You can't cheat at guitar. It's not like it's a game or some shit.
> 
> Music is creative and expressive, there are no rules.


 
Dude said it all right here!


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## dexmix (Sep 17, 2009)

SargeantVomit said:


> Cool, I never knew that. I'm kinda sloppy myself and don't really play anything "very staccato" haha. But it's good to know what helps. The more you know!!!



yeah i've actually seen muting above the nut more then people taping up strings.


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## Valserp (Sep 17, 2009)

fretninjadave said:


> I consider it cheating because the whole point is to play cleanly in the first place.keeping the guitar quiet is part of the job.Now if it helps your tone thats a different story .



Going by that logic, muting the tremolo springs is cheating aswell. I mean, come on - a good guitarist should be able to stick his junk in the trem cavity and control spring vibration with it


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## Bloody_Inferno (Sep 17, 2009)

I saw Jerry Horton taping the strings behind the stop tail bridge, and behind the nut on their recent Guitar World article. 







Only pic I can find... 

Basically to cut unwanted string noise for different reasons. For stop start stuff or for tapping or whatever. 

Sugizo's ESPs have foam right next to the nut for that reason. 






And I put scrunchies on all of my guitars. 


And then there's this red thing:


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## budda (Sep 17, 2009)

She met him!?

I've watched a show involving the girl in that picture, it was very interesting and very sad. At least, I think it was the same girl - it was about the disease, regardless.


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## dexmix (Sep 18, 2009)

so mab uses wrist bands? LOL.


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## schecter007 (Sep 18, 2009)

Whenever i recorded some tapping i just got a mate to put his finger on the lower strings haha never thought to use a wrist band... good idea tho *stolen*


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## Bloody_Inferno (Sep 18, 2009)

dexmix said:


> so mab uses wrist bands? LOL.



It's actually some kind of hinge/clip with a foam block that you attach to the neck. It can be flipped outwards like a switch when not needed. 

I couldn't find a better close up pic.


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## fretninjadave (Sep 23, 2009)

Valserp said:


> Going by that logic, muting the tremolo springs is cheating aswell. I mean, come on - a good guitarist should be able to stick his junk in the trem cavity and control spring vibration with it


 Yeah but I physically have to do that I dont need velcrow to keep my guitar strings quiet. I dint really mute my springs because I leave the cover off so my gut takes care of that .I'm just sayin you dont need to do all that extra crap .



Bloody_Inferno said:


> I saw Jerry Horton taping the strings behind the stop tail bridge, and behind the nut on their recent Guitar World article.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


He himself calls it a kind of cheating I've been to 3 of his clinics.


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## Ben.Last (Sep 23, 2009)

fretninjadave said:


> He himself calls it a kind of cheating I've been to 3 of his clinics.



And even though he is the almighty wanker known as MAB that's still just his opinion and his way of explaining it. 

You CAN'T cheat at music. As has been said, it's not a contest. Even calling lip syncing "cheating" isn't really accurate. It's bullshit but cheating really isn't the right word.



Bloody_Inferno said:


> It's actually some kind of hinge/clip with a foam block that you attach to the neck. It can be flipped outwards like a switch when not needed.
> 
> I couldn't find a better close up pic.



It's also retardedly expensive for what it is.


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## thebhef (Sep 23, 2009)

Found better pictures and more info:
The MAB String Dampener


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## Bloody_Inferno (Sep 23, 2009)

Lern2swim said:


> It's also retardedly expensive for what it is.


 
Damn, that kinda sucks, I wanted one.


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## Prydogga (Sep 24, 2009)

vampiregenocide said:


> Unless you're Dragonforce.


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## Ben.Last (Sep 24, 2009)

thebhef said:


> Found better pictures and more info:
> The MAB String Dampener



Like I said, retardedly expensive. 90 bucks for something that you can do with a scrunchy.


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## TheMasterplan (Sep 25, 2009)

Until autotune/pitch correction is invented for guitar [probably by way of Mr. Lee ] I don't think you can ever really "cheat" at playing guitar.


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## InCasinoOut (Sep 25, 2009)

TheMasterplan said:


> Until autotune/pitch correction is invented for guitar [probably by way of Mr. Lee ] I don't think you can ever really "cheat" at playing guitar.


Actually, there's a new Melodyne plug-in that does just that...

celemony_ :: Melodyne editor &nbsp;<i>beta</i>

edit: you can actually go back to a recording and correct individual notes in a chord, or even retune a single string with it. hell, you can even delete notes from a chord or add new ones. if that's not cheating, i don't know what is.


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## TomParenteau (Sep 25, 2009)

I was an EVH clone in the '80s. I still do quite a bit of tapping stuff. By now, I don't even know what I do to get the other strings to shut up. I think my arm mutes them somehow. I haven't analyzed it in forever!


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## Konfyouzd (Sep 25, 2009)

sounds like what thordendal does... 

i've seen strange digital effects that will play a sequence of notes when you play one single note... THAT is cheating... the velcro thing... i'll allow it.


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## Ben.Last (Sep 25, 2009)

Konfyouzd said:


> sounds like what thordendal does...
> 
> i've seen strange digital effects that will play a sequence of notes when you play one single note... THAT is cheating... the velcro thing... i'll allow it.



you mean like an arpeggiator? I wouldn't even consider that cheating. 

Again, it's not a contest.


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## BrainArt (Sep 26, 2009)

When I tap my right hand usually rests on the strings that I'm not tapping, and when I tap the lower notes, I barre the higher strings with my left index finger.


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