Muting Strings Between Bridge and Tailpiece

  1. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    My teacher Gerald suggested I mute the section of strings between the bridge and tailpiece on my new Weber. I've woven a short piece of paracord there, but need something wider. Suggestions?

    (Henry, my picture doesn't show when I select "Preview Message." I presume it won't show here either. Any idea where I went wrong?)

    https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/a...619446&thumb=1
  2. Stacey Morris
    Stacey Morris
    My Eastman came with a muting device there. It is a short piece of flat leather, and is right up behind the bridge. I don't know if the location makes any difference.
  3. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    Well, it looks to me like you did not put it into your album. But I don't know what you did do.
  4. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    But yes, you can take a piece of soft leather lace or felt and weave it between the strings. It will dampen the strings' vibration. But I bet the taiipiece has a piece of felt glued under it which does the same thing. If not, I am pretty sure it used to have it.
  5. NDO
    NDO
    My Eastman came with little rubber grommets between each pair of strings behind the bridge, but still had a few annoying buzzes during the winter- not as prevalent now.
    My BRW has no dampening and no apparent harmonics issues; if it develops any I’ll add some leather shoelace woven in the strings like I did on my Rogue.
  6. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    All my instruments have little pieces of black foam between the strings and tailpiece that were put in there while they were being set up.
  7. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    If I were to order something from Amazon, what would you suggest? I'm clueless as to where locally to look for some of the suggested materials.
  8. NDO
    NDO
    I literally bought leather shoelaces from the nearest boot store.

    One of them is installed on my Ranger as a strap, and another became tailpiece dampeners for a couple of mandolins.
    Or, Banjo Ben sells:
    CUMBERLAND ACOUSTIC HARMONIC SUPPRESSION GROMMETS FOR MANDOLIN for $6.99.
  9. Southern Man
    Southern Man
    I have the little rubber grommets on my Big Muddy.
  10. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    How would you compare the leather boot/shoe laces to the grommets?
  11. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    Sherry did you use the link button or the image button?
    I like your new strap.
  12. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    I tried the grommets and they work fine. But they get lost very easily when you change strings. Or maybe I should say, "I had a tendency to lose them when I changed strings." YMMV. I use a bit of leather bootlace or some kind of damping material glued under the tailpiece.
  13. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    Sue, I thought I followed Henry's instructions precisely. However, I believe his screenshot showed "copy image location," whereas mine read "copy image address," which I assumed would mean the same thing.
  14. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    From Mark's post:

    4. For displaying an image right there in your post, use the image button in the editor toolbar and type your URL there. Or, you can use the bbcode image tags if you know a bit about writing code. The tags look like this (but without the spaces):
    [ I M G ] [ / I M G]



    I just copied the link location from the post above and used the image button.
  15. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    Now I know who to call with my IT issues! BTW, thanks for liking my strap. I love the looks of the other one, but decided I didn't want something that wide. What I'm using is a long piece of paracord.
  16. Southern Man
    Southern Man
    I haven't tried the leather strap, so I can't really compare them. I can say that my mandolins without
  17. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    I just ordered these: CUMBERLAND ACOUSTIC HARMONIC SUPPRESSION GROMMETS FOR MANDOLIN
  18. NDO
    NDO
    They work great Sherry!
    Every time I change strings I channel my inner Hank and lose them all over the place. But so far I’ve always found them all and reinstalled them without issue. I’m sure I could find some at Lowe’s or Home Depot but haven’t had to try yet.
    They’ll work great!
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