Playing on the fret.

[arthurhenry]

Amongst the numerous discussions about methods of muting, be they manual or mechanical, I've never seen mention of fingering notes by pressing directly on the fret, which I find quite effective for a particular type of muted sound. Anyone do this?

[bazzbass]

no, fret it properly otherwise it's not in tune. If you mean a ghost note, you don't need to fret at all

Edited May 25, 2019 by bazzbass

[DoubleOhStephan]

2 hours ago, arthurhenry said:

Amongst the numerous discussions about methods of muting, be they manual or mechanical, I've never seen mention of fingering notes by pressing directly on the fret, which I find quite effective for a particular type of muted sound. Anyone do this?

Not quite sure what you mean. Always up for learning a new technique though, but when I just tried I wasn't muting, just playing a note..? 

Can you do a demo or post a pic? 

Cheers 

[arthurhenry]

1 hour ago, DoubleOhStephan said:

Not quite sure what you mean. Always up for learning a new technique though, but when I just tried I wasn't muting, just playing a note..? 

Can you do a demo or post a pic? 

Cheers 

Pressing down directly onto the fret. Compare the sound just behind the fret to on top of it.  It's got a muted quality.

[DoubleOhStephan]

1 hour ago, arthurhenry said:

Pressing down directly onto the fret. Compare the sound just behind the fret to on top of it.  It's got a muted quality.

Well look at that, a very subtle but definitive mute! Thanks @arthurhenry, I'll work on that, another string to the bow 👍🏻

[EMG456]

Some Chapman Stick players do this for a muted sound.

[ped]

Yeah it does work! I think even better on basses with big frets. Good tip 👍🏼

[Maude]

On 25/05/2019 at 17:10, bazzbass said:

no, fret it properly otherwise it's not in tune. 

Eh? The string still vibrates between the fret and the bridge saddle, it's just the pad of your finger hanging past the fret very slightly mutes the string. Palm muting is the same thing at the other end of the string, albeit a different amount, and doesn't pull it out of tune. 

[blisters on my fingers]

Didn't Jaco Pastorius do this when he played a fretted bass?

[Ricky 4000]

1 hour ago, blisters on my fingers said:

Didn't Jaco Pastorius do this when he played a fretted bass?

A common beginner's mistake. 😃

[Grangur]

Another variation on this is done by one of the instructors on SBL: Danny Maurice. He frets the note, but let's the pad of another finger rest in front of the fret, deadening the note. This way you don't need to be so totally accurate in the finger position