Why is a mute on a Jazzmaster such a rare sight?

[bjornsynneby]

Hmmm I also love the mute. The sound of the mute is really nice. The reason apart from the sound of it is that I want to be able to always have my hand on the tremolo arm, and that is not possible with palm muting. So, there is actually a specific use for this long forgotten artefact of a device. A specific sound and being able to use the tremolo while muting. The muted tremolo sound.

My predicament is that the thing wont fit between the bridge and pickup cover of my Jazzmaster. I’m actually thinking about getting another not so wide pickup to make the mute fit in there.

I know that the aesthetics of the Jazzmaster is tightly joined with the pickup covers and the body shape but damn what a nice guitar it would be!

That or just buy a Jaguar.

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

Ohh guys. Now I want a mute (again)…never had one - but always wanted to put one in my Vintera… but they were always sold out at the few possible sources within Europe… now I‘m about to sell that guitar (love the look of it - but we never bonded the way I bonded with most of my other guitars, also need money badly atm) - with it gone I also wouldn‘t have a vintage-style Jag any more as all others have PAF-sized pickups.

[Nudger]

I love the "look" of the original Fender Mute, but like most everyone else... I never actually use it. I put them on my Squier VM's strictly for appearance sake and don't even bother to route out the body for the plunger and spring. If the mute will clear the bridge pickup on a Jazzmaster (I don't think it will) you could do the same thing if you like the way it looks but never actually use it.

Id do the same if I had a squier to slap it on, never used the one on my avri "gone now" but they look so damn cool..
Think vintage style jags look wrong without one.

[RumorsOFsurF]

I view the mute like I do all those bridge and pickup covers Fender would include... an extraneous piece that you'd remove and try not to misplace.

I bought a used AVRI that did not come with one (previous owner probably lost it), so I installed one. Destroyed the foam within a few months because I play too aggressively. But the mute looks good on there, at least.

[PapaB]

Great tread! At first I thought it was the premise to a joke in bad taste, like "why did the chicken crossed the road?" Then I thought it was a kill switch, like the one the late, & great Mr. EVH had on his Wolfgang. But it is neither. It's some sort of mechanism on these guitars I'm gonna have to look up. Very cool.
I'm guessing it's something like the "dampers" on their early basses .... Not that I'm very familiar with those either. In the old days cats would place foam on the bridge of their Precision basses to reduce sustain ....

[PapaB]

It is! Very interesting. I looked at the bass dampers too. Great post.

[Salfaromeab]

I put a mute back on my 65 Jag not too long ago. I've been having a lot of fun with it. No, it doesn't sound exactly like palm muting, but if you treat it as something different it's a cool sound. Not all that dissimilar to those rubber bridge guitars I keep seeing all over the internet.

[graceless]

Cause I can make 95% the same sound using my palm, I took it off all my jags as well. One more thing to rattle

[Embenny]

My favourite part of this thread is the 9-year necropost that simply continued the conversation as though nothing was unusual.

[andy_tchp]

If the mute is rattling in either position something is very wrong.

[jorri]

I actually quite like the idea because I've tried packing foam on the occasion to mute strings (moreso on bass...).
Totally different style to palm muting, and you can play quite freely, and the sound is more focused or precise whereas palm muting is kind of awkward and your palm with move around.
But, alas, despite my custom pickguard having a hole for it, the body doesn't and i'm to scared or lazy to drill- or don't feel its exciting enough to warrant doing it!

[fuzzjunkie]

My favourite part of this thread is the 9-year necropost that simply continued the conversation as though nothing was unusual.

9 years must be close to a record for reviving a post? I have seen a few in the 5-6 year range.

If you were ever interested in treated guitar tones, the mute can come in handy. I imagine Leo thought it would be good for string dampening or staccato sounds and that would appeal to surf guitar players. Crank up the ‘verb, hit the strings hard and pop away.

I used to stick things between the mute and the strings to get different sounds, like a Sitar buzzing, or damping one or two strings I didn’t want ringing out while recording.

Muting the strings while playing with a bow or eBow or screwdriver is a different sound. Run that through a bank of delays and reverb and you have a nice bed of sound.

[JSett]

My favourite part of this thread is the 9-year necropost that simply continued the conversation as though nothing was unusual.

9 years must be close to a record for reviving a post? I have seen a few in the 5-6 year range.

I've definitely seen older revivals on here. I'm sure someone necromanced a thread from about 2010 last year

[Zork]

I'm really happy about the resurrection of this thread. I wanted to put a mute on my Bass VI since I don't know when but the kit is very hard to find in EU so I never got one. This thread encouraged me to look again and I actually found a shop and they said it will be available in june which is really not too bad. I ordered two, just in case I love it enough to put it on both my Bass VIs.

[Mad-Mike]

I like the mute I just don't like what it does to the action. I put one on my 98 CIJ Jaguar back in 2007 and used it for about a year. I still have the hardware sans-foam in the case, lol. That Jaguar without it is one of the lowest, slickest guitar's Ive seen. No shim, bridge almost decked, and no chocking and very little buzz, and the Japanese whammy is eager to bend and twist notes and keep em' in tune.

I'm planning in the not too distant future to build a sort-of River-Table-Epoxy filled reclaimed pallet wood Jaguar that has the mute, but it's recessed into the body. I miss being able to use that for certain things, and it'd be especially useful with the monophonic synth stuff on my Line6 HD500, but I find it screws with the action too much without being recessed into the body.