I'm going to use a fret wrap. How annoying!

I’ve been learning a particular baseline that has quite a lot of staccato notes moving around root/7th/Octave generally around 4th and 6th frets. It doesn’t involve any open string notes.

Turns out my muting techniques just can’t cope! My excuse is that my bass is so very lively - it seems I can get a harmonic anywhere within 1 fret of the 5th or 7th fret wire! (My older bass is much less lively for some reason - harmonics on that one need laser precision or you just get a ‘donk’ noise)

So my usual right hand muting with fingers resting across multiple frets along the neck won’t work due to the left hand fingering for this particular line. The result is a ringing harmonic mess.

So I’ve given up and sent off for a little fret wrap thingy. I tried with a bit of fabric stuffed between the fingerboard and strings at fret 1 and it made an instant difference - killing all the harmonic nonsense immediately.

Is this an admission of failure? I promise I’ll only use it for this one song!

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Some pretty high end bassists use fret wraps. You might want to keep it for more than one song though - you need to retune after putting it on/off

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Retuning? Oh no!

I didn’t expect it would press as hard as a capo - I was hoping for a fuzzy soft touch, just to deaden the ringing harmonics

it doesn’t press as hard as a capo, but intonation will be a touch off. Just a touch

I’ve got one mostly for my 5 string to help while I work on my floating thumb technique. I keep it just loose enough that I can push it up above the nut easily and slide it down when needed. But also can slide it to where it just barely dampens or way down to where it’s fairly tight. I’ve found that when it’s barely there it doesn’t seem to affect tuning and just lessens the sustain while still letting plucked notes ring for as long as needed while slid down an inch or so it definitely throws off tuning and mutes almost instantly. So try and find a nice middle ground that works for you.

I have my fret wraps perhaps torqued tighter, because I use them to fix the Fender A string problem.

Also I don’t have perfect pitch, I can’t name the note (my sister has perfect pitch). But I know when a note is even slightly off.

Just a thought,
How about some foam near the bridge- old school.
I had this problem with my OBass, it chimes like a piano and takes a lot of technique to keep under control-a great skill builder.
There is nothing wrong with using a fret wrap, foam or a pick (and palm muting)

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It’s a guitar tuned in 12 TET, unless you play a fretless, almost every note is “off” (some by quite a bit) :slightly_smiling_face:

well the wrap arrived. It seems to do the job - not too tight and doesn’t affect pitch or intonation in any noticeable way :slight_smile:

The next problem is that if I shove it out of the way past the nut, it interferes with my wall hanger and my bass won’t hang nicely when parked up for the night :slight_smile:

Also, with the wrap in place, it obviously obscures and matches the colour the first fret somewhat so I keep landing my left hand one fret out! I hadn’t realised how much I must be looking at my left hand!

Just more reason to practice!