Eric, thanks for the heads up on a fret wrap, actually wasn’t even aware of it. I may look into that and see how it may work out for me.
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I was going to suggest something like this, but @eric.kiser beat me to it!
Anyway, unless you often play with open strings, this might indeed be a real game changer for you! Could give you a real motivational boost…
And if you don’t want to spend the bucks without testing, try first with a sufficiently tight scrunchy that you borrow from your wife/girlfriend/female friend 
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Sure, I think my wife has one around, I’ll try that. Open strings, well, every once in awhile there’s a need for one, but I’ll check all this out. Thanks.
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@eric.kiser have you ever seen one of these in use? I’m just curious where on the neck it would go where it’s not in the way.
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On the other side of the nut 
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That’s a nice Sandberg.
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Very interesting. Can’t decide how I feel about this. Seems super useful on one hand, on the other, it seems like a sexy crutch I want to stay away from.
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It is indeed
Her eyes are further up though 
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Yeah… but, it could be a real life saver if one struggles with muting… and since even big names use them, there must be something about it! Haven’t tried them myself yet, as I include open strings quite a bit (if often only as so called open string ghost notes), but I will try them at some point for sure!
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I have trouble muting with my fret hand, especially on the E string. There’s almost always a metallic ringing when I release/mute a fretted note. I wonder if a more expensive bass would have non-metal frets – ivory in the old days? – which might eliminate the problem.
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Well as it turns out, I have found renewed interest after doing some checking on the Fretwrap. Watched that Thomann video and other bass muting You Tube vids, plus read a lot of the comments and some subsequent researching of bass muting on Google. I came across a lot of folks who’ve tried a few common household items for a mute. I couldn’t find a scrunchy but found a thick shoestring and placed it just below the nut leaving the first fret open to use…and what da ya know, it worked, I hear no ringing of the previous string I’ve moved from and the tone remains the same. A delight to actually play a bass line and hear no extra noise. Assuming this shoe string idea keeps working, it did indeed give me a real motivational boost.
I was a bit discouraged to read a few people write about gadgets being , pretty much stupid to use and saying 'practice, practice and discipline" for proper bass playing, my feeling is sometimes, thinking outside of the box is a blessing to some. We all can’t be “par excellence” when it comes to being able to use all our fingers as some “traditionalists” of the instrument seem to feel…or dictate. A physical or mental block just happens with some people, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be an alternative to try. And like @joergkutter mentioned, some big name players use mutes, so yeah, there’s gotta be something to it.
My thanks to all of you that me gave ideas. encouragement and advice. I’d never been exposed to anything pertaining to bass muting in the 8 years I’ve been hacking away at my Jazz bass, even my teacher never brought up any other options. Now I feel like my ship hasn’t been grounded after all.
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Glad to hear!
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This is great news to start my day with, @Frisk_Cat - very happy for you!
Yes, we should all strive to get better as much as we can, but we should never forget that we do this mostly (if not exclusively) for FUN 
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@Frisk_Cat That is great to hear! I’m really glad you have found a way forward. If you run into anything else that starts to give you trouble, come and post it on the forum. There is a really good chance someone else here has or is struggling with the same thing.
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Haha, yes, it is quite German
I mean not of the “zis is vat ve vant” category, but she can’t run away from it…
EDIT: actually, I think she is doing a good job - not a very heavy accent, really! (If you like it a bit “heavier”, check out Gregor from BassTheWorld 
)
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LoL! Ya vol! Wunderbar!
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So I have noticed something that I am not sure how to fix.
I was practicing left hand muting last night and I’m doing pretty well with it, except on frets with strong natural harmonics (especially the 5th and 7th frets). On those frets I get a solid harmonic after-ring when trying to mute with the fretting finger after lifting.
I assume this is normal, I was just wondering if there’s anything to do about it, or just mute those frets using a different method?
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@howard - yessir! There is something that can be done.
Harmonics are only present if the string is held at exactly and only one spot… and if that spot creates a harmonic.
If you can get any other part of your hand / fingers it will kill the harmonic. If you can get anyTHING at all on the string, it will kill the harmonic.
Hope that helps?
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