Hi guys,

When playing the guitar at quite high gain, my playing suffers from unwanted noise from the unplayed strings, resulting in a very noisey signal with little clarity of the actual note I am trying to sound.

I try to mute the other strings as much as possible with my other fingers or right hand, but this can be difficult at times and make playing pretty awkward.

Also, I have tried to watch various pro's techniques when they are playing at quite high gain and they certainly do not seem to be muting all open strings all of the time and they don't seem to be suffering from the kind of unwanted noise I am.

I was just wondering if anyone could give me any tips on the best way to keep quiet?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Russ

You can bet if you can't hear the open strings, they're being muted. It just takes a lot of practice and perseverance.Play clean with a metronome until it's CLEAN and you mute all the right strings not being played and your high-gain stuff will sound excellent.Hope this helps...... Mike

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

If you get your high gain from a pedal chain, you might need to look at getting a noise gate such as the ISP Decimator or the Boss NS-2. Or you could look to just going through a high gain amp to avoid processing the signal too much and creating unwanted noise. That's if refining your technique does not resolve said problem.

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

The gain is already coming from the amp I am using (Fender SuperChamp XD) and I am not running any other pedals.

Their is no noise from the guitar or amp when not playing. The problem is that when playing, the unplayed strings are also sounding a little because of their ultra sensitivity at high gain. Only the minutest contact with any of them makes a sound and also, the unmuted strings seem to 'ring' slightly anyway due to them vibrating from the frequency of the notes that are actually being played.

Would a noise gate be of any use for this problem or is it simply a case of trying to mute every unused string all of the time (this can be difficult when playing quickly, almost more difficult than playing the piece itself)

As I stated earlier, when watching the pro's at work (using gain), I notice that they don't seem to be muting all of the time. Their picking hand seems to move far above the strings before hitting down on a note, so it certainly doesn't look like they are using any sort of right hand muting anyway?

Any thoughts?

Thanks guys

Russ

Hi TS: as you rightly say, high gain emphasises any accidental striking of other strings, or even fretting fingers inadvertently brushing them.

Only two possibilities. Either the players you are watching are masterfully accurate and only touch the strings they are playing. Or they are muting the unwanted strings.

If not with the right hand then the left. Many of us use a combination of both.

As you proceed you gradually learn to touch parts of your fretting fingers against the unsounded strings to mute them out. That's what the people you are talking about are doing.

Seems impossible earlier on: with practice it comes.

Also of course the music you are talking about tends to be extremely loud. Extraneous sounds can get partially lost in the general din.

No magic secrets I'm afraid.

Cheers - C

Ok then Ceri, thanks for the advice.

I do not usually play at such high gain for the kind of music I play (I'm not into metal or anything like that).

I play a lot of classic rock (Bon Jovi etc) but have recently been trying to hone my technique of piched haromnics and so have been using a much higher gain than usual due to the fact that it makes them 'ring out' so much clearer.

It was when I started using this high gain that it must have shown up a weakness in my muting technique.

I wasn't sure whether it was just a case of refining my skill at muting or if most people that used this type of gain found it necessary to use some kind of noise gate.

Thanks again for the advice, looks like I'll be practicing my muting over the next week or so (something I should have done long before I suppose, I have been playing for around 25 years ).

Oh, by the way, I was mainly referring to Richie Sambora when I mentioned watching various pro's techniques earlier. He must just have it down to a fine art I suppose!

Russ

Hi again Russ: oops sorry - I was writing like I was talking to a beginner. No insult intended - not the first time I've made that mistake!

If you are anything like me then what I find is that as I turn the gain up my playing gets more and more messy. Stuff you can't get away with through a clean amp gets hidden by lots of gain, so you have a tendancy to get careless as you rock out.

My approach to that is to practice heavy type licks with a clean amp as well as unplugged. The discipline is then to maintain the same accurate playing with the driven tone.

Easy to say, not so easy to do! Get me playing Zeppelin and my fingerwork immediately becomes aggressive and sloppy, no matter how hard I try!

And BTW: I've been trying and failing to fully master pinched harmonics for years and years. After the thread the other day I've been having another little go at it - and not getting too much further than before.

For me pinched harmonics are cussed little elves at the bottom of the garden. Sometimes they come out to play and sometimes they don't...

Oh well... - C

No probs Ceri, certainly no insult taken!

Thanks for all the advice, I'll keep practicing at keeping my high gain noise down and keep you all posted on my progress.

Some muting excercises coming up I think!

Russ

If Bon Jovi is now considered Classic Rock, I shudder to think what the stuff I play is!

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Well they did begin in 1983/4 so I guess that is the catagory they may be considered to be in (as apposed to modern). That is approx 27 years after all!

Anything earlier than that, I think the cave men were listening to

Russ

Man, that's cold!!

Hey, who stole my club?

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Only kidding with you Martian!

In fact a lot of the stuff I'm into goes way back to early rock n roll, and some even earlier than that

The majority of what I play on the guitar would be considered of a 'classic rock' style though!

Russ

No offense taken whatsoever!

FWIW, the stuff I chiefly like to play dates back to the mid '60s through early '70s and when I play it in certain circles, successive generation members such as yourself really do enjoy it, many not having ever heard it before. There's some mighty fine stuff going on in these 'ancient' tunes.

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