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Topic: String dampeners? |
Nathan Guilford
From:
Oklahoma City
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Posted 6 May 2022 6:21 am |
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I sometimes play as a duo with an acoustic singer/songwriter guy. I do almost all the fills and solos of course because he's got the instrument more easily capable of keeping the rhythm. BUT - I was thinking - if I had some specifically dampened strings I could strum quite a variety of "open" chords on my E9 tuning AND if those dampeners were activated by a pedal----well--- I could switch very easily between strumming chords and picking.
I can't be the first person to think about this, y'all let me know if there's ever been an attempt at a mechanism like this.
_________________
'02 Carter S-12 uni
‘76 MSA D-12
www.toothbrushers.com |
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Jon Light
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 6 May 2022 6:32 am
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The Sacred Steeler tunings allow for strumming by eliminating (for starters) the 7th string F# of a 10 string E9 (there are two side-by-side E's, one of which is raised to F# when you need it.)
I did the reverse (at the suggestion of Robert Randolph many years ago) and I lower 7 to E on a lever. I play a Uni 12 so I have no D string to worry about.
I also raise the 7th string to G# on a zero pedal so that I can use that with the A pedal & F lever for big strums. Again with no 9th string to deal with. If I had the 9th string D.....I haven't really given any thought to how to deal with that.
I am sort of intrigued by the idea of muting strings instead of pulling them but I have no engineering ideas dancing in my head. |
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Nathan Guilford
From:
Oklahoma City
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Posted 6 May 2022 9:19 am
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Thanks Jon. Yes, I've been intrigued by those sacred steel tunings. I've also wanted to try out a U12. Kinda tired of hauling around my D-12 steel anyway.
Anyway, the thought occurred to me sitting down at an open piano at the music store. Now that's a real complicated mechanism, but when you lift your finger off of the key, a little felt dampener comes down and touches the string. Hmmm....... I'm not very mechanically inclined but I thought I'd put the idea out there into the universe.
_________________
'02 Carter S-12 uni
‘76 MSA D-12
www.toothbrushers.com |
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David Ball
From:
North Carolina High Country
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Posted 6 May 2022 10:10 am
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Years ago, someone patented and made a palm mute for banjos. It came up along with the tailpiece, but extended further, all the way to the bridge. It was hinged at the tailpiece end and had a piece of cork on the underside, over the bridge. If you rested your palm on the mute, it would push the cork down and mute the tone. If you lifted your hand, it was just wide open. Here's a link to the patent--something similar would probably work on a steel. Just put cork over the particular strings you want muted. Same idea as an autoharp.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US1826969A/en?q=banjo+mute+truett&oq=banjo+mute+truett |
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Pat Chong
From:
New Mexico, USA
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Posted 6 May 2022 3:07 pm
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Hmm....
Mute strings 1 and 2? You can strum 3-6 and play it like a guitar.......put something under 1 & 2 or devise your "pedal" to mute them......then you can strum your chords.....just a thought...Pat. |
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Mike Auman
From:
North Texas, USA
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Posted 6 May 2022 6:01 pm
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Check out the Gretsch 6120 and 6122 guitars, they had a single mute (all 6 strings, in the picture, one control lever) and a double mute (three strings each, separate controls.) You can even get the assembly with levers and pads on eBay.
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Long-time guitar player, now wrestling with lap steel. |
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Christopher Woitach
From:
Portland, Oregon, USA
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Posted 6 May 2022 9:23 pm
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This was invented by George Van Eps, many years ago, for guitar
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Christopher Woitach
cw@affmusic.com
www.affmusic.com |
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Chris Templeton
From:
The Green Mountain State
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Posted 9 May 2022 7:41 pm
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Hawaiian steel has what is called "strum tunings" and John Ely discusses them on his outstanding website about tunings: https://www.hawaiiansteel.com/tunings/master.php
On my single neck Sierra Tapper (pedal steel with a raised fretboard, and a second compensated bridge to fret or use the tapping technique), Sierra made a damper with Velcro and a locking lever that comes from underneath to damp the strings for two handed "tapping",
so unwanted strings don't sound.
I decided against it for my double neck because of the extra cost and jnow use a cloth draped on the strings to dampen unwanted sounds.
Back to the subject at hand, a damper to mute selective "odd strings", to strum, maybe with a flatpick would be great, especially for rhythm.
I wish Sid Hudson was here to comment. He played pedal steel with a flatpick.
Here's a picture of the damper:
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Excel 3/4 Pedal With An 8 String Hawaiian Neck, Tapper (10 string with a raised fretboard to fret with fingers), Single neck Fessenden 3/5
"The Tapper" : https://christophertempleton.bandcamp.com/album/the-tapper
Soundcloud Playlist: https://soundcloud.com/bluespruce8: |
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Tony Oresteen
From:
Georgia, USA
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Posted 10 May 2022 1:20 pm
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So for what you need, the mute would have to be at the bridge end. A Van Eps mute is at the nut and would have no effect when a steel is placed up the neck.
I'm not sure how you would activate the mutes on specific strings at a specific time in a song. Complex for sure.
As mentioned, Sacred Steel tunings support chord playing. Here's where a double neck comes into play. Play your chords on the C6th neck, the melody on the E9.
Robert Randolph sets the bottom strings on his U12 for chording.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt5BVuIv4t8
_________________
Tony
Newnan, GA
Too many guitars, not enough time to play
'72 Sho-Bud 6139, '71 Marlen 210
'78 Fender Stringmaster T8 black
PedalMaster D8 |
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Chris Templeton
From:
The Green Mountain State
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Tom Gorr
From:
Three Hills, Alberta
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Posted 11 May 2022 6:50 am
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| Pedal steel seems more amenable to Hammond organ style rhythmic technique than guitar style strumming.. |
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