I was practicing some sweep picks, mainly C major arpeggios.

Getting the notes out clearly isn't the problem, speed is easily achieved in a few day's practice.

The problem is with clean notes without others ringing.

A combo or right palm and fingers to mute helps, basically a few ways I tried was.

1. Lift fingers slowly after fretting to avoid a pull off accidentally. Use palm flesh when down sweep.

2. Use less of the tips, more of the fingerprints, and when sweeping up, this helps in muting the previously sweeped string.

But I got a bit itchy and just draped a thick string over the first few frets (you can also use a rubber band) so I don't even have to bother about my muting quality anymore.

The notes are damn clear, and at full gain at the amp, no unwanted noise at all... this makes one really sound like a pro lah.


I read that this is what we called, string dampening and there're devices made just for that.

In forum discussions many has said only amateurs do this, I am not sure what to think.

If it looks that obvious, I realised when you perform in public you could just use a cellophane tape and not get noticed, because it is transparent (Muahahahahah) or those transparent rubber bands that they use to wrap toys up.


So what are your opinions about using string dampeners ? To use or not to use ?

I saw and read that many pros including Batio uses a string dampener as well.

What say you ? To 'cheat' or not to 'cheat' ?

in short.
depends how big you want your e-penis to be.

how to use a rubber band? i dont get it >_>
and wat are string dampener?
i ussualy hv probblems muting teh strings because i dont know how to
damn my arpegious always suck because its not clean at all
even my solo werent clean too
especially when i crank up the gain

Yea, if gain is up, way too sensitive.

Basically, you fret the first frets, all the string, but not hitting the fret at all.

you get something that would touch all strings at the first fret so that when you lift your fingers up, even when you accidentally do a slight pull off, the string will not ring or as bad.


So you can tap fast and sweep fast, move on to next note and not worry about previous notes still ringing due to not muting or poor muting methods, because the string has already been muffled from the first fret onwards, aka dampened.

Basically it kills ringing of open strings.

DIY is cheaper than buying a dampener though. I just hang some strings or tie something to the first fret, not too tight but enough to dampen/mute all open strings.

I read that a lot of people do that when they do recording, because this guarantees eliminating unwanted string ringing/noise.

I tried very slowly lifting my fingers up after picking a note, and with the amp gain cranked up, i could still hear ringing noises. WIth the first frets dampened for all strings, absolutely no ringing.

But this also means you can't play open chords. But it also helps when you strike wrong strings that are open.


Picture below is an example of DIY dampening.



This post has been edited by bman: Feb 19 2008, 10:52 PM

batio only uses dampeners on his twin-necked guitar so that theres no feedback from the neck he's not using.

Wei, don't lah say cheating!

The other trick is to cover your left hand with a cloth and then sweep... pretty much the same effect like a string dampener, but more "wtf?!" coz no one can see your fingers move...

Anyway, I find that ascending arpeggios are easier to play clean because, like you said, you can use your palm to mute the string after moving on.

...descending arpeggios on the other hand have always been bothering me. A dampener would be the most effective solution, but maybe not necessarily the most efficient?

I'd love to hear what the sweeping sifus here think, especially Gapnap... (though he'll probably com up with some indie comment or just say "Practice more!")

practice ur muting, don cheat, imo.

You know, actually string noise probably shouldn't be that big of a problem. If at slow tempos you can play an arpeggio cleanly without excessive string noise, then I guess at faster tempos there shouldn't be excessive string noise too...

...but as in most things, what should be and what is are 2 very very different things. I've been trying to make my arpeggios cleaner at slow tempos and then slowly work up the speed, and I still get lots of string noise! /doh

This damn thing has been bugging me for the past 3 years or so... argh!

I tie a shoe lace to dampen the strings.

Some of the pros said to


1. Reduce gain, to 7 / 10 at least.

2. Reduce volume lever of the guitar, and increase the ones on the amp instead, since the amplification would be more sensitive to the louder notes instead of the soft ringing.

3. Use the neck pickup, it picks up the ringing tones better than the noise, but my squier strat neck pickup sounds constipated, uweeek.


These 3 alone helped reduced the echo/ringing a little bit, by 20 percent i would say.



But I always practice with the bridge pickup only, deliberately so I could hear my mistakes clearer. I also noticed when I use a headphone, my mistakes are even more glaring/clearer.


I think if one were to record on studio, it's best to use a dampener, otherwise how the heck you hear all those very perfect clean sweeps at good full gain. Nobody outside would know you're cheating with a dampener anyway.

No matter how expert you are, I think there're bound to be noise with the gain all the way up.

I tried a simple test of striking 1 string, and then slowly lift my finger up to just touching the string only.

Guess what ? There're still noise, ringing, there's no way to get rid of it, because the fingers/flesh do not absorb the vibration/energy as well as other materials such as thick strings or specially made dampeners.

Strings DO vibrate even after just lightly touching your fingers, just not as much but because of the amp, you CAN hear it.

Man this is harder than I thought. Those guys who can do it real clean at almost full amp gain and get the speed without any 'cheating' really gets the respect they deserved.

Then there's the 6 string sweeps, the G major scale if I am not wrong. need to roll first finger and pinky, but should be easier since it all sits in the 4 fret boxes pattern.

I tried just practicising the sweep part of Neil Zaza's I'm alright song.

The first sweep based on C major arpeggio is ok, then follows is the E major pattern, need to stretch fingers on 5 frets to hammer the last note. Also need to practice finger rolling 3 notes on 3rd note onwards. (Ascending)

Then the next arpeggio really kiling man.

I think it's the first 4 notes of that goes like E(7)-A(5)-D(5)-G(4) then hammer to G(7) with this last note joined up to a D major ascension pattern, so you have to shift hands down, play to the last 2 strings, hammer last note then back up to a descending C major. (I hope I got those arpeggio names right, some are confusing to me)

Now, which one of you guys said NEIL ZAZA's song I'm Alright is intermediate?!

How can you say this is intermediate song!?!! This is considered PRO song already lah, so hard to play!!!!! Impossible at the speed I hear at the guitar pro tab and the tabs doesn't even say to use hammer ons/pull offs in the sweeps, so if it is correct and accurate tab, Neil Zaza actually picked EVERY single arpeggio in this song, which would be slower but he still managed to do it fast... CRAZY!

WTF ?
hahaha ..ok..INDIE COMMENT AHEAD !! .

to bman:
yea..philosophical point of view...

define "cheat" and "not cheating" ..why is putting a rubber band on top called "cheating" ..says who it is cheating? the Shred bible?
who is the shred bible ?


in fact..

why do you care about what people think of your playing in the first place ?
If its easy , it sounds good..why not ?

unless you play to only impress people ..which is seriously lame..
i play for Money..i think my excuse also make more sence ..

ANYWAY






























seriously...
when you're gigging..chances are ...99 % people wont give a fvck ...( that 1% is the 2 guitarist of serpent ash..and maybe echobrainproject)

If you are playing for self satisfaction..then..don't cheat ..make sure you can do it ..

This post has been edited by gapnap: Feb 20 2008, 05:27 PM

so the maximum audience bman will ever get is 200... maybe 300 ppl?

What if the venue was expecting 50 people. Do we see half a Teko?

This post has been edited by led_zep_freak: Feb 20 2008, 09:20 PM

no lah... your maths all screwed up Ledzep... 50 divide 200 = 3/4 Teko lah....

hey why drag me in?

my sweep picking aint that good too but im working on it. my burstbucker pro seems to pick up string noise alot. when i sweep using my neck pickup, fuiyo big difference; alot cleaner and clearer.

edit:
try using those headbands girls use to tie their hair. its only RM1(or less). i dont use it for sweep picking but i use it when i do two hand tapping parts where my left hand does the bass lines or chords while my right taps out the melody (if only i could afford a double neck ). with the headband, you can push it behind the nut when u dont want to use it, and when u do want, just slide it past the nut to the first fret.

Fuh! Super RockStar pics coming out already!

yeah or those athletes wrist sweatband. But that tends to overmute the strings for really absolute dead silence.

don't need to dampen? if you hardcorez serious then work on the technique?

if you lazy and/or rushing to learn Serrana in 30 mins then use a dampen.

and nice rockstar pose weih echo!

rust, I was right. 1/8 of Teko is married to his guitar & another 1/8 is dedicated to Odin. So that leaves 1/2 of Teko.

echobrainproject, there you go again with your shameless feed. As a poser, we must have a little dignity wei, do you realize there's a big problem with your pic?



Anyway TS, you could cheat all you want onstage but when you're practising in your bedroom, it's the time where you have to be critical of your playing. So it's really your call if you want to take the shortcut, but why do so when the problem is obviously in your technique?

And for the record, Batio, Batten and co. don't use string dampener to 'cheat'. They had to because of the double neck playing and 8-finger tapping.

This post has been edited by led_zep_freak: Feb 21 2008, 01:57 PM

kiko loureiro plays 8 finger tapping stuff and he doesn't use a string dampener