Where/how can you find/make a guitar mute like the one Phil Keaggy uses?

[ljguitar]

Hi Josho…

I'm a Phil Keaggy fan boy. I think I've seen him play live around a dozen times in the last 20 years. I've only seen him once (in the early 1990s) play an acoustic guitar that didn't have pickup/mic mixed, so part of his sound is based on what's coming out the speakers. The first time I saw Phil he was an electric player who had an acoustic break inserted in the middle of his concert. And he was looping with a LesPaul through a delay unit which had a 2 second delay…and he was amazing.

Phil is an explorer, and an experimenter. I've seen him use random things he weaves into the strings, and never for long passages. It's usually to add another layer of texture to a loop he's going to end up singing over.

Going through his early attempts using altered capos, I've seen some of his 'modified' experiments pop off the neck during concerts, and not even slow him down. To be clear, he uses a lot of modified 'stuff' and integrates it pretty seamlessly.

I played with strips…tried leather, plastic, metal and felt (oh yeah and velcro loop…the soft part). Ultimately I decided I'm not that enamored of that particular technique when integrated into my playing.

Just try things. It's your guitar with you playing it through your gear. What works for one guy may not work for you. But it should be fun exploring.

[jhmulkey]

Here's a more recent video where he's using a piece of an old credit card:

https://youtu.be/8xXVbZsCgAo?t=52m56s

[Josho]

Thanks for the tip, now that's something I can try myself

[pjmacd]

What Phil is using in the video looks like a banjo mute to me. Here's a picture of one:

https://www.elderly.com/gold-tone-ul...banjo-mute.htm

The banjo mute is meant to slide onto the bridge of the banjo, and it does do an effective job of muting (I know because I have one). It should slide onto the strings of a guitar without difficulty.

No doubt we'll be hearing endless "all banjos should be muted" jokes.

[AcouStickistNS]

I saw Phil Keggy at an Interlochen guitar seminar several years back. He was proud to show off his "low tech guitar effect": a piece of sheet plastic strip he cut to fit within the strings near the bridge. If I remember right he's made a few out of different materials so if one wears out, he might make a new one out of something different.

Try cutting up strips out of vacuum-formed packaging, like you would find for products hanging up at home depot.

Cool guy, I had a conversation with him about mountainbiking. Was real enthusiastic about just doing easy rides, nothing hardcore. He doesn't do many seminars, if you get a chance to see him at one, do it. Great sense of humor, interesting to listen to.

[Twitch]

I once saw a restaurant acoustic player weave a plain old playing card through his strings and played a rendition of "Lime in the Coconut". It gave it a very cool funky tropical steel drum kind of vibe. I thought it was great!

[Jambi]

Originally Posted by Carbonius

That's cool, good find. Jon Gomm used a pic in the strings to get a sort of eastern, slightly out of tune tone. Like I hear in some many stringed eastern instruments. Like, love or hate it, you have to admire how he does 3 separate lines with just 2 hands.

There's only one Jon Gomm.