Question on cleaner tapping

[jalguitarman]

I have searched the forum here regarding tapping and there is a subject that i need some help with regarding tapping. See i have been playing about ten years and have always been more of a speed picker than legato man and i want to remedy this. i have found some good tapping excersises but there is one aspect that i am struggling with here. How do you keep adjacent strings from ringing out when you, cross to other strings say like maybe high E to B and like b to G and so on? Also i have the trouble of when i move my tapping hand up or down it makes a bit of noise. You know when i move to tapp a different note it makes noise on the strings i am trying to mute i can hear the palm of my hand scrapping the strings i am trying to mute, but if i lift my hand the strings ring with sympathetic vibrations.
also there is a tapping excercise that i am working on that i (On the B string) tap #12 and pull off to #8 then #5 then hammer on to #8, next you hammer on from nowhere to #5 on the G string then back to the 8th fret on the B string, pull off to #5 on that string and then hammer on to the 8th fret, and then repeat. I have the trouble of when i cross back over to the B string from the G string hammer on from nowhere to the 8th fret i have trouble kepping the G string from ringing out when i make this move. Any help would be greatly appreciated from you my fellow players, thank you and god bless. ROCK-ON!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Kev]

The trick is to make the left and right hands work in tandem. As well as muting with your palm, you also need to mute with the fingers on your left hand. Michael Angelo employs this technique as well as yngwie, and countless more. So for instance, if your playing a good old cliche tapping lick on the high e-string like:

12p8p5 12p8p5 12p8p5 12p8p5 12p8p5 12p8p5 12p8p5 12p8p5

You can hold your first finger on fret 5 as you normally would to exact the lick, but also while your doing this, push your finger left slightly so it just catches the b string, thus muting it.

I guess if you master this concept all around the fret board (which i am yet to do!), combined with muting with the palm, you'll have some super clean sounding crazy licks!

Kev

[jalguitarman]

Input, more input!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BluesGuyJ]

Well I rest the left side of my picking hand on the other strings slightly so that it mutes the other strings and does so when I move from string to string
.

[HamerPlyr]

Yep, it's a combination of muting with both hands, the fingers of the hand that's on the fretboard and the side of the palm of the picking hand. I've read recently that some guys use a sweatband around the neck to mute the open strings. Seems like cheating to me, but I'm a freak that way. Use it if it works. Seems like it would kinda suck if you needed to play an open chord in the song, but I'm guessing that the guys who use the sweatband technique don't play many open chords.

[Gearjoneser]

Kev pretty much summed it up. Check out the Jeff Beck clip that RGN posted recently. Jeff Beck is the undisputed KING of finger control on a guitar, and he's ......well, the best! Not only can he do the VH/Jennifer Batten schtick, he has the right hand control that is a study in itself. Spend hours watching that video. I watched it about 7 times today, and learned a few tricks.

[Kev]

Kev pretty much summed it up. Check out the Jeff Beck clip that RGN posted recently. Jeff Beck is the undisputed KING of finger control on a guitar, and he's ......well, the best! Not only can he do the VH/Jennifer Batten schtick, he has the right hand control that is a study in itself. Spend hours watching that video. I watched it about 7 times today, and learned a few tricks.

This sounds interesting GJ, where can we get this vid? Sounds like we can all learn from it!

[Hot _Grits]

I was massively into tapping when I was a kid, especially scalar stuff. Always left the single string arpeggio to Ed.

Most of my muting comes from my palm. Basically it's a matter of making sure the muting surface of you palm takes out the string you're leaving when ascending. For some reason, descending poses less of a problem, and the left had tends to damp that anyway.

Generally when I change strings the first note on the new string is a tapped one, so that helps.

[jalguitarman]

you know the tips i have gotten are definatly helping. Not sure why i never thought of it. One thing remains however and that is how do i move my picking/tapping hand up and down the fretboard without the sound of string scrapes on the low strings i have muted???? Thanks for the input you have given already, GOD BLESS AND ROCK ON!!!!!!!!!! OH by the way does the micheal angelo video "speed kills" have any info on tapping? I think i am going to get it and tapping info would make it a better value.

[HamerPlyr]

A coated string set such as Elixirs and others will tend to make less noise when your skin brushes across the winds on the strings. Some like 'em, some don't, but I've never had a problem with them. I think that they do, in fact, last quite a bit longer than an uncoated set. Other than that, I can't help you because I make a lot of noise the exact same way that you do...lol

[Hot _Grits]

How much gain are you using? -I'm sure I make some noise when my tapping hand moves, but it's never been enough to worry about. The only thing I can think of is maybe you're using way too much gain...

[jalguitarman]

How much gain are you using? -I'm sure I make some noise when my tapping hand moves, but it's never been enough to worry about. The only thing I can think of is maybe you're using way too much gain...

well, i use channel 3 on my recto set up for vintage mode through two 6l6s and two el34s, and yeah i use a decent amount of gain but i did not think that much but i did notice with my palm muting all of the strings and moving my freting hand up and down that i definatly hear some string noise there. I wonder how the pros do it without such noise. thanks. MORe input, must have input!!!!!!