Long project post courtesy alert... Get your favourite beverage and maybe a snack and settle down for a bit of a read.  Or just skip it.

Ok, for the benefit of the attention-span challenged, I'll post a final pic first..

Now on to what this is all about. 

I keep seeing using an acoustic violin with a mute touted as being preferable, in the opinion of some folks, to using a "silent" electric for things like late night practice.

I will concede that it has one obvious advantage.  If you prefer acoustic violins, it is a lot cheaper to buy a mute than to buy even the least expensive electric violin.  If the only reason one wanted an electric was to be able to practice without disturbing others that is reasonable.

Myself, I like having both, and it doesn't bother me much to have to stick to playing the electric when other folks are sleeping or trying to watch a movie or something.  I try to be considerate.

So if I don't need a mute, why would I start a project to invent a new kind of mute?  Well, first off, I'm just that way.  But also it would be nice sometimes to practice on acoustic late at night, since acoustic and electric violins are not identical in how they play and etc.  Besides, I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing out on something cool.  LOL

So, mutes don't cost that much.  Why didn't I just buy one?   They never have had them at the local music shops, and I have a sort of an aversion to laying out money for something where I don't know if I'll like it or not.

Also, I had heard that if your aren't *careful*, some mutes can damage the wood of the bridge, they fall off, and let's face it, they aren't exactly cool looking.

I had seen an interview somewhere over the months where a guy in England uses some English coin wedged under the strings behind the bridge as a mute.  But no common American coin seemed the right size.  But I did have a couple neodymium magnets that were about the size of American nickels, so I tried putting those on the bridge, one on the front and one on the back.  Being magnets they held in place, of course.

That gave a somewhat muffled sound, but not much actual reduction in volume.  So I glued a couple of glass "drops" to the magnets to increase the mass. 

They pretty much actually did the trick.  My acoustic violin was suddenly not only muffled sounding, but much quieter.  But I wondered if I was getting the full effect.  So I looked up some sites selling "heavy metal mutes" and found that they apparently weight about 2.5 ounces.  I rummaged through my collection of curious goods and found that some of the rounded glass cubes I have would just barely fit and would weigh just a little over 2.5 oz.  Which brings us back to the first image in this little write up.

The difference in weight did not make a huge difference in volume.  In the attached recording the first sample is the violin being played with no mute.  The second is with the mute made from the round glass drops.  The third is the bigger red glass cubes.

I would say that this approach may have some advantages over just buying a mute.  First off, it can be cheaper, depending on what you use.  Neodymium disk magnets can be bought in craft stores these days for a couple of bucks, and you can get a bag of glass "drops" (in assorted colours, even) at dollar stores (for 1$, obviously).  The glass cubes would take a bit more looking and cost a bit more, but not a lot. 

But if someone wanted something really classy and custom, maybe for performance.. Some cabochon cut (dome shaped) gemstones don't cost that much either, if you look around ebay or wherever. 

Another advantage is it won't just fall off.  You pretty much have to slide one magnet to the right and one to the left and ease them off.  Yet another advantage is that since this style of mute fits under the strings, you can safely close the case with the mute still on.  I'm not sure if that is a problem with normal mutes, but from just looking at pics, it seems like it might be with some. 

Here is the sound samples, even though they probably autoplayed as soon as the page opened..

I have to say, I don't think I like the sound of playing with a mute.  Sure, it is quieter, but in some ways it sounds even less like playing an acoustic violin to me than an electric does.

But oh well.  It was a project, and it might be something someone wants to try.