Bending noise – help!

[Denise]

Hi

I am currently working on full bends and double stop country bends to get them better in pitch.
There’s a thing that always disturbs me and which does not get better with practising: when I play
full bends pushing 2 or 3 fingers and touch the lower neighbour string, there is always a disturbing string noise😬 when touching that lower string! I haven’t been able to get rid of it.
Can anybody give me some advise?
Thanks.
Denise

More Blues!

[charjo]

Hi Denise,
You have to mute everywhere you can think of, especially with electric guitar. I assume you mean the lower, thicker string is the problem. You have to mute with the side of your picking hand during the bend. Hope that helps.
John

[Mark H]

I had the same problem. I cut my fretting hand fingernails really short and it helped a lot.

[sunjamr]

After 6 years of trying to get rid of it, I still haven’t figured it out. So if you do, please let us know the trick.

Sunjamr Steve

[Richard W]

It’s hard! I’ve been working on this lately too and I wish there was more mention of it. Here are a couple videos that talk about some of the ways to deal with it. As John mentioned, using the side of your picking hand is one strategy. Also, if you are bending with your third finger (most common) or even second finger, you can use the first finger on your fretting hand to gently mute the lower pitched strings as you release bend. The first video does a good job of showing that.

The video from Justin also talks about how very commonly you want to mute the bend at the top of the bend before releasing it. When this is the case, I find myself using my pick to mute the just bent string.

The Justin video starts talking about bending at the 11:39 mark.

At least you know you are not alone with this problem!

[Denise]

Thanks for the links, Richard!
I find these 2 tutorials very helpful 👍. And I prefer that technique rather than muting the strings with the right hand, which I find harder.
Denise

More Blues!

[Author]

Posts