Hair band at the nut end of board!!?

Neckwringer

I only play bass for recording purposes and not very often.
I was wondering why you see some players with what looks like a hairband
around the nut area, whats the purpose anyone?.

hollywoodrox

Behind the nut im guessing it can stop sympathetic vibrations etc, around the nut or forward of it 
  It can stop the open strings resonating by muting them, usually when using extreme high gain and playing legato/tapping . There also used to be plastic dampers used by Jennifer batten and Dave (kilminster I think) they would flip up when not in use, Michael Angelo batio uses a similar type . 

sticker

I believe you might be referring to “Gruv Gear Fretwraps” and as above they mutemopen strings and prevent unwanted noise . 

digitalkettle

The cheap version is a 'scrunchie' from Boots or wherever.

As said, kills sympathetic vibrations between nut and tuners. Can also be pulled forwards to mute the strings when you're doing tricky stuff at the dusty end. Live, that would be almost as uncool as using a clip-on headstock tuner but it can be very handy when recording

newi123

Saw the title and genuinely thought this was going to be an 80s rock question........ :-)

Switch625

I've seen some guitarists do this too. Just yesterday I was on the JustinGuitar website and on the video I clicked he was holding a Suhr strat with the hairband thing at the nut.

ICBM

newi123 said:

Saw the title and genuinely thought this was going to be an 80s rock question........ :-)

Same here... I was going to say that hair bands generally play at the other end of the board .

MattBanshee

Neckwringer said:

I only play bass for recording purposes and not very often.
I was wondering why you see some players with what looks like a hairband
around the nut area, whats the purpose anyone?.

I have them on my basses because I tend to play fairly heavily with a pick, and there was excess resonance behind the nut that I wanted rid of.

newi123

In answer to the `what`s it for question` I know some guitar players use them for tapped styles to damp open strings - Greg Howe and Jennifer Batten spring to mind............ same for bass players?

Paul_C

I used to have one on a bass which I had tuned BEAD so if I hit an open string by mistake while playing up the neck it didn't make a huge racket and make me jump.

Neckwringer

Thanks all........