<html> At 07:25 AM 7/21/2005 +0100, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Oddly enough, Terry, I have never even tried using either a felt mute or a strip mute.</blockquote> Hello, Michael. I use the strip mute for the middle octave, plus a few notes. (Increasingly fewer, as I use little pieces of it for other tasks such as butt felt.) It saves a lot of time setting the temperament, though you have to be aware of when you've moved the pitch enough that you'll need to do it twice. (tune the side strings, reinsert the strip mute, start over, it only takes a few minutes.) It's not at all hard to put in, except that you have to keep the dampers raised. You just make a fold of it, and squeeze the fold into the space between the notes. Behind the dampers the strings move aside more easily. The felt mutes are great. Quiet, and they don't change temperature the way rubber mutes do. Susan, writing from a midnight Oregon. </html>