muting unwanted string noise with picking hand

hey guys, just looking for some opinions on muting high strings when picking (to mute unwanted string noise from strings you are not playing). I know there is no perfect or right way to do this, i would just like to hear whats working for some of you and why you prefer certain techniques. I mute my low strings with my thumb (picking hand), this works great for me and i have no intention of changing this. As for the higher strings i was using the fingers on my picking hand to mute them for a long time. I have however stopped doing this because it was a real hassle for sweep picking and didn't allow me to sweep smoothly. I know a lot of people mute higher strings with the fretting hand and some mute with the palm. I am still undecided on which route to go down. Any opinions are much appreciated.

I reckon different techniques for different styles of playing is the way to go. If you're playing a palm muted part the obvious way of muting the strings is in the right hand. Other than that I personally prefer to use my left hand to mute the higher strings in most cases when I use a pick. But to me it really does vary depending on what I'm playing. Best is to be versed in as many ways of doing it as possible.

hi henrik, i actually posted this thread on a couple of other different sites as well and it seems that what your saying pretty much sums it up. thanks

I don't know if this helps at all, but i also use my thumb to mute the lower strings. It just seems the easiest way to do it. Also, Tom Hess does it this way and he sounds just as clean as anyone when he plays fast.

As for muting the higher strings, I don't really deliberately try to do so, as I've never had too much of a problem with them ringing out. But then I noticed that I'm usually fretting on the lower strings, and as I do so, the middle of my fingers kind of rest on the higher strings which mutes them. For a while I didn't even realize I was doing it! Talk about lucky.

Now sweep picking, I'll actually take any advice I can on the matter, but recently I've had a major breakthrough in muting the lower strings while ascending when sweep picking. I basically hold my hand in a very particular angle (it took a lot of trial and error to figure it out) so that as I go to sweep pick across the next string, the part of my palm next the my thumb mutes the string I just played. As long as I keep my hand in this angle, it mutes each string right as I'm ready to play the next one. I hope that makes sense! Does anyone else do something similar?

~Rusty