By mute I mean a device for altering the tone rather than for making the instrument quieter. Think of the plunger, cup, wow & buzz / Harmon mutes that defined the tone of jazz trumpeters from Bubber Miley to Miles Davis & Don Cherry. What the Dolly Peg does is notch down the top end of a scratchy old fiddle (such as my ow) and make the sound a lot richer & fuller. Looks bonkers, but it sounds a treat. As I say I have a host of other mutes, including a buzz-mute - not sold as such of course, it's actually a heavy duty practice mute (like this) which effectively silences the violin to a Dorsey-esque trombone sweetness. Has a habit of flying off if you bow too hard though - & it's very heavy on the toes!

Trouble with me, I'm a natural born pluralist with a fetish for accessories - so the violin is the ideal beast. If you do a Google image search for violin mutes it brings up dozens of different types - including various clothes pegs!