luxeion

The technique I was working with was pick the string downward until the joint of my thumb touches the string and mutes it. It's nice for long individual bends I think, but I'm struggling when it's in the context of a phrase... because it takes me quite some time to get back to my picking position after the bend.

When I watch people, it doesn't seem like their fingers move much to mute, I don't understand, I make a lot of noise if I don't mute effortfully.

mdc

mute with the pick and your spare digits.

For example, if you bend the B string, immediately after you've picked it, rest the pick on top of the G string, the side of your hand should already be in the correct position to be muting the lower strings.

The underside of your picking hand fingers should also naturally be muting the top e string. Most notably, the 1st and 2nd fingers.

Another thing you might like to try is, with the fretting hand, during the bend, release support from the 1st finger and hover the pad of the finger over the lower strings. This leaves more pressure on the other two fingers to maintain the bend, but it's a very useful fretting hand muting technique.

That's all assuming you bend the fretted note with the 3rd finger, and the 2nd and 1st acting as support.

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C U N T aka See You Next Tuesday