I'm mostly a pick player and palm mute quite a bit and I found those channels over the mute made it hard to play............................ so I removed them. 
I know a few other guys who have done that. I don't use a pick very often but have been using my thumb with a Thunderbird while palm muting, it gives it almost an upright-like sound, you can really control the amount of sustain like that, can't do that on a Ric although their mute sounds pretty good too.
