Capos Love em/Hate em?

Re: Capos Love em/Hate em?

I was being a sarcastic wiener, but that's an interesting point. I've never tried it right on the fret. Now I need to try this.
 
Re: Capos Love em/Hate em?

When I play bluegrass, I use them ALOT. It's very difficult to play a true Flatt G-Run in A, Bb or B without one. For other acoustic work, it's great for finding those alternate voicings. My band's lead singer/song writer uses one on many songs for just that purpose. Sure, he could play the song with an open A or D, but it has a different sound in with an open G or C and a capo on 2.

On electric, I tend to prefer to play chord triads all over the neck, so it's not as common for me there.
 
Re: Capos Love em/Hate em?

The people who refuse to use them out of some sort of snobbery are also the ones who play sh***y sounding covers of songs from artists who DO use them. The Rolling Stones is a prime example. Tom Petty is another.

Following that logic, then changing your guitar's tuning to anything other than standard is also cheating. Open tunings? Cheating. Drop tuning? Cheating.

I bring three capos to a gig. Two I use, one is just in case I lose one. I have 4 guitars: 2 standard and 2 open G. I use one of each for all songs requiring capos in order to minimize the impact of going out of tune putting a capo on or off.

Songs I use capos on (because that's how they're supposed to be played):
Jumpin Jack Flash
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Street Fighting Man
Tumbling Dice
Happy
Don't Stop
Sweet Virginia
Let It Bleed
Turd On The Run
Midnight Rambler
Paint It Black
 
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Re: Capos Love em/Hate em?

I use them on acoustic, but not on electric- I learned how to play in those fun guitar keys like F minor or Ab major without pain on the electric.
 
Capos Love em/Hate em?

andrizzle said:
I use them often. Like TGWIF said, it's a tool. If you're not using out of snobbery then you're missing out on some cool things you and your audience could be hearing. It's not cheating, it's just another way to get voicings that are appropriate for the song... especially when your singer needs to take things up (or down) a bit. It's really a way to play in the correct key, with the correct positions, in a different key.... Or it could be used to double a part in a different position.

I use G7th Capos and while they're on the pricey side, they're totally worth it, no intonation issues, no hassle. They just work right every time.
Click to expand...

I used to use Hamilton fret spanners. They are much wider then the normal capos but they work extremely well except on the first fret. They are so wide you can't clamp it without hitting the nut. What I like about it is they have a wide clamp and they have a thin strip of rubber that is used to clamp the strings to the fret and not the board. I stopped using them because they stopped making them. Now I use kyser capos. And in some ways they aren't quite as good but they work fast so it's a trade off
 
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Re: Capos Love em/Hate em?

tubecrunch said:
I was being a sarcastic wiener, but that's an interesting point. I've never tried it right on the fret. Now I need to try this.
Click to expand...

I realized that the first part was just a joke, but I thought the part about it affecting your tuning might have been true.
 
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