New capo especially for 12-string guitars, any fretboard radius -- no buzzing!

[wileypickett]

A number of LTGers have expressed frustration that their favorite capos don't work effectively on 12-string guitars.

The reason most capos are problematic on 12-strings is because they have a hard pad that presses down the strings, and that makes it tricky to cleanly barre the adjacent thick and thin strings on a 12-string -- at least without tightening the capo so hard that you throw the guitar out of tune.

Some of you may remember my recommended work-around: I superglue a piece of mousepad material to all my capos. The mousepad material being squishy means that it will cleanly barre all the strings and -- on adjustable capos anyway -- you can dial in just as much pressure as is needed. (Mousepads are dirt cheap and one mousepad will last for decades.)

Though my solution works beautifully, I suspect few of you actually tried it. (I assume because you want to keep your capos all original and don't want to devalue them for when your grandchildren sell them in future years!)

Well, now there's this:

D'Addario Pro Plus Capo, Silver | eBay

Available in black and silver. A Ned Steinberger design. FlexFit Technology automatically adjusts to any fretboard radius.

www.ebay.com

I got to try one today and it works! The pad is soft rubber and the capo does exactly what the designer / maker (Ned Steinberger / D'Addario) say it does: "Automatically adjusts to any fretboard radius / Ideal for 12-string guitars or any instrument with octave pairs of strings / Optimal pressure on every string for unmatched, in-tune perfromace."

I know Thalia makes pads especially for 12-strings, but their capos are pretty expensive -- more than the D'Addario anyway.

Check it out 12-string players!

 

[walrus]

wiley, you should have patented your idea! They are calling it their "revolutionary, FlexFit™ technology"!

walrus

 

[davismanLV]

(I assume because you want to keep your capos all original and don't want to devalue them for when your grandchildren sell them in future years!)

Now that's funny, right there!!!

 

[jeffcoop]

Hmm. I wonder how it does with a compound fretboard radius (not a Guild, obviously).

 

[Guildedagain]

Shubb

 

[wileypickett]

Hmm. I wonder how it does with a compound fretboard radius (not a Guild, obviously).

It says on the package that it'll work effectively on classical guitars (with a flat fretboard) all the way up to vintage electrics with a 7" radius fingerboard -- and everything in between.

I love Shubbs too (they're the ones I glue mousepad material to) but Shubb makes separate capos for flat fingerboards and radiused fingerboards. This appears to do it all.

I'm wondering how the pad will wear over time (Shubb pads have to be replaced every now and again) but the package says "Guaranteed for life."

These appear to be brand new, or at least I'd never seen them before. The store I found them (Manchester Music Mill, Manchester, NH) had a bunch on the rack.

Curious to hear what others think.

 

[wileypickett]

AND -- if I'm permitted to veer on my own thread (and to keep things in the Guild universe) let me also note that Manchester Music Mill had an Oxnard D20 on hand -- the best sounding guitar in their acoustic guitar room, IMO. Wow!

I also finally got to try one of those Guild BT258 8-string baritones, which "Taylor Martin Guild" and Brad Little have written about. The action was WAY too low for me, but the sound -- pretty impressive.

I also played a few of Taylor's "forward braced" offerings, which I've been meaning to check out for a couple years now. One model (called "Wild Honey" I believe) was pretty good.

But truly, I preferred the D20, which was 1/3 the price of the Taylor.

 

[Cougar]

A number of LTGers have expressed frustration that their favorite capos don't work effectively on 12-string guitars..... Well, now there's this.....

Thanks, Glenn! Yeah, I got a 12-string shubb and then a 12-string G7 Newport with the "compensated pad," which I thought was going to solve all problems. It seemed to for a while, and then it didn't. I don't really use a capo much, but I just have to get one of those you mentioned. It is indeed a real pain when a capo doesn't work right on a 12-string!

 

[merlin6666]

I use the basic NS Pro and it works quite well on both six and 12 strings, even on the fat neck Orpheum 12.

 

[kostask]

To be honest, that looks like the G7th capo from about 10 years back, just from the big knob that sets the tension. I wonder if D'Addario possibly bought out G7th design, or the company that made the G7th capo (does anybody know if G7th capos are still available, or the company making them is still around?).

 

[davismanLV]

A quick search shows quite a few different styles of G7th capos available and scrolling down is a link to their WEBSITE which seems to show them in business and doing well.

 

[GGJaguar]

I borrowed a G7th capo at a jam and it worked well (on a 6-string). I remember it being super light weight compared to the Shubbs I normally use.

 

[davismanLV]

I borrowed a G7th capo at a jam and it worked well (on a 6-string). I remember it being super light weight compared to the Shubbs I normally use.

They have a whole line of capos called Ultralight. Cool design. Composite materials. Never used one, though.

 

[maxr]

For me, the Kyster 12 string capo works best of those I've tried - but man, the spring is so strong it doubles as a grip exerciser.

 

[Brad Little]

A few years back, I got a Thalia Capo for Christmas. It has interchangeable inserts for different radii and pressure, works well on my 12s, but I find it hard to put on and off. I find a Shubb 12 string capo works well on my 512 and use a Kyser (IIRC) classical for my 212, it is longer than a steel string capo and has no radius for the flat fingerboard on the '60s 12er.

 

[wileypickett]

To be honest, that looks like the G7th capo from about 10 years back, just from the big knob that sets the tension. I wonder if D'Addario possibly bought out G7th design, or the company that made the G7th capo (does anybody know if G7th capos are still available, or the company making them is still around?).

"Looks like" is the key qualifier here!

I'm very famliiar with G7th capos. They consulted me as one of their "capo testers" some years back -- that is, they sent me several for free to try out and comment on. (I'm not sure how they found out about me -- maybe from one of the guitar magazine articles I've been featured in? I've been custom making partial capos since the late '80s, which a few of you LTGers know about because you bought one from me.)

G7ths are very well-made -- thumbs up.

The difference is not in the mechanical design however -- many makers use adjustable knobs to set the pressure -- but (as I specfically noted in my first post!) in the pad itself, which is made of material unlike any that I've encountered in other capos.

The reason capo makers have been using hard rubber pads going all the way back to the elastic-band capos of the '60s is because they wear well.

But the drawback of hard rubber on 12-strings, as most of you know, is that the pad pushes down the thicker wound strings, whose very thickness makes it hard for the pad to also snug down the adjacent skinny octave strings. The result: string buzz. The tighter you cinch down the capo to get rid of the buzzing, the more you throw the guitar out of tune.

The pad on this one is way more flexible, more "forgiving" if you will, which makes it an advance on the hard rubber capos we're all familiar with, and why it works on 12-strings (with minimal pressure from the knob) and on necks of any radius.

(BTW, the Thalia is one of my least favorite capos. It was supposedly inspired by the maker's eight-year-old daughter, who the capo was named for, but you had to be King Kong to put the thing on, at least with the first version they made. No eight-year-old could possibly have used it and there were numerous complaints from early users. The newer versions work better, but I still don't find them "user friendly." They do look swell though.)

 

[fronobulax]

Mrs. Fro. has one on order now. I asked her if she liked her capo and she said "nor really" especially on the D25-12.

We are not always gearheads. Sometimes we will obsess about which toenail clippers are needed to trim the string ends on the F30 and whether a different set of clippers needs to be used on the D25 but sometimes we just want someone we trust to tell us what to do.

Since @wileypickett likes it and the cost is less than an evening of beer and pizza there was no argument against trying it.

 

[wileypickett]

Since @wileypickett likes it and the cost is less than an evening of beer and pizza there was no argument against trying it.

Let us know what the Mrs thinks!

 

[West R Lee]

I'll just add this on capos in general, or at least my experience with them. I guess I've got capos from about 7 different makers, including G7th, Thalia, Elliott and D'Addario. My take is that to me, the D'Addario holds the strings more securely and in tune than the others. It too has a softer pad than most, and I would attribute the holding tune and security to the softer pad conforming better to the strings. Having said that, to my ear the D'Addario kind of muffles the sound just a tiny bit, and I attribute that to that softer pad material.

Thalia, with their changeable pads to make both partial capos and to compensate for varying radii, I have found to be extremely versatile. However the pads on the Thalia is of a very hard plastic material, and with the pad installed, there is space between the underlying steel frame and the pad itself on the backside. To me, and I've compared all of these critically, the Thalia, because of it's design somewhat changes the sound of the guitar, giving it a bit of a metallic sound. That's not necessarily a bad thing to my ear as that tone to me isn't unpleasant, it's just different.

To me the Elliott gives the most natural sound, and maybe I've got the wrong radius "crossbar", or maybe it's the compound radius of Collings guitars, but I'm unable to get my Elliott to securely hold the D string without buzzing, on either my DV72 or my D1.

Though I've had a G7th for years, I've never been crazy about the gear clamping design it uses.

West

 

[wileypickett]

I'm familiar with D'Addario's other capos and I agree they work very well.

In researching what capos you can succesfully cut into pieces in order to make partial capos, I've accumulated between 75 and 100 different capos, with brands going back as far the '40s. I know capos pretty well.

Everyone will have their particular favorites, but I think Shubbb and D'Addario (of the contemporary makers) make the simplest to use, most effective, and reasonably priced capos.

This new capo is an advance on previous models, including D'Addario's. You don't have to switch pads to accommodate different radiused fretboards; you don't need separate capos for classical guitars, etc.

But where it stands out is that it works on 12-strings. I only bought mine yesterday and have already tried it out on a couple six-strings, a 12-string and even my banjo.

With two turns of the knob it cleanly capo'd my F212XL without affecting the tuning. This is the first commercially available capo I know of that works as well as my "mousepad altered" capos. That's news.

I don't notice any "dampening" effect, but I didn't notice such a phenomenon with my other D'Addarios either.