Capos

Same thing with Tom Petty, several songs require one.

Another example of a need for one is Mike Ness (Social Distortion). He injured his hand and he can't play at full string tension so he tunes down a half step and capos the first fret to get back to standard tuning with a softer feel.
Gordon Lightfoot. Another one that used a capo a lot. But again. We’re talking acoustics.
 
One interesting little item that was sort of popular with some worship team artists years ago was a cut capo. They would cut the capo to only depress certain strings, while leaving a couple of strings free. The strings left free were usually the high B and/or E strings. The four lower strings were usually the capo'd strings.

This was sometimes combined with a second capo which was left uncut. So, you'd have two capos on the neck. The one nearer the headstock was uncut, whereas the second one was cut to whatever the guitarist wanted. By doing this, the capo was used as more than a tool to assist in playing in different keys. It became something which fundamentally changed the tuning of the instrument.

The result opened up possibilities for some pretty interesting voicings and harmonies.
 
This is what one guy said on a different forum.

[/HEADING][/HEADING][/HEADING]
[HEADING=3][HEADING=3][HEADING=3]goonie

Friend of Leo's​

JoinedDec 20, 2011Posts2,969LocationAustralia
Cheater bar haha yeah that's just macho BS. Sure, I have big manly hands and can play barre chords all day long. But the capo is all about getting your jangle on. Someone mentioned Ryan Adams - great example. If you want to nail the sound of some of his songs, you gotta use the cap

"Cheater Bar". Yeah, I'm glad that poster called out that statement. Again, substituting open chords with barre chords just doesn't yield the same result. For example, the intervallic pattern of an open G is 1 - 3 - 5 -1 - 3- 5. A barre chord is 1 - 5 - 1 - 3 - 5 - 1. Although they are both a G chord, the harmonies of the two sound different.
 
Same thing with Tom Petty, several songs require one.

Another example of a need for one is Mike Ness (Social Distortion). He injured his hand and he can't play at full string tension so he tunes down a half step and capos the first fret to get back to standard tuning with a softer feel.

I've done something similar, though for different reasons. For awhile, I kept my acoustic tuned down a half step. So, instead of using a capo at the fourth fret to play in the key of B, for example, I would play in open C with the guitar uncapo'd. But, I'd put a capo on at the first fret to play in standard tuning.
 
One interesting little item that was sort of popular with some worship team artists years ago was a cut capo. They would cut the capo to only depress certain strings, while leaving a couple of strings free. The strings left free were usually the high B and/or E strings. The four lower strings were usually the capo'd strings.

This was sometimes combined with a second capo which was left uncut. So, you'd have two capos on the neck. The one nearer the headstock was uncut, whereas the second one was cut to whatever the guitarist wanted. By doing this, the capo was used as more than a tool to assist in playing in different keys. It became something which fundamentally changed the tuning of the instrument.

The result opened up possibilities for some pretty interesting voicings and harmonies.
My youngest has done this in the past. Does make for some intriguing tones. Pretty cool actually.
 
Back
Top