I just wanted to post a well-deserved plug for the lap steel capos designed and made by (brilliant Dobro player) Martin Gross in Germany. These capos are custom made for the string height of one particular instrument (which was what I personally was after anyway - a capo to use on my baritone Weissenborn at gigs far afield so that I can bring one Weissenborn instead of two) and look like this:
Some advantages over other capos (the ones I have tried and compared it to are the Beard and Scheerhorn Flux capos):
- More sustain and better tone - now this is an important bit!
- The strings are anchored to the instrument, which in addition to the tonal and sustain advantages also gives a solid feel, like a nut - not bouncy like capos suspended on the strings.
- There is nothing clamping over the strings at "fret zero", so there is less for the hand to bump into when playing.
- The height/pressure on the strings of the bar that holds the capo in place can be adjusted on both sides, to suit the string gauges, so that the guitar remains in tune both with and without the capo. This is a great feature, and something that only needs to be done once, when first adjusting the capo to fit your instrument and string gauges.
The only set-back I can see on a Weissenborn-style guitar is that it can't be used very high up as the body of the guitar gets in the way when the upper bout gets wider. But it works as high up the neck as I need it to, so that's not an issue.
More info on Martin Gross' capos can be found here:
http://www.martingross.com/capo.htm
While a lap steel capo always is a bit of a compromise when it comes to tone and sustain, this capo is less of a compromise than the Beard and Scheerhorn capos I also own. And I like the sound with the capo on as a sound in its own right.
Fred
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