Capo

Got my custom made Martin Gross capo this morning. (I also got a Tipton RT-1 delivered today-it's the new style but I think it is great anyway)

Anyway, it sounds good, and am going to be properly putting it to the test in a moment.

Liam

First, let's just say that I can play in all keys and in closed positions without a capo with adequate proficiency to do without one altogether if I desire. I like using them sometimes and always will despite naysayers and poo pooers.   

I dropped my Beard Capo and broke the bone on it.

What would you replace it with, A scheerhorn or flux or another Beard?

I've got no complaints with the Beard. I have 2 of 'em. Maybe I should try something else? I've had one brief encounter with a fluxcapo, but not enough to appreciate it.

So......

Image: 

Image: 

Image: 

Image: 

Image: 

Image: 

Used less than 10 minutes and stored in the cotton pouch it came in. 

$65 shipped to lower 48. PM for other shipping.

Check, Paypal, Credit Card accepted.

THE HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF THE RESONATOR GUITAR CAPO ACCORDING TO WOLFE

By Bobby Wolfe - Published in Bluegrass Unlimited March, 2002

In the beginning, when a Resonator Guitar picker needed a capo to play those fiddle tunes like the banjo picker (who had a capo) (ditto the guitar picker) he looked around for one and all he got was "what’s that ?" Being resourceful, as most pickers are, he would utilize such things as popsicle sticks, toothbrush handles, miscellaneous pieces of bone, plastic or whatever, even a Chuch Key (beer can opener to you un-initiated) and he would twist it in place between the strings and the fingerboard and say "let’s git it boys".

Seriously, back when you could count all the Resonator Guitar pickers on your fingers, that IS what they used for capos! Can’t you just imagine doing that today? Well, in 1965 when I got my first box it was still the same way but I got lucky. I found both of Tut Taylors’ World Pacific albums and on one was his address. I ordered his instruction book and LP which by the way I think was the very first post WW II Reso Instructional. In that book was a sketch of the Miller capo and so I immediately ordered one.

I knew absolutely nothing about tone at the time but I knew my new capo sounded awfully different than the nut or the bar. Being made of light weight aluminum channel, it simply didn’t have the weight to sound right. That was my reasoning. So, I found a ¾ inch round chunk of brass, got my hacksaw and files and went to work. I flatted one side for lining up on the frets, notched , drilled , tapped and stole the clamp part from Miller and had my first prototype capo. It worked. Big and bulky but man, I had tone !!

Later I proceeded to buy some 9/16 brass bar, round rod and vinyl tubing. Using machines at the local Community College and my home workshop I made 18 capos.

I sold about half , and gave capos to Tut, Josh, Jerry, Mike, Gene Wooten, and probably Curtis Burch and others. This was somewhere around 1970.

Now you have the early history of the Reso capo. Here comes the evolution part.