So I moved my capo back off the fret a bit more ....

[TBman]

It did sound better. I have to tweak the tuning more, but.... Time to rethink my daily habits....

[Atomnimity]

I'm conflicted. I keep moving mine around. Some days I work it right on the fret others I move it back. I haven't figured out which I like best yet. Please keep us posted.

[Wade Hampton]

Pretty soon you'll get it into muscle memory and won't even have to think about it anymore. The more you do it, the more seamless it'll become.


whm

[zmf]

Originally Posted by TBman

It did sound better. I have to tweak the tuning more, but.... Time to rethink my daily habits....

Same for all your guitars? Not sure about mine.

[sdelsolray]

When I use a capo (low profile Shubb), my left hand will run into it while playing (moving it slightly, more so by the treble strings) if I attach it too close to the fret being capoed.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by zmf

Same for all your guitars? Not sure about mine.

I use my Paige Clik on my Guild and Larrivee and really don't notice any change, but moving the Thalia back off the fret of my Avalon made a difference.

[ljguitar]

Hi Barry

In 2005 I saw Franco Morone (Italian guitarist) open for a gypsy jazz group, and his guitar sounded sweet and lush. Every song he used a capo, and moved them around from song to song, with minimum tweaking. I attended a workshop at Healdsburg in 2005 when I first heard him, but nobody asked about the angle of the capo (and he didn't volunteer info). He loves to talk about music, guitars and performing (very gregarious man).

Seagull even produced a model of the S-series for him.

Over the next few years I 'followed' (not stalked) his progress and he ALWAYS plays with capos and always moves them around through out his sets.

He doesn't always play the same brands of guitars, nor capos, yet they always sound amazing, and they stay pretty much in tune with minor tweaking as he moves them.

I finally started looking more closely and he always angles them like this…always





I started placing my capos like this and they play better in tune, and they ring better - I'm not sure if the angle creates better contact…but I'm not questioning it. And they stay better in tune as I move them around, and sound better.

The initial placement requires tuning, as does completely removing the capo. But the intonation while my guitar wears the capo, and simply moving it to a different fret requires little tweaking at all.

So I'm not sure what is going on technically, but it's working…

There are videos of Franco all over YouTube. You might enjoy a listen - he's a fabulous (and passionate) finger styler.

[rick-slo]

An angled capo placement is in consideration of having more room for the fretting hand, not for the sound or intonation

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

An angled capo placement is in consideration of having more room for the fretting hand, not for the sound or intonation

No, it affects intonation…at least on my guitars it does.

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

An angled capo placement is in consideration of having more room for the fretting hand, not for the sound or intonation

I think there’s a bit more to it than that - if it was just about space for the fretting hand, you’d leave it closer to parralel to the fret but farther back. I find the angled approach generally results in the least amount of retuning required. I don’t know why, but it seems to work that way.

[Nymuso]

Yes, the angled approach - yet another wheel I thought I had invented, but have not.

Intially it was, in fact, for fretting hand room. I did find, however, that this placement also benefitted in less need for tuning tweaks with each new placement.

[frankmcr]

The capo is angled farther back on the treble side for the same reason a single cutaway is on the treble side.

[ctvolfan]

Something has been driving me nuts lately on one of my guitars when I use a capo. For some reason the low E string's pitch is unusually higher than the rest of the strings. I have to tweak it down to get it in tune. What could be causing this discrepancy for this one string in particular? Is it a setup issue? Could it be the string? I do have different stings on it as of lately. Just seems odd to me.

[musicman1951]

Originally Posted by ctvolfan

Something has been driving me nuts lately on one of my guitars when I use a capo. For some reason the low E string's pitch is unusually higher than the rest of the strings. I have to tweak it down to get it in tune. What could be causing this discrepancy for this one string in particular? Is it a setup issue? Could it be the string? I do have different stings on it as of lately. Just seems odd to me.

In my experience lots of cheaper capos cause the low E to be very sharp. It is, unfortunately, not that unusual. I have a friend who plays out all the time and used a cheap capo. He just does a quick re-tune of the 6th string every time. It would drive me crazy, but it only takes a few seconds.

[hat]

I used to have a Sabine capo that was designed to press directly on the fret. It even had small locating clips that went against the back side of the fret. Eventually the rubber/vinyl strips rotted out, and I couldn't find replacements. A pretty clever design though...