Amazon Basics capo

[cyclistbrian]

Originally Posted by Shortfinger

Can't wait till the Amazon Basics all-mahogany richlite board dread comes out!

There literally is an Amazon Basics guitar that looks to be a slope shouldered dred. All plywood and not mahogany topped though....

[Rudy4]

...or you can use that $7.78 towards getting a good capo.

[dwasifar]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

...or you can use that $7.78 towards getting a good capo.

Did you have a bad experience with the Kliq capo?

[dwasifar]

Originally Posted by SalFromChatham

You buys have seen the Amazon Allbirds rip-off? Amazon is doing this in all products. Some copies are better than others. I suppose if you are ok with counterfeit Martins and Gibsons, you’d be ok with this too.

Just in general... it’s a poor moral business model. I wouldn’t reward it but to each his or her own.

You're assuming the Amazon product is an unauthorized copy, and not the genuine article rebranded. We don't know that yet.

The Allbirds copy is not identical to the original:



We would know that's not the same shoe even if Allbirds wasn't complaining.

The capo, on the other hand, does appear identical, and may actually be a rebranded Kliq; if so, there is no counterfeiting going on.

Another possibility is that Amazon is simply buying from the same China supplier that makes the Kliqs. If so, Kliq can't be happy about it, but it wouldn't be counterfeiting.

It's possible that Kliq themselves could clear this up. I'll write to them and ask.

[foxo]

I only like Shubb style capos.

[Ryler]

I really want to hear the reviews from those who buy this. Even at this low price, I'm holding off based on disliking the Keyser quick release because of the high tension spring. Yet, I love a great deal. So I'll stay tuned.

[RalphH]

The only difference I can see if the amazon spring looks a little different. If i had to guess I'd say it was even higher tension. I'm with Foxo on the only liking Schubb ones.

[Ralph124C41]

Originally Posted by Ryler

I really want to hear the reviews from those who buy this. Even at this low price, I'm holding off based on disliking the Keyser quick release because of the high tension spring. Yet, I love a great deal. So I'll stay tuned.

I have two Keysers and I hate using them so I will use my $4 capo first. Btw, they are REALLY bad IMO on electric guitars with those lighter-gauge strings.

Keyser is now selling a "low-pressure" model with a reported 25 percent less powerful spring. That's all I know about it.

[Dru Edwards]

Looking forward to read about how the capo works out. I bought a no name capo from Amazon that looked identical to the dunlop trigger a few years ago. It was terrible. Spring way to strong, cheap, etc. Only cost a couple of bucks.

[der Geist]

If it is Amazon branded it's gonna be junk. It's like buying tools at Harbour Freight. Good for occasional use but you'll never see them in a pro's tool chest.

I can guarantee this a generic knock copy like the ones on Wish or aliexpress.com

[dwasifar]

My pair of Amazon Basics capos appeared today. It looks like the people who said it was a knockoff were right. Sorry if a couple of the photos are a bit out of focus, my phone camera was having trouble maintaining focus at close distance.

At first glance they look virtually identical. Same chrome color, same size:



But the inside castings tell a different story. In this picture the Amazon capo is closer to the camera:



In this picture the Amazon capo is at the back:



The casting is visibly not the same shape at the hinge:



And you can see that the Kliq capo is a little farther open than the Amazon at rest, maybe because of that casting shape:



Also, if you look at the two Amazon capos side by side, their springs are visibly different:



The one on the right appears to have more coils in its spring, and that is borne out by pressure testing. I tested how much pressure it takes to open the capo by inserting a small object lightly into the jaws, then pressing it down on a postal scale to see how many pounds it would take for the jaws to start moving and the object to drop. The Kliq and the left Amazon capo both took about three pounds of pressure to start the jaws opening; the right Amazon capo took over seven pounds.

So it looks like this is a fairly faithful knockoff, but a knockoff nonetheless. I'd call it 98% faithful to the original. That extra-strong spring is troubling, though.

Oh, and there's this:

[GHS]

Nice post..good test... Now..it would be interesting to see the spring pressure difference btw two of the same make. Of course this can be taken for ever with every component of the capo. Even at the low price I still have Shubbs in all my cases...I like to be able to regulate the pressure.

[dwasifar]

Originally Posted by GHS

Now..it would be interesting to see the spring pressure difference btw two of the same make.

That is exactly what I tested. There were two Amazon capos in the package. One of them took about three pounds and the other took about seven pounds of pressure.

That all by itself says "sloppy QC."

[Goodallboy]

But they were cheap!

[dwasifar]

Originally Posted by Goodallboy

But they were cheap!

They are. One out of the two is probably perfectly usable.