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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15678
Location: SoCal | And I'm an amature (who can't spell) and play acoustic.
The bottom line is it's just silly to limit yourself as to what you will and won't do when playing (ok, I won't play naked in church, so I do have limits).
To this day, Glen Campbell will be the first one to tell you that using a capo got him into the studios. Up until the early 60's, it was mostly jazz players in the studios, but Campbell, when doing demos, would use a capo and the producers wanted that ringing sound that he could get when playing in Eb, and other off keys.
Don't be a snob. And don't limit yourself. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | In my GigBag I've got a Kyser for the six and a Shubb for the 12. I've got a G7 here in my MusicRoom, but it stays here as it's always handy, and I don't wanna lose it at a gig as it was a gift from MasterTempleman (y'gotta marinade him in a good ChileanRed before y'get anything outta him, Michael ;-)
(He's lucky this Viper of his I've got isn't a nylon, or else he'd be going home to Ol' Blighty with his thumb up his arse . . .) |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15678
Location: SoCal | Just be carefully that Temp don't spill the ChileanRed on the carpet...... it's a waste of wine and a waste of a drunk Temp... |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | That was CalifornianRed, I'm a lot more careful with Chilean. Did you ever get that stain out? |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15678
Location: SoCal | Yup. But Jerrie's going to make you drink from a children's sippy cup next time you're out here. |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Just like home, and I live alone! |
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Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 398
Location: So. Cal. | Moody, I actually scared PT so much taking him back to the hotel that night, he'll never forget not to spill anything on your carpet. He damn near spilled his p** in my car!
PT, what kind of deal did Bose offer you? BTW, I was kidding about the G7, but a pair of 6 and 12 would be nice :) |
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Joined:
March 2006
Posts: 1634
Location: Chehalis, Washington | I've found much merit in using capos. Right now I have two Kysers, the 6-string and the Cut-capo (tunes you to Esus open). I never used to use one, as I got the impression that it was a "cheat" that a REAL guitarist would never use. As it happens, many of the songs I do for church each week work best in keys like F and G#, where getting full, resonant chords can be a lot trickier on an acoustic than using standard non-fretted chords. In particular, I've taken to using a lot of open-fingered chords in E and capoing to the right octave, as it just sounds incredible.
Also, with the cut-capo, you actually get a completely different phrasing to all your chords. The trick is you have to learn new fingerings for each chord, but the added benefit is that on virtually every chord, the highest two strings on the guitar ring open and consistent, allowing for very smooth chord transitions and a very strong open acoustic sound.
One of these days I'll get around to picking up a G7 and trying that too. I've found that rather than a crutch, a capo is more like an assist - it has really freed me up to focus more on style, rhythm and phrasing, rather than chunking through barchords when I'm leading worship. |
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Joined:
August 2005
Posts: 616
Location: cincinnati, ohio | If you're looking for some real versatility in partial capoing, check out this excerpt from an article I wrote for guitarnoisenews.com:
"The Third Hand Capo Co. was started in Nashville in 1979 by fingerstyle guitar virtuoso Harvey Reid and his partner, Jeff Hickey. I've got two of these little beauties myself, and the possibilities for finding tuning-like effects are limited only by your imagination. If you want the math, the folks at Third Hand say there are 756 ways to put their capo on a 12-fret neck, and over 40,000 musically different ways to put TWO capos on your guitar-- and that's just in standard tuning. If you alter your tuning to start with, the possibilities become endless. That's the beauty of it; you can get all these incredible open-tuned sounds without touching a machine head.
The Third Hand Capo is a lot like a standard Russell-style 12-string guitar capo with two elastic straps. Instead of a solid rubber capo bar, however, there are six separate rubber eccentric cams. Rotate the cam down toward the fretboard, and the flat spot of the cam clamps the string. Rotate it up and away from the fingerboard, the strings ring open. You can clamp any combination of strings to get an open-tuned sound without retuning your guitar. As an added bonus, you don't change chord and scale patterns the way you do when use an actual altered tuning because you're essentially still in standard tuning.
A perfect example of this is a capo configuration called Dropped "E." Place the partial capo at the second fret. Clamp strings 1 through 5, but rotate the cam over the sixth string upward so that the string rings open. If you wanted to spell out the "tuning" your guitar is in from bass to treble, it is EBEAC#F#. This is essentially the humble Dropped "D" tuning, but raised a step. Play a standard first-position D chord. The bass string has that nice, booming, ringing sound a la Dropped "D;" it's just a full step higher. And you didn't have to touch the tuning peg.
Now comes the sweet part. When you go to play a "G" chord in "real" Dropped "D," you have to slide your hand so you fret the 6th and 5th strings on the 5th fret, and the 1st (high "E") string on the third fret. Not impossible, but awkward. Why work so hard? With a partial capo in the Dropped "E" configuration, you just play your normal 1st position "G" chord. Piece of cake!
You can also configure the capo to a Double Dropped "E." With the capo still on the second fret, rotate the cam over the first string up and away from the fingerboard, leaving the string ringing open. With the top and bottom strings open and the rest of them clamped, you get a dangerous, ringing, droning sound. This is an analog to the tuning that Neil Young uses on "Cinnamon Girl," among others, only a step higher. If you play solo, this tuning effect can make you sound like a full band. I use it often to play songs in the key of G to get a nice, full sound. To do this, I put a partial capo (still configured to Double Dropped "E") on the fifth fret and a standard capo on the third fret. Now I'm playing in the key of "G" while using "D" fingerings. This works really well on the Eagles' "Take It Easy" and Mellencamp's "Pink Houses."
If you'd like to check out the rest of the article, go to:
http://www.guitarnoise.com/article.php?id=450 |
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G7th Capo
