Capo tips

A high value piece of my guitar toolkit is a capo. I’ve tried all kinds, and these are my top takeaways from the experience.

Trigger/Quick change capo’s are the best for gigs. You can add and remove quickly. Easily stowed on the headstock for use during gigs. They fit in every gig bag or case.

Don’t waste your money on the cheap versions of these capos. they are never strong enough and you end up with fret buzz from the weak clamp mechanism

Make sure the capo is 100% vertically aligned with the fret. Otherwise this introduces tuning issues.

When checking tuning with a capo on, if it needs tuning, always best to loosen the string and tune back up to the note. This prevents the string from loosening down in pitch once you start playing.

The instant voicings changer - if you can transpose in your head or by ear, use a capo when playing second acoustic guitar with someone. This way you get different voicing for the same chords. It adds next level sounds like parmesan on pasta.

Partial capo for alternate tuning. Try capo on the second fret but only over ADGBE and you get a drop D style tuning. Try partial capo on other strings and other frets to see what wonders it creates.

If you have not discovered the actual partial or shortcut capo, google it. It has taken my capo options to another universe without changing tuning.