Jamey -> RE: A capo thead.. (Aug. 11 2004 17:20:00)
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Long winded but here goes..... I've never used a Shubb. I have five that I've used. The Dunlop "Toggle" as you've mentioned (http://www.jimdunlop.com/products/capos/index.html), The Dunlop "Trigger" and "C-Four" capos, a traditional one and a Kyser "Quick Change" (http://www.kysermusical.com/classic.htm). The Dunlop "Toggle" is basically the most convenient, as mentioned it can simply be left on the guitar when you put it away. The only thing with it is you have to watch how you clamp it on as it tends to pull the high E string and B string across the fingerboard as if you're bending the strings. Just a little bit of attention while clamping and sometimes a little bit of string pulling above the capo to retune is all that's really required. It's so simple in it's design as to be a stroke of genius. It seems so obvious in design but nobody before Jim Dunlop thought of if (I'm guessing here). I noticed while in Sevilla that of all the guitarists I watched, most used the Dunlop Toggle capo with just a couple hold-outs using the traditional variety (though the ones that did, seemed to battle it while changing frets). Dunlop's other designs that I've tried (but neither worked for me), the "Trigger" and the "C-Four" suffer from a lot of issues. The C-Four and it's variations like the C-Clamp (which my father uses on his 12 string) seem to get in the way on the back of the neck with some positions (as mentioned in another post) and I personally found them difficult to release. The Trigger pulls the strings much like the Toggle tends too but worse. It also definitely gets in my way since the handles stick out the back behind the neck. I owned the Trigger first and it drove me in search of something better, hence my owning all of these other styles. The traditional one for me has been sort of a mixed bag. Esthetically it's the nicest one, but functionally I have trouble with it. My first finger of my left hand, particularly the middle knuckle sometimes pushes against the tension peg when I play adjacent to it. I've seen some where the peg is angled away and I suppose that the idea is to keep it out of the way. I have no experience with that variation on the traditional cejilla. I've had a few traditional cejillas, some ornate and expensive, some just quickly made "cheapo" ones with a bit of poorly inlaid mother of pearl. Some had a clear nylon/rubber tube band that wraps behind the neck. I've seen guitars that have indents on the back of the neck from people over tightening these cheaper ones as the cheaper tension pegs sometimes slip. The one I had with a leather strap was nice but like all of the traditional ones, it used a piece of a G string as the part that winds around the tension peg. This almost always breaks after a while (all four of mine did, save one - the one I didn't use and kept "just to have"). The Kyser Quick Change is the easiest (and as the name implies "quickest") to change frets with but has a downside. It's a big klunky and ugly looking thing that adds a bit of weight to the neck. Sort of looks like you have an old TV antena hanging off of your guitar or perhaps a pair of vice grips clamped onto the neck. Works great, just not much to look at. My two cents....(which inflation adjusted and currency converted adds up to........uh.....nothing.....).
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