NCD: (New Capo Day)

Ok, there's a bit of a split here between those of us who like capos and those who don't. The later see them as a perversion only fit for folk guitarists who can't play bar chords; the former like them for the different timbral possibilities they open up. Whatever, I like capos.

I own one, a Planet Waves (I think) quick release thingie. It's nice, but I kind of wanted a second one - one to either leave in my acoustic case or, if I'm jamming with people and think I'll need it, toss into a gig bag, and another for studio use. Insert obvious recording joke.

So, I put in a Juststrings order last night, probably sometime after six. This morning, I found a package of strings and a capo on my front door. Yeah, they're just over the border in NH, but JustStrings rules - door to door delivery from a Friday night order in something like 18 hours.

Anyway, I haven't played with it much, but let me present to you my new Planet Waves NS-Pro:



This thing is tiny, and damned near weightless. It says it's good for 6- and 12-string guitars, but I took one look at it, and popped it out of the packaging and ran upstairs just to make sure it really fit on the neck of a 7. It does, more or less - you're good up to the 8th fret on my UV, and sort of on the 9th, but it doesn't quite cleanly seat the high E when inserted from the bass side, which might be a little bit of a problem. However, I rarely capo much past the 5th-7th fret, and when I do I'm not really looking for the full range of a 7-string. To be fair, I honestly don't remember what's the highest fret I can use my other capo on (EDIT - I just checked, my Kyser has the exact same range as this one, so call it a draw).

An additional cautionary note is it's not really a quick release capo (nor does it claim to be, to be fair) - opening and closing it is accomplished with a thumbscrew on the back of the capo. You position it where you want it, twist until tight, and then play. One of the 'squeeze' type capos (like my other one) can conceivably be removed mid song, given a quick pause - say, covering Porcupine Tree's "Trains," hit the last chord before the distorted guitars kick in, quickly grab the 'clip" and rip the capo from the 5th fret, drop it to the floor, and hit your footswitch just in time to hit the A5-G5-F5 powerchord riff. This, not so much. It takes a couple seconds to install even if it's already "almost" tight enough.

On the plus side? Well, that same "applies pressure from the back with a thumbscrew" approach makes it very unsusceptible to 'pulling' the strings, pulling them a bit sharp, giving it what seems to be great tuning stability. Also, it weighs next to nothing, has a very small body, feels very secure, and is pretty uninvasive on the neck of the guitar.

Overall, maybe not the ideal live performance capo, but a great thing to have lying around on your recording desk. At $17, not super cheap, but a pretty nice capo for the money.