Guitar Capo Reviews
Ok... I have been accused of being slightly obsessive when it comes to guitar playing, guitars, exercise, shaving, socks, guitar tuners and now capos. So bear with me while I give you my opinions - for what they're worth - about the various capos I've used over the years. Keep in mind this is from someone who is obsessive about 'acoustic' guitars.
I have a certain criteria for way capos should function beyond the need to simply play with standard chords higher up the neck. For one thing the strings need to stay in tune. I also tend to play a lot of fingerpicking lead while keeping a bass going so it's important that my 'bent' notes on the 1st and 2nd strings are stable underneath the capo to keep their proper pitch.
So here goes.
I have a certain criteria for way capos should function beyond the need to simply play with standard chords higher up the neck. For one thing the strings need to stay in tune. I also tend to play a lot of fingerpicking lead while keeping a bass going so it's important that my 'bent' notes on the 1st and 2nd strings are stable underneath the capo to keep their proper pitch.
So here goes.
The Elliott Guitar Capo - $135: This is (at that price) the Rolls Royce of capos. What does it do that similar ones don't do? Not a thing. But if you like a great product that is literally hand made by a couple of guys here in the USA, and feel like splurging, then you can't go wrong. I have one, use it all the time and it does the job.
The Ultimate Capo - $42.00: Designed and hand tooled by David Elliot of Oregon, not to be confused with Elliot capos - for my practical purposes it works extremely well. The craftsmanship is first rate and as I can sometimes capo as high as my 7th fret it fits just fine. No problem there either. It also doesn't shift the strings slightly out of pitch when being applied the way some other capos do. Finally, I can capo up to the 7th fret on my Nationals without difficulty.
Paige - $20.00 : I find that while the build may not be as 'hefty' as the Ultimate (it is after all handmade) the Paige almost achieves literally everything else for less then half the price. The only drawback for me is that because of it's design it can't be fitted past the 5th fret on my guitars.
Shubb Deluxe - $22.00 : Shubbs were and continue to be my workhorses. I can mount them anywhere along the neck and because I have a tendency to 'bend' strings this is the ONLY capo that keeps the strings in place. The mechanism is easy to adjust and the deluxe version is made quite well. The only problem I had was that because if it's design you have to be careful when putting it on as it tending to shift all the strings ever so slightly over to one side. A little pressure applied as you're affixing the capo solves that easily enough. All said this is my main capo.
Shubb 12 string Capo - $22.00 : The shifting of strings problem as well as the weird fit for thick necks on the vintage guitars was solved! Who would have thought? I'll be using this on my 6 string guitars as well.
Planet Waves Capo Tuner - $22.00 : Does everything the Paige and Ultimate can do with one more feature: there's a tuning device built into the side. I'm not sure why because I never had a problem with re-tuning when I used it. Still, that's a pretty cool feature.
Planet Waves NS pro - $23.00 : not for me because it couldn't handle my bending strings. Once I bent the 1st string up the 2nd string moved out of place underneath the capo and stayed there. However, if you like the Shubb and don't bend strings this is a fine little device.
Keyser - $18.00: The beauty of this capo is that you can affix it to your headstock when you're not using it. I've found that it works quite well. My only problem was that it couldn't keep the strings in place when I bent them.
Dunlop Elastic Capo - $4.00: Don't laugh. I use these on some of my old vintage guitars that have big, beefy necks like baseball bats. 99% of newer capos freak out every time but this capo does the job.
Pencil Capo - .29 cents. Ok, now you can laugh. But I was 14 years old at the time and got the idea about putting a capo on a guitar from seeing a picture of some old blues guy doing this with a pencil. Made sense to me at the time and it worked!
My bottom line.
If you're looking for a capo pretty much all of these will do quite nicely (with the exception of that pencil). My own personal preference is the Shubb simply because of that one extra feature which I need: it can hold those strings in place when I bend them up a bit.