A capo raises the guitar’s pitch, which in itself imparts different tonal qualities to a guitar. There’s also a sonic difference between using the best guitar capo and barring with your own fingers. A good capo sounds more ‘open’ and bright than a finger across the strings. While every capo in this guide is of a certain standard, some capos will pull on your guitar's strings more than others, and therefore will effect your intonation at different levels. Capos like the Paige Clik range - which are known as cradle capos - are some of the very best if you're particularly worried about keeping your intonation perfect, due to their perfectly even tension across the whole fingerboard. Planet Waves NS Artist .Trigger-style capo with adjustable tension – the best of both worlds. Variation of the NS model with added flexibility. Creative Tunings SpiderCapo Standard. Unique partial capo that can hold down strings one at a time. Universal and works for all 6-string guitars. Perfect for creative tunings.

Now they are preparing to introduce a new model, the Paige Pro, with a number of innovative design elements that they expect will revolutionize the way we look at fine capos going forward. Placing a capo on any fret will produce an arbitrary nut. You will only get to play the length of strings only up to this point. And since the length of the strings has been shortened, they also vibrate with greater frequency. This produces a higher pitch than the original length of the strings. Why You Should Use a Guitar Capo Capos also offer up interesting uses when revoicing chords. You can take a regular chord progression, add the capo and change the chord shapes. This gives you the same chords but with a different voice, and thus a more interesting sound. Pair it up with a guitar playing the original voicings and you can add a much richer tone to your recordings. It's worth remembering that, just like fretting the guitar with your finger, all capos will alter your guitar’s intonation to some degree. The best ones will have been designed to effect it the least, reducing the need to retune your guitar after fitting one.The force applied by a capo on the strings is also a very important consideration. It should not be too light nor too strong. You need to find the perfect balance to make it easier to tune your guitar. Guitar fretboards or fingerboards can have either a curved or a flat surface. For example, the fretboard of nylon-string acoustic guitars is flat. On the other hand, the fretboard of steel-string acoustic guitars has a curved shape.

My Review: This capo has got to be the most ingenious accessory you can ever buy for your guitar. I love to call it the full-partial capo, depending on how you use it. The SpiderCapo looks like a clamp with individual pegs for each string on a guitar. If you want to use it as a full capo, then you can easily activate all six pegs over the fingerboard. My Review: D’Addario has been making guitar strings, capos, straps, and other accessories for musical instruments since 1974. You can say that they already have a firm grasp of what customers really need. This is what the NS Tri-Action capo brings to the table. It looks like a screw type of capo. However, I can tell you that it isn’t. This is a trigger capo that behaves more like a screw type capo.Here at Guitar World, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything guitar related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our guides. I appreciate the simplicity of the 14C as well as its low-profile design. It will never get in the way of your fingerings. It doesn’t cost that much, too. One of the most compelling reasons why you should get a capo is that it allows you to play a song in a different key without ever changing the chord shape of the original key. In other words, you can transpose almost any other key on the fly.

Find out more about how we make our recommendations, how we test each of the products in our buyer's guides and our review policy. How we choose products My Review: Guitar X is one of the most versatile capos you can ever buy. You will not be able to adjust the tension on your strings. However, this is never a problem with GuitarX X. The company utilized a unique memory spring that allows the capo to apply only the correct force on the strings. Regardless of the kind of string instrument that you have, you can easily maintain its tuning characteristics. My Review: Most of the capos today is either a trigger or a spring type. However, there are still guitarists who can appreciate the simplicity and effectiveness of an old-school strap capo. The Dunlop 7191 Bill Russell Elastic Heavy Capo is perfect for such guitar players. We may not be huge fans of the strap capo. However, once you try the Bill Russell on your guitar, you might want to ditch your traditional capo for this one.It’s impossible not to know Dunlop when it comes to guitar accessories, and capos are no different. The 83CB acoustic guitar capo should easily fit all 6 and 12-string guitars, and is made from quality aluminum. Its ergonomic design ensures the best health for your hands, while the strong spring offers enough resistance to clamp down strings without fret buzz. Capos won’t damage your guitar if used for a few hours at a time, but constant use over a longer time can cause issues. The G7th Newport guitar capo features a patented compensated string pad design. If you have a good look at the string pad, you will notice that it has a series of tooth-like bumps. These are intended to finetune and equalize tension on strings of different gauges. My Review: Consider this the ‘small brother’ of the Kyser KG6B. The KG3B has the same unique, curled styling of the guitar clamp and the same solid and strong spring mechanism. The difference is that the KG3B is a 3-string partial capo. Its ‘bigger brother’, the KG6B, is a 6-string full capo.

You may also want to consider a capo with a replaceable bar. The rubber in capos doesn’t last a lifetime. They dry out, harden, and become very brittle. It would also be nice if the capo came with a feature that allows for easy storage.I’m surprised at how strong the spring mechanism is. Once you clamp it on the fretboard, it will never budge. What amazed me, even more, is the ease of capo removal. This is surprising because a spring this strong should not make it easy to remove the capo. But, it does! Putting the capo on any guitar is also effortless. A simple squeeze is all it takes to open the capo and slide it over your fretboard. There are no screws to tinker. G7th designed the Performance with the ultimate in effortless and precision tension control. All strings will receive the correct amount of force necessary to produce the correct tension. That’s what I call ingenious. Position it over the guitar’s fretboard, just before the fret you’d like to capo. It should be as close as possible to the fret so that there’s no buzzing. With this guide, you have the key info to easily select the best capo for 12 string acoustic guitar for your needs and playing style. Take care in choosing, as an improper capo fit can buzz and damage your instrument.