From Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine, Nov./Dec. 1999
Capo Caper
No doubt about it, capos have gone high tech. A plethora of new designs and clever innovations have surfaced in the past decade that boast features ranging from "open tunings"to extra digits, and all offered in fast, faster, and fastest flavors. But one fairly recent entry, while certainly new-fangled, gets back to the roots of the thing. More high-touch than high-tech, the Glider takes the form-follows-function ideal to new levels-both forward and backward.
On the nuts and bolts side of the equation, the device features a pair of equal-tensioned springs, designed to maintain even pressure across the fretboard. This is a fine point, but one that certainly facilitates the integrity of your tuning. It's where the rubber meets the road, though, that function really comes to the fore. Two rubber rollers do all the work here: one doing the fretting, the other allowing quick, smooth, and almost slight-of-hand repositioning. To move the capo from, say, the second fret to the fourth, simply lay your right hand over it and roll it there. You can also push the bottom roller up or down along the length of the neck with your left-hand thumb, which from the audience's perspective, is a pretty neat trick. Don't need the capo for that next number? Just roll it up over the nut, and it's out of the way, but poised for immediate service. Simple, quick, and elegant.
And oh, a key man behind the device? That would be Greg Bennett: one of the shakers and movers behind the whole unplugged movement, and fingerstylist extraordinaire. |