On 4/24/07 1:55 PM, "Jim Busby" <jim_busby at byu.edu> wrote:
> I think Fred addressed capo dressing a few years back in his very
> thorough manner. As I remember here is the gist of it; the v bar can't
> be too sharp because it will wear/fracture too fast and soon be rounded
> anyway, but now with string grooves. He also referred to a .5mm contact
> point and that stuck with me.
Hi Jim,
Not me. I have never come to any firm opinion about the best shape for a
capo. I do think it stands to reason that "too sharp" (wherever you draw
that line) is a bad idea, especially if it is "too soft." Seems to me if you
want a very sharp termination you should harden it (and then you might want
to worry about angle of deflection, and about just how much you work the
wire when leveling strings). But that's about as far as I go, besides the
obvious: clean and polished and lubed with something or other <G>.
About what the profile should be, I think people do a lot of talking at
cross purposes. Similar to talking about how close you do letoff. It depends
a lot on whose eye is estimating, and how you are measuring. Same thing with
a capo. Radius, diameter, amount of surface contact, curvature, type of
curvature (eg, curvature in the back and sharp at the front), lots of
different ways of describing, and not much consistency from one person to
another. Unless somebody has an actual template, it's hard to compare what
different people are talking about.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico
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