March 2018
The G7th Ultralight Capo that I reported on in last month’s newsletter, as I mentioned, is inexpensive and very lightweight. What I did not realize is that it can affect your instrument’s sound quality quite differently than other capos. Many of the capos on the market will either enhance the low end, enhance the higher frequencies or dampen the sound slightly. The G7th Ultralight tends to be more transparent, allowing the guitar to sound more like itself. I hadn’t given it much thought, but after trying it again, I agree.
Remember that the G7th Ultralight is inexpensive. Now let’s look at the G7th Heritage capo that my lovely wife Carol gave me for Christmas. As I mentioned last month, it is expensive ($139 + shipping). Ouch! It is definitely higher priced than the average Shubb, Keyser, or Planet Waves, but compare it with another popular yoke-style capo – the Elliott Elite at $160. Double ouch!
Yoke-style capos seem to be popular with the bluegrass crowd. Many players, instead of removing the capo at the end of a song, will slide the yoke capo over the nut, or just behind it, giving it just enough tension to stay in position. Where your guitar goes, so does your capo. No more searching the guitar case storage compartment, the gig bag, pant pockets, or the floor. I have a black Paige capo stored on my ornate no-name custom dread. I like it on that guitar because the black capo jumps out in sharp contrast to the blonde wood of the guitar. What I don’t like about the Paige is that I must retune the guitar each time I move the capo.
The reason I wanted to try a G7th Heritage is because I have discovered that my old trusty Shubb capo (I think I own five or six of them) doesn’t work on some guitars, because the radius of the fretboard and the radius of the capo pad don’t match up. Maybe that is why I see so many Shubb users snap their capos onto their guitar with a loud snap/clunk – very tight to overcome the radius problem. An overly tight capo pulls the strings sharp which necessitates tweaking the tuning and can potentially dent the guitar’s neck. I stopped using Keyser capos for the same reason – I found the Keyser capo spring put too much pressure on the strings, creating the same problem.
So, what does $139 buy? Well, the Heritage is made from hand-polished stainless steel, it has silicone neck and side pads to protect the guitar from metal to wood contact, and it has a machined knurled tension adjuster that works smoothly (unlike the loosey-goosey wobble of my Paige capo). Since it is made from stainless steel, it has some weight to it. Not enough to cause problems with the body to neck balance of your guitar, but enough weight to let you know it’s a quality product.
The beauty of the capo is that it has been designed using A.R.T. (Adaptive Radius Technology). What this means is the pad that contacts the strings shapes itself to the radius of the fretboard, so one capo can be used on any guitar. As I mentioned in an earlier paragraph, I use a Shubb capo for several of my guitars, my original G7th for other guitars, my Planet Waves for others, etc. The reason? Because each guitar has a different fretboard radius. Now I have a capo that will work on any of the guitars.
G7th has a wonderful video that describes the theory, development, and advanced function of the Heritage (https://www.g7th.com/heritage).
Does it work? Absolutely. It is easy to put on and take off the neck or slide to the nut. I find that the Heritage requires less tension to change the pitch of the strings, and most importantly causes less distortion of notes when in use. On several of my guitars I don’t have to tweak the tuning, on others, just a minor tweak by pulling on the strings and voila, on to the next song.
I give it a hearty two-thumbs up! Do I recommend it to my guitar friends? Yes, with caution. At $139, hold on to it for dear life. It will last a lifetime, so keep it close to you and don’t lose it.
Now go make some music!