So, for example, although you can theoretically use the SpiderCapo at the second fret to turn DADGAD into a sort of standard tuning, you cut off the all-important second-fret notes on the A, D and G strings in doing so. The other is that any strings you leave uncapo’d can’t be manually fretted at the fret where the SpiderCapo is placed. One is that it can only be used at one fret, so you can’t, for instance, use it to simultaneously raise the A string a tone and the G string half a tone.
There are two obvious limitations on what the SpiderCapo can do. Alternatively, you can use it further up the neck, to fret one or two strings as high-pitched drones, playing with your left hand behind the capo rather than in front of it. As someone who plays a lot in DADGAD, I found it particularly rewarding in that context, and gravitated most of all to using it at the first or third frets to create odd F, Bb and Eb hybrid tunings. Simply by flicking a couple of fingers, you can radically alter the harmonic world of the instrument in ways you’d never bother to try otherwise! At the same time, unlike conventional altered tunings, it does not change the pitch relationship between fretted notes, so an ‘altered’ tuning created using the SpiderCapo feels a lot more familiar than a ‘real’ one. You can also use the SpiderCapo in conjunction with a conventional capo if you need to.Īs advertised, the SpiderCapo does indeed make it child’s play to experiment with alternate tunings. With practice, you can apply it reliably and fairly quickly, though I’m not sure I’d want to be doing so on a darkened stage. This means the SpiderCapo can cope with most fretboard radiuses, but also that you need a light touch to avoid sending strings sharp. The further you rotate these handles, the more firmly the string is fretted.
Once the capo is in place, you can adjust the position of each string’s individual ‘finger’ to reflect the string spacing at that fret, then engage as many or few ‘finger handles’ as you like, so as to fret only those strings. Its makers say that this provides near-instant access to over 900 alternate tunings.Ī large thumbwheel is used to clamp the SpiderCapo’s plastic end pieces to the top and bottom edges of the fretboard these end pieces are padded with leather, so you can tighten the capo firmly without risk of damage. How many recording sessions have been improved by Rycote’s InVision shockmounts, or the sE Reflexion Filter? Like those devices, the SpiderCapo is conceptually simple, but was probably more difficult to design than it looks! In essence, it’s a partial guitar capo that lets you choose whether to capo each string. Innovation in music technology doesn’t have to be digital, or even electronic.
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