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Recent Vintage Capos
Some of these may still be available. . .
A screw clamp:
At any given time, screw type capos have always been available.
Here's another lever spring capo:
A spring roller capo:
You can mount this one, and simply roll it up the neck to the appropriate fret
position. The only difficulty is that you need both hands to install it, and
even then you have to be careful, because the springs are strong and there are
a lot of sharp-ish metal parts that can scratch finishes.
A short flat bar capo for banjo:
Here's a unique one:
See those little metal "fingers" that stick down under the bar? You'd
slide the capo on the fingerboard until the ends of the little fingers touched
the fret, then screw down the clamp. If you look closely at the resilient pressure
pad on the bar, you'll see that it's a "U-channel." The front edge
of the pad would land directly in the middle of the fret to hold the strings
perfectly to the fret with absolutely no stretching of the strings, and no shift
in intonation. The thing actually worked very well. Keeping it aligned while
screwing it tight required a fair bit of dexterity.
How about a ratchet?
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