Third hand capo

[Armistice]

Not as in I'm the third owner of this particular capo, but that's what it's called. I don't think they make them anymore, and sensing this, I bought a couple of extras before they disappeared. Still on my first, though.

Essentially they allow you to capo individual strings - all at the same fret, of course - but they can be on or off - and if it's off you're back to the open position of the string. They're really cheaply made - pic here on the site...

http://www.thirdhandcapo.com/

Anyways, I used to use them a bit with my original Armistice instrumental stuff - including lots on the difficult fourth album that never saw the light of day - and I introduced the other Jongleur to them - he bought one and he uses it on the tune Peddler - just him, I play in standard tuning.

I'd forgotten all about them until we met back up again and started rehearsing and neither of us could remember how he played his bit in the song. As I had a bit of time I noodled around with the third hand capo and eventually decided that it was set to 200202, and then worked out his part, which sounds difficult, but with the capo was actually quite simple.

I picked it up again the other day and put it on the Duesenberg - it doesn't really fit as it's more an acoustic guitar thing, but I got it sort of on OK, and was instantly reminded why they're great tools - just playing normal chord voicings and shapes often, but not always, and depending upon what set up you choose, gives you a chord with just that little extra something that you can't get in standard tuning.

For instance, this thing that I'll record this week, with the capo at 200202 - playing the Em shape (now an F#m) you get 244202, adding in a 4th/11th B note to the chord which gives it a specific sound which you you can't really do in an open position chord. Similarly, doing a C#7 using a B7 format but barring only strings 2 to 5 (apologies if your fingers don't work that way, but mine do... ) and leaving the high E string "open" (playing now an F# courtesy of the capo) which again adds in a 4th/11th to your C#7

Sounds just a little different from "normal". Tasty

Well worth playing around with things like this if you like acoustic, or cleanish electric. Probably too much detail is lost if you're doing higher gain stuff.

[JD01]

That is interesting, mate. I do like weird chord voicings.

Aside from the major mu chords, I like playing Fsus2, by using my thumb on the low F and the G string ringing open.

[Greg_L]

[Armistice]

Trust me, I had to count up the fretboard to work out what the additional notes were...

[vomitHatSteve]

I love that the dude has a massive screed on his website saying "actually, it turns out my capos suck, everyone who ever played them sucks, and you should just learn more chords"

[Armistice]

I love that the dude has a massive screed on his website saying "actually, it turns out my capos suck, everyone who ever played them sucks, and you should just learn more chords"

Haha - I just read that... he's actually flogging a new capo right at the very bottom of the page, but you have to read the entire thing to understand this. A marketing genius he is not.

The problem with this argument is that while you can get the same notes "just" by using chord inversions they don't sound the same. The thing I'm doing in the song I'm recording at the moment, which adds the 11th to an Em chord shape at the second fret, so effectively an F#m11 (I guess) - now I can add that note, as a 4th, to an F#m barre chord easy enough - just take the finger off the A string and voila, you've added the B - but as a chord, that excites no-one.

By using the third hand capo, you add the 11th on the second highest string - and it's right next to the tonic - and thus it gets more focus because of the tonal qualities of the higher unwound strings. Sounds completely different.

But they are a crap piece of manufacturing - double elastic strap with holes punched in them - they work, but the hole punched rivetty thing eventually tears out of the strap and the elasticity goes - it's why I bought a couple of spares. And they're fiddly. Whenever we did the Peddler song, that was when I had to chat to the audience for a bit whilst the other guy wrangled with his capo and ensured it was on correctly and in tune - which takes some time.

Of which, in the gig we just played, I said something along the lines of "We haven't played for a while. I checked our Facebook page and it seemed our last gig was Feb 20. So you might thing, well that's not so bad, it's only six months, but it was actually Feb 20, 2013 .... (much laughter) and just rambled on for a bit despite the other guy being ready in record time. If I'm telling a story, the music has to wait.