Best capo for Weissenborn

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Weissenborn Players

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This group is dedicated to the Weissenborn players around the world.

179 Members, Created 2/15/2011 -

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From RobA on 11/4/2012 4:35:58 AM

Wondering if anyone here has done the a/b with a variety of capos for their Weissenborn?

I played a benefit concert last evening and wound up playing one song on my Weissenborn using my Scheerhorn Flux capo on the 2nd fret. It's been awhile since I played a show and used a capo on my Weissenborn and I noticed a pretty big difference in tone with/without the capo last night and would like to find something better.

I know from experience there are countless opinions on which capo sounds the best/has the least amount of "tone death" on dobro, but I'm specifically interested to know about Weissenborn guitar.

Thanks,

Rob

7 Comments
	Bob Blair says: 11/4/2012 7:27:59 AM Rob, I found that a Bradley capo was the best for my Benoit Cajunborne - I was using the Flux for awhile too. I use the capo for a medley of cowboy songs that I put together for one particular show - sounds really cool but does not sound the same (or to me even remotely the same) as without a capo. I spent quite a lot of time fooling around with capos because there was something I liked about the sound. The Beard capos, did not really work at all for me. Oddly enough, with the Flux capo my wife was hearing (loud and clear in another part of the house) a high overtone that drove her crazy, becasue it came trhough louder than the rest of the notes - I couldn't hear it, but my high frequency hearing is not so great, courtesy of one particularly loud country/rock band I did a year-long sting with back in the 80's. I'm not sure that overtone is entirely gone with the Bradley, but mostly. Last March I did a set at the TSGA on another Cajunborne I borrowed from Carroll Benoit, and I made a point of asking several people with good ears if they could hear any untoward overtones withe the capo before I did the set. I also have a Celtic cross Weissenborn-stlye instrument (which is quite different from the Cajunborne but sounds grab without a capo), and it did not work well at all with the Flux - just did not cut it at all. It is OK with the Bradley, but not great.
x says: 11/4/2012 10:37:38 AM Very interested in peoples opinions on this. I need to get some sort of capo for the instrument I keep tuned in low G.
	Bob Blair says: 11/4/2012 10:51:19 AM I meant to say my Celtic cross sounds GREAT without a capo! argh. Weezy for me the Bradley is the only one I'm likely to use on Weissenborn, of all the ones I tried. In any event it has to be a capo that "floats" on the strings, because the ones like the Shubbs that clamp to the neck won't work on the much wider hollow neck (in fact the Shubb won't even work on my Benoit resonators, because the strings are a little bit higher off the neck than on some resos). I got my Bradley from Redline - redlineresophonics.com/shop-3 I'm sure several others carry them as well.
x says: 11/4/2012 11:28:23 AM Thanks, Bob.
RobA says: 11/4/2012 12:42:37 PM Thanks Bob. I owned a Bradley at one point. I may have to get one again just to give it another try. I am going from memory but as I recall the one thing I didn't like about the Bradley was it sits so high on top of the strings that it makes it a little challenging to play hammer-ons and pull-offs.
	Bob Blair says: 11/4/2012 1:07:54 PM I think that is probably a fair comment about the Bradley. I don't use capos all that much with my resos, and even less often on my Weissenborns. Seems like a nice option to have though - I love playing with the "D" voicing in in E and F. In fact I am thinking about getting one of those shorter scale Bristolians for that purpose (drewdotcom.com/bristolianguita...ndex.html) - Kevin Brown brought one to the TSGA jamboree a couple of years ago and I thought it was pretty neat. I think the extra mass that the Bradley has may have something to do with why it works better on the Weiss.
x says: 11/8/2012 10:57:15 AM Those Bristolians look spiffy.
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