Capo?

A

acoustic21

New member
Joined
Jan 3, 2011
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
I looked on the Internet. Someone told me that you could use a capo on a ukuele. Others have said no. Would someone please clarify? :confused:
 
Yes you can use a capo. Just make sure the capo is for a mandolin. They have the same neck width as a uke. I also believe a capo for the banjo is the same size.
 
You can use a capo on anything you can manage to clamp it onto.

Whether you should use a capo is a different question. Personally, I might use one on the first fret or maybe the second. Probably not any higher than that. Depends on the scale of the uke.

JJ
 
The only problem with using a capo on the ukulele is that an ordinary capo made for six-string steel string acoustic guitars may be clamping the strings too hard. If your ukulele goes sharp when you press a string too hard with your fingers then the capo would too. On the other hand you should simply end up with all strings slightly sharp.. so you may have to tune down a tiny bit before you clamp, particularly if you play with others. In any case this will depend on the particular capo and the particular ukulele. Some capos also have adjustable pressure.
 
Last edited:
eugene ukulele said:
g'day acoustic21

and welcome to the UU forums.

The best capo for ukulele BY FAR, in my opinion, is the elastic one built by Dunlop. Readily available from the fleamarketmusic online store and they're only $3.95 each.

Here's the link: http://www.fleamarketmusic.com/store/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=143

Happy shopping!
Click to expand...

These are good capos but make sure you have somewhere to keep it. I've lost the inner pin thing out of two of mine in the past :uhoh: I'm terrible for looking after things like that. Great bargain though!
 
Practice using your finger as a barre. If you really want a capo, why not use a bit of rounded soft wood and a rubber band.
This type of improvised capo also works on other stringed instruments.
 
There is one drawback to capo, especially the elastic kind - they aren't going to help you a bit if there is a keychange in the song. Our current worship leader really loves keychanges and I always have to chuckle when I see the young lady playing acoustic guitar trying to move her capo in mid song without losing the beat.

So, capo - use one if you need to but set the goal of weaning yourself off of it as quickly as possible. Just my opinion, of course, and we know all about those opinion things. :)

John
 
to each his own...

I'm always stuck with the problem of playing with guitar buddies that use the capo alot and have sheet music written "relative to the capo". I aint transposing all that on the fly, and I dont know all them odd chords that come up soooo...capo
 
I'm with I Ukulista. Being able to transpose and bar notes gives a lot of versatility.

I Ukulista said:
Practice using your finger as a barre. If you really want a capo, why not use a bit of rounded soft wood and a rubber band.
This type of improvised capo also works on other stringed instruments.
Click to expand...
 
I'm baffled to see why anyone says you can't, my guitar capo's work fine on ukes. To be honest though I'm not entirely convinced you need to use them on a uke, it will pay off to learn chord shapes up the neck and to change from them.... unless theres something a bit more specific your trying to do.
 
I earlier wrote:
Tor said:
The only problem with using a capo on the ukulele is that an ordinary capo made for six-string steel string acoustic guitars may be clamping the strings too hard. [..]
Click to expand...
A follow-up: I just bought a Dunlop guitar capo which is the type with a spring (it's this one, or at least a very similar model: http://www.amazon.com/Dunlop-Trigger-Curved-Guitar-Black/dp/B000788VPG). It's approximately 53mm wide. I've tried it on my tenor ukulele (obviously I bought it for a guitar though..)
The potential problem of clamping the ukulele strings too hard turned out not to be a problem really: The ukulele neck is so thin compared to a guitar neck that the spring isn't engaged as much, thus it doesn't press as hard when clamped on the ukulele compared to guitar. There are no intonation problems.
The only problem is the width of the capo. If just clamped center on the neck it'll stick out on the side of the first string, which will be very much in the way for chord fingering. So I have to position it as much the other direction as possible. This works better, although the neck clamp only barely manages to reach the center of the ukulele neck when clamped like that.

Conclusion: A guitar capo works fine, but if you plan to use capo more than in the exceptional case then you may be better off with a smaller capo made specially for narrow necks.
 
There's a lot of tin-pan alley music written for D tuning. I'm too lazy to retune, and don't play nearly enough to dedicate an uke to that style, thus a capo. I also like a capo, because everyone around me plays guitar and I never learned. Slap on on the fifth fret and I can play guitar! (sort of)
 
Coming from a lifetime of guitar,I just don't see the point!
Mind you I never really used one on guitar either,I 'cheated'
and learned the different chord positions! With such a short
scale as a ukulele,it's easy enough to do the same,so a capo
would be redundant to me! But hey,each to their own,right?
 
Well, as a guitar player I don't need a capo either.. but I still use one (rarely enough that I sometimes have to buy new ones because the old one gets lost). I don't use a capo on the guitar to play in a different key, I use the capo to get a different sound. And that can't be done in any other way, not even with barred chords. When I'm fed up of listening to my own fooling around on the guitar I can rekindle my interest by changing the sound. A capo on the fifth fret, for example. creates a totally different sound. (Another method is to change to another guitar.. that's why I have lots of guitars: Small, large, steel, nylon, 12-string, 6-string, electric.. if I were a better guitarist I could probably do with just one.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Tenor + Capo
Replies
5
Views
261
ukudancer
U
mikelz777
Sold Shubb Lite L9 ukulele capo
Replies
2
Views
223
mikelz777
mikelz777
M
Capo's for Uke's
2
Replies
21
Views
1K
Canada Jim
Canada Jim
K
Capo 5th fret
Replies
1
Views
209
rreffner
rreffner
Teddy
CLAIMED - Free capo
Replies
4
Views
333
william1
william1
Top Bottom