Partial capo

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The partial capo (also known as a cut capo or short cut capo) is a regular six string acoustic guitar capo been "cut" or altered to allow it to clamp down only on certain strings while leaving other strings open or unclamped. Typically, partial or cut capos clamp down on the A, D, and G strings on a regular-tuned six-string, which results in a DADGAD alternate tuning. DADGAD tuning is very tuning because of its characteristic open, rich, full chords, while providing for relatively easy chord structures and positions.

Jerry Faires says in 1967, a guy by the name of Carr came into his St. Louis area coffee shop sporting a Bill Russell capo with the two ends sawn off so the high and low E strings were open. Faires says he thought it was interesting, but did not have much use for the open high E string, and proceeded to cut off just the end for the low E to ring through.

In 1976, guitarist Harvey Reid began sawing up Bill Russell capos, too. Reid saw an article in a magazine for a "Chord Forming Capo" and located the device's inventor, Lyle Shabram. Reid, along with Jeff Hickey licensed the patent from Shabram, and Third Hand Capo Company was born in 1980.

Close to twenty years later, Shubb, Kyser, and Transpo Products began making their own partial capos which are pre-manufactured partial or cut capos.

In recent years, the number of partial or cut capo players has grown considerably due to the often desirable open and full chord sounds the design provides. In particular, cut capos have been used regularly by worship leaders such as Chris Tomlin, among others, because of the convenience, ease of use and unique sounds.

Currently, the design has some limitations. To gain the benefit of the DADGAD tuning and simplified chord positions, the capo must be placed on the second fret, which results in the guitar being in E major pitch. Thus, in order to continue to play the DADGAD tuning chord positions at different pitches, often, the user would be required to use an additional regular standard capo to behind the cut capo to effectively raise the pitch of the guitar to different keys. Recent products such as the Transpo Capo have attempted to solve these limitations by incorporating a patented double capo system.

The following is a description of how the partial capo works on a guitar in standard EADGBE tuning.

The partial capo must be placed two frets away from the nut. This applies if using the partial capo with a standard capo to achieve various tunings. If the partial capo is used without a full capo--placed on the second fret covering the A, D, and G, strings--then the guitar player can use simple one to three finger chord shapes in order to play songs. This gives nice open chord sound.

The key is determined by the base note. When placed on the 2nd fret the base note is E. When cut capo chords are applied then the songs played will be in the key of E. If the guitar player puts a full capo on the first fret, and the partial capo on the 3rd fret, the base note is F, and therefore the guitarist is playing in the key of F.


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