[mjwjr]

For me it seems that playing with a capo makes fingering chords easier and also playing quicker finger styles easier. I thought it might make a nice tip. Anyone just begining to learn open chords ( or people with small hands ) might try playing with a capo on the second fret to lower the action and shorten the space between the frets. Then try it without the capo to work on stretching fingers and building strength & calluses.

Sometimes I get tired of playing open fret and put the capo on second fret out of laziness.

Hope this is not bad guitar practice.

Mjwjr

[Kirk Lorange]

I think that's the best tip I've heard in years mjwjr ... so obvious that it never occured to me to mention.

Yes. If you're having trouble fingering some of these chords shapes, clamp a capo on the second fret (this keeps the fretboard dots consistent for the first part of the fretboard) and practice like that. The capo brings the strings down, the action, and everything is much easier to execute.

I think I'll put that in the main site somewhere mjwjr ... thanks. Anything to make playing more enjoyable and fun and accessible and less painful is great advice.

[Ultimate Garage Band]

this is also an indication that most guitars, certainly virtually all starter guitars, could benefit from having the nut slots cut deeper to lower the action at that end of the guitar. This is a process best performed by an experienced tech and isn't cheap, but quite worth it.

[Kirk Lorange]

You're right UGB, not many guitars are optimized in the nut slot area. I guess it's better for the manufacturers to leave them a bit on the high side as it's much easier to make them deeper later on, as fine tuning, than trying to make a slot shallower.

Stangely enough, quite by accident, I wound up with two guitars that have a 'zero-fret'. My Strat, which I bought in '73 in London and had the young tech Seymour Duncan who worked there tweak its action. He had already inset a zero-fret in front of the nut, making open and fretted strings sound the same. Years later I fell in love with a little Gibson nylon string and had to buy it. It's the one I use in some of the lesson movies here ... strangely, it has a a zero-fret too.

I like 'em. I'll take a picture of them ... here you go!




You must, of course, move the nut back. It just becomes a device to keep the strings separate and ceases to be a critical part of the intonation/action. The zero-fret then has to be set where the nut was, the leading edge, to be precise. DON'T DO THIS AT HOME! Not unless you're talented in that area.

[Spyder F16]

the only real issue with using a capo is the fact that you do loose a fret or two on the higher notes... but if you dont play up there you should be fine.

I myself usually remedy the near nut problem by using lighter string gauges since they're not as difficult to manupalate.

[Ultimate Garage Band]

personally, I like the concept of a zero fret; it makes very good sense to me, but it has a stigma of being on 'cheap' guitars since installing a taller fret takes less skill than cutting a proper nut. Well, in reality, very few new guitars of a mulititude of price points actually have a properly cut nut.

[Spyder F16]

factory nut's usually are not all that good (Unless it's one of the locking style). A good amount of Aftermarket nuts however are nicely done (Like tremnut).