Fred Sturm wrote: > There seems to be some concern that a too-hard capo causes string > breakage. Is there real, solid evidence for this? Not just anecdotal > stuff. Sure there is, and thats one of the (several) reasons there has been so many different arrangements tried out over the years One way of looking at this all is like this.... If the condition of the termination point is such that it is hard enough, sharp enough, and the tension of the string is high enough, and the deflection of the string away from the termination point is high enough.... the string will break. Now one can back off on any of these parameters to arrive at some point where string breakage is no longer a problem... but not neccesarilly without causeing some other problems. We can effect changes in the inharmonicity present, the wear and tear on the capo itself (not the least of concerns given the servicability of this) and a few other things by what configuration is choosen to resolve the front termination point issue. Witness Ron O's approach.. He is attempting an interesting combination of things that I would expect would lower inharmonicity somewhat in as much as he has such a thin profile, yet avoid somewhat the tendancy to run into string breakage due to the low deflection angle off the termination. He risks running into string buzzing from that low deflection, and capo wear due to the lack of a wide surface to stand up to that. I noted that he dropped a little qualifier about that saying something about "good tuning technique" being neccessary to avoid some breakage problems. > > University of New Mexico -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
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