As others have said, very few manufacturers harden the capo bar. None of the manufacturers for whom I have worked have done so. My only experience with hard terminations were the Baldwin SD-10 and SF-10. These had very hard termination pieces. I suspect that the only reason that they did not have severe problems with string breakage as a consequence of the extremely hard material is that they had an unusually large radius at both contact points with the strings. There were some good aspects of the design. The termination pieces provided a bridge between each note, connecting the capo and the main mass of the plate. This provided a very rigid termination. I never cared for what the termination piece did to the sound, whether the problem was the extreme hardness, the large radius, or some other variable. There is a reason why so few harden the capo, and it is not because they are too cheap. Call me an old-fogy, but for my money, hardening the capo does more harm than good. Frank Emerson
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC