capo-hardening/string breakage

[Richard Brekne]

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