History of the Partial Capo

Little is known about partial capos prior to the appearance in around 1976 of Lyle Shabram's "Chord-Forming Capo." Harvey Reid published a book in 1980 called "A New Frontier in Guitar" and released his first recording using one in 1982 ("Nothin' But Guitar" on Woodpecker Records) The Third Hand Capo Company started selling them all over the country in 1980, and since that time have sold close to 100,000 of the universal-type capos in the US and about 25 foreign countries. A discussion of the ways to use a partial capo to teach beginning guitar appeared in 1984 in Reid's college guitar textbook Modern Folk Guitar (Knopf/McGraw Hill) which has been in print since then and used to train thousands of music teachers in folk guitar.

Reid is working on a database of the first 20 years of recordings of songs using the partial capo, and if you have information you can add to this list please do so.

A number of stories are circulating of people chopping up capos in the 1960's and 1970's (below) , though we are not currently aware of any recordings or books released. A couple emails Reid has received from people are below:

Harvey Reid has written a piece about some possibly much-older appearances of this idea. Tantalizing Musical Mystery

Guitarist extraordinaire Stephen Bennett wrote me in 2009

"I thought of you immediately today in the studio where I was finishing up a cd celebrating the 100 year birthday of my great-grandfather’s harp guitar. His name was Edgar Pierce and he lived from 1885 to 1968. On one tune that he recorded on a home reel to reel tape recorded in the early to mid 60’s, he is capoed on the 4th fret with the 6th string open. I had no idea until today."

Stephen Bennett

E-MAIL FROM BOB INGRAM (Coconut Grove FL) 2001

"In 1961 I met Peter Paul and Mary who at the time were playing a gig in Miami . They were the first one to use an elastic capo and being the son of a guitar player and a singer myself I was intriguead and began using an early Bill Russell Capo which I found superior to the chrome clamps of the time. To this day I prefer the Russell to anything I have found on the market. In 1962 I got the first 12 string guitar built by the Cuban Luthier Miguel Company recently off the raft from Havana fleeing the Castro Regime and bringing with him and his family some rosewood and a few pieces of 40 year old air seasoned spruce and of course some hand made hand tools. David Crosby and I used to hang out in the old man's kitchen and listen to tales of Spain Franco Guitars and Castro. He built that first 12 string with the wood previously described. It was a 12 fret fan braced giant cannon of a guitar and was played over the years by Bob Gibson, Fred Neil, Roger McGuinn, Dick Rosmini, and Bob Dylan . When I needed a 12 string capo I found that the elastic in a Russell was inadequate so my simple solution was to remove the pin, buy 2 capos and add an extra rubber it worked of course and over time I made others for friends.

In 1963 Crosby and I were in an early folk group called Les Baxter's Balladeers. We were operating out of LA and found ourselves in Sacramento playing the California state fair. In the Motel one morning I was reading a Sing Out Magazine and saw Bill Russell's ad. Wow he is in Sacramento, so we all trooped in the rental to go find him. The address was on a street called Ferger ave and much looking and driving we stopped to ask the directions at a house with the address but seeking a factory figured was a factory. Bill Russell answered the door and found on his porch the first musicians to ever visit. A most gracious man was he, and showed us the garage where he worked. I showed him my modified capo and he flipped telling me he would go into production and name the new model after me. Ever determined to remain obscure Ideclined so he said he would call it he professional model to honor the event. He turned us loose in his shop and we went nuts inventing capos. First a bass capo for David's brother then my first D tuning capo which was simply a narrow tbe inserted in the original rubber but cut short to leave the 6th tring exposed . Voila 2 frets up and instantly you are in D. No retuning. Later by the creative use of notches we had a G tuning capo. Thats it the whole yarn ask Crosby if you need verification he may remember old as he is.. "