Ukulele Capos Roundup - REVIEW

An accessory that I haven't really talked much about on Got A Ukulele is the Ukulele Capo.

It's something I am seeing more and more of, so thought it would be good to do a roundup review of the main styles available.

Clockwise from top left - Shubb, D'Addario, Chord Trigger

So what is a capo? Well it's short for 'Capo d'astro / Capotastro' and is a device used on stringed instruments to deliberately shorten the scale length of the instrument. In essence it's a clamp that can be applied to one of the fret spaces to raise the key of the instrument when played open by effectively moving the nut down a selected number of spaces. It's used to transpose a sequence of music up in key whilst allowing the player to use the same chord shapes.

Now, I personally haven't really seen the need for ukulele capos. They are popular on guitar, but then the guitar has a much wider fretboard, is harder to engage the strings and has six of the blighters. On the ukulele however, I've never found it all that complex to use natures own capo - the first finger - to barre the neck and do the same job. But the spirit of Got A Ukulele has never been to tell people that 'you can't do that', and as I say, I am seeing an increasing number of people use capos, and not just beginners either. At the end of the day, they are convenient!

For me, there are various elements to a ukulele capo that are important to take into account.

First thing is the size of the capo. I shudder when I see people saying they use a guitar capo - that would be an incredibly bulky thing to clip on the neck of such a diminutive instrument. In short, you want a capo that doesn't intrude on your left hand technique.

Coupled with that point is weight. I have an intent dislike for ukuleles that are unbalanced and heavy in the neck. If you are playing without a strap, they always feel like the neck is trying to drop to the floor and it's an uncomfortable experience. Adding weight to the neck of an instrument can only cause problems in that regard.

And finally we have to think about ease of use and price...  So I've gathered together a few types here that I think represent the most common capos you will find on the market.  There are others, but they are all just variations on a theme.

First up is a generic trigger style capo, often referred to as a Kyser (although, in actual fact, a Kyser capo is quite different, but it's the same general principle). This model is made by Chord but these sort of capos really are ten a penny in all sorts of brands, and all do the same thing. It's basically a clip that acts like a clothes peg, with a spring to keep it in the closed position. There are a number of positives with the trigger style capo. They are cheap (this one retails at about £5), they are light (this one is 17 grams) and they are super easy to attach and move up and down the neck. You can even clip them to the headstock when not using them and they naturally fit all depths and profiles of neck without adjustment. I like all of those features, but this sort of style is just not something I can get on with to be honest. You see, when in place and fretting in the low positions with your hand right next to it, I find it gets in the way. Those sharp edges and sticking out bits catch my hand when in use. It's damn annoying. Your mileage may vary as your hand size and technique may have something to do with it of course, but these are not for me.

Trigger style ukulele capo

Next up is an old favourite in the guitar world with a ukulele capo made by Shubb. These clip capos have been around on guitars for years, and they are incredibly popular. The simple reason is that they are tough as old boots, simple to use and unobtrusive when in use.  So I was delighted to see a ukulele version, which is similarly made. The Shubb uses a clever hinge to lock it in place, but it does take some adjustment of the screw to set it for your particular depth of neck. It's clever though and very well made. That solid construction though comes at a price as they are HEAVY. In fact, this Shubb weighs a whopping 51 grams, which for me is a heck of a lot of weight to be hanging on the neck of your instrument. (EDIT - I have been informed that Shubb make a 'Lite' version of this, but it is still the heaviest of these three at about 28 grams).  On the plus side though it's easy to use (though not quite as easy as the trigger style), and when in place is folded down into a small area so it really doesn't interfere with the fretting hand. You may however wince when you realise that the price of around £17... For me though it's all about that weight. A nice idea that is perfect for the guitar, but totally over-engineered for the ukulele I think.

Shubb ukulele capo

Finally is the kind of halfway house that is more of your manual style capo. This one is from D'Addario / Planet Waves. At about £17 this is also not cheap, but it's very well made from lightweight aluminium. In fact it's the lightest of the three looked at here, weighing a meagre 14 grams. And in addition to not noticing the weight, when it is in place it takes up so little space that you don't notice it when playing either. In fact it is far smaller than the Shubb. There is a downside though. The D'Addario is attached by adjusting the rear screw to open the capo like a vice, and then tightening it when in place. It means that swift changes of position can be fiddly, and if ever there was a capo that was going to get lost on stage - this is it! It's just not as straightforward to adjust as the other two.

D'Addario ukulele capo

So as you can see, there are compromises with all three. Personally I can live with some of those downsides, but weight and the capo interfering with my playing are two that I would want to rule out absolutely. For me then, the D'Addario is the only one I would live with. Sure, it is less user friendly to move about, but when in place it's almost like it isn't there. And that has to be the most important thing I'd say.

Of course, you could also make more of your forefinger, or, if you don't like the cost of these things, revert to the old guitarists trick of placing a stubby pencil on the fret space and looping an elastic band between the two ends around the back of the neck. (Trust me - it works).  But seriously, if you don't like capos, that's fine. Don't shoot those that do though - we don't want another strap / plectrum debate...

Video below to see them in action.







VIDEO REVIEW




© Barry Maz

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D'Addario Ukulele Clip On Tuners - REVIEW

Product review time and not an instrument itself in this feature,

rather a set of gizmos that no ukulele player is really ever without. Today we are looking at a pair of clip-on tuners from D'Addario.

Ahhh, the clip-on tuner... the blessing and curse of the ukulele world. Why a blessing? Well that much is surely obvious - they are cheap and make it much easier (and quicker) to tune than using pitch pipes or a tuning fork and you just kind of leave them there ready to do their thing - a great invention. And why a curse? Well I think that in many cases with the ukulele beginner they rely too much on the tuner. "But my tuner says so, and therefore it must be right". And with that I fear that a new generation of players are losing the ability to actually listen to notes and certainly the ability to tune by ear from another instrument... 

Please don't get me wrong though. I love them, and I use them all the time for the convenience factor, but I would still urge all of my readers to learn to use your own ears as well as using a tuner!

Rant over, and on to this pair. You will surely agree that D'Addario is a trusted name in musical instrument products, so you would expect these to have a certain decent quality level to them. You would not be wrong. The market for clip on tuners is pretty excessive in my opinion and I have seen so many that are flimsy or badly designed. Neither of those complaints apply here.

First up is a tuner I have featured before on Got A Ukulele in the form of the NS Micro Headstock Tuner (the PW-CT. I first starting using the Micro because I had become sick of the overly large clip on tuners I was using before such as the Snark. Sure, they do their job, but not only do I think they look ugly, but I lost count of how many I broke, in many cases as a result of being on stage, turning the ukulele and whacking them on a microphone stand. No, I wanted something smaller and the Micro from D'Addario is now what I have been using for clip on tuning for some time.

The form factor is tiny, to such an extent that when performing, most in the audience would not know it is there. And it becomes even more unobtrusive when you hit the 'reverse' button and put the tuner on the other way around so the display is behind the headstock. Brilliant.  

Not that the diminutive size means it is hard to read though.. the screen is extremely bright and easy to read, and also importantly in operation it registers notes quickly and accurately. Some cheap tuners can fail in this department leading to sights of people on stage endlessly plucking notes trying to get the tuner to even register. This works as you would expect with both a note and needle display showing you whether you are sharp or flat, together with a colour guide (green in tune, red out of tune).

The clip part is not spring loaded like so many others, rather you adjust the size to fit the headstock and push it on.

Together with the ability to flip the screen, the micro also has adjustment buttons allowing you to 'tune the tuner' (meaning adjust the frequency of the A note up and down from the standard 440 Hz). It also has a cool Metronome feature the displays a bouncing light back and forth to the beat setting you choose. Handy for practice.

So I say all that about my dislike for larger clip on tuners, and then out of the package from D'Addario falls their standard Chromatic Headstock Tuner which is clearly much larger than the micro. Would I rekindle my love for the larger tuners? 

Well actually, yes I really rather like this one too. First of all, you could really not say it was ugly like the Snark. It's  modern looking, sleek and best of all it folds down flat when on the headstock. I like that.

And when you unfold it the tuner immediately springs into life showing off its large and very bright screen that is super easy to read.

Attaching it is simple as it employs the more standard spring loaded clip mechanism, but the whole thing feels solid and it doesn't have the flimsy hinge so often the plague of these things.

Operation wise it's exactly the same as the Micro, just larger - the same note and needle display with colour coding and the same ability to reverse the screen and mount it underneath the headstock. Whilst it also has buttons to tune the tuner, it lacks the metronome feature of the micro, which is a shame as that large screen could have shown that off really clearly.

But that is a minor gripe for a clip on tuner that I really rather like. It's the look of it for me, coupled with the ability to fold it down and that super clear screen that I really rather like.

At the end of the day, if you play ukulele you WILL be buying a clip on tuner. In fact if you are like me, you will go through lots of them. I say, avoid the cheap and nasty. Some of those are hard to actually operate and not that accurate and I've far too many fall apart. I consider D'Addario to be a name you can trust, and these are certainly well constructed with no flimsy hinges. If you think clip on tuners are expensive, I can assure you they are not. I remember the days where tuners were huge bulky things that you had to plug a cable into and cost a fortune. I also remember the first clip on tuners from Intellitouch and they cost close to £100 and this was 20 years ago! No, clip on tuners today are NOT expensive.

Which one do I recommend? That's hard to say - get both! Take a look at the video below to see them in action. Seriously - both will perform well for you.

The Chromatic Headstock Tuner retails for around $27 and the NS Micro for around $21 (though shopping around will get you them much cheaper!)

http://www.daddario.com/





VIDEO REVIEW

© Barry Maz

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A Look Again at Ukulele Tuner Devices

Things move on in the ukulele world, and as much as people moved on from using tuning forks and pitch pipes to clip on tuners, that world moves on too. I thought it was therefore high time I took another look at ukulele tuning devices and let you know some of the kit I am now using. A combo review if you will.

But before we kick off, I did not intend that to sound like a slur on the use of a tuning fork. I ALWAYS carry one in my gig bag and know how to tune the uke to itself. In fact I would say they are a must have piece of kit for the money. Frankly you never know when batteries will die and a tuning fork will never fail to get you out of a fix. They just work! Buy one, you really should!

But moving on, we do like our gadgets too (well this player does) and the clip on tuner is a marvel that moves us massively further forward from the days of spending £50 plus on bulky guitar tuners with analogue needles on them. They are now much cheaper and, on the whole, very reliable.

I have reviewed a few, from the old favourite of The Snark to the higher end likes of the Peterson Strobe model. I used to regularly just tell people 'get a Snark' for the simple reason that I found their readout clearer and more accurate than any other (plus they were cheap). They are also kind of funky looking and I must admit I liked that too.

But they have fallen out of favour with me now. In fact I don't think I now own one that is still in one piece and I used to have half a dozen of the things. And that is the point - they break very easily, particularly on the hinge that holds the unit to the clip. I could add that they also have a tendency to buzz and rattle before they break which is almost as annoying, but generally, they just don't seem to stand up to regular use. It comes, I think, from them being bulky and sticking out from the headstock so much - an accident waiting to happen? On a stage environment I lost count of the amount of times they were ripped from the headstock by a strap, another player or a microphone stand. As such I wanted something smaller. I'm not just knocking Snarks alone here - most of the clip on tuners out there I find are overly bulky and suffer because of it.

I list below examples of what I am using now. I suspect things may change as time marches on, but for now I can't find a better mix for me.


D'Addario / Planet Waves PW-CT-12-NS Clip On Tuner (approx £12.00)

It was actually a couple of years ago I came across the D'Addario brand micro tuner and they are quite old now, but they have become my staple clip on tuner. (Thanks go to Paul Redfern of uke band The pUKEs who lent me one!)  I find them just as accurate as I need them to be (and as any other clip on), but the real boon is how small they are. They are so inconspicuous it would be next to impossible to hit them on anything and they can just be left on at all times minding their own business.

As an  added bonus they remove that rather awful look of warts hanging on the end of the uke on stage. Come on, I can't be the only one who thinks that a uke on stage with a hideous looking tuner hanging off it looks - well, bad? You will hardly notice the D'Addario model I can assure you and most of my main ukes now have them as a matter of course.

Like most clip on tuners, they can be adjusted to re-tune them (not something I recommend and have come across players unsure why their tuner is off because they changed the base tuning) but I suppose that is useful to get a uke in tune with something hard to tune, like an old piano. Otherwise the screen is nice and clear to read and it has a cool feature that flips it upside down if you want to go totally stealth and mount it on the underside of the headstock. It's chromatic too so none of this 'tuned for ukulele nonsense' as it will read any note. (Tuners that bill themselves that way make no sense to me - just get one that reads all notes-  you never know when you may try another tuning or even another instrument.)

As a final point, the words 'clip on' don't really apply here as the D'Addario doesnt employ a normal clip - rather it has an adjustable jaw held by  a notched clip that slides on to the headstock and tightens with a squeeze of finger and thumb. The important thing here is that it doesn't come off, even with shaking. In my experience, even the hardiest of the larger clip on tuners won't stand up to that.

The little D'Addario is a joy and does all I want from a clip on in a tough little box and I highly recommend it.

Tiny!

But that said, I only really use them for around the house and when performing as a backup. Because I tend to play amplified if on stage I am automatically using guitar leads ahead of an amp system and that leads me to what is, without doubt, my favourite electronic tuner method.


Boss TU-3 Pedal Tuner (approx £55)

I use a Boss TU-3 Chromatic tuner in a Foot pedal, and plug this first in the chain between my uke and whatever I am using it to amplify it. The TU-3 is their latest incarnation of a tuner pedal that just works impeccably. It has all the features you can shake a stick at, but in use with a uke on stage has the following important features for me:

1. It is bright and clear even when on the floor
2. It cuts the sound of the uke when tuning - meaning it removes that, frankly, unprofessional thing that some uke performers do in tuning up on stage during a show (come on - who wants to hear it? Yes, I know Joni Mitchell did it, but, well, you are not Joni Mitchell. It sounds and looks BAD!)
3. It is well made and adds no noise to the signal - Sure, there are cheaper Boss copies about , but in the world of Boss pedals my motto remains to 'buy the best' if you want to avoid superfluous noise in your signal. This is built like a tank.
4. Its Chromatic - meaning, as per the D'addario, it can register any tuning you like, any note - and will work with a variety of instruments (pretty much anything that you can give it a line signal from).
5. It picks up even the lightest signal with precision. Has never let me down on that front..

In short, if you perform on stage I just think its one of those pedals that you shouldnt be without - thousands of professional guitar performers cannot be wrong! Sure its not small and it is not the lightest tuner in the world, but it is no different from any other pedal. If you are carrying stage gear therefore this really doesn't add too much to your burden

But outside those, perhaps we don't actually need a physical device at all? Surely there's an app for that?

iPhone Apps (From, FREE!)

Well yes there are, lots of them, some free, some expensive and some like this one I've just been playing with developed by Uke4U. It's only 79 pence (or one dollar) and works just fine on the iPhone or iPad. I like particularly that it has a range of preset tunings for most scales of ukulele in both high and low G, but also other uke tunings like ADF#B (to keep the banjolele nuts happy one assumes!).

There are plenty of others and they kind of fit into the category of 'why wouldn't you' if you run a Smartphone capable of downloading apps. I have a few I've tried and I must admit when I sit with uke in hand and can't find the tuner I left clipped upstairs I do reach for my phone now.  That doesn't make them a stage ready substitute, but equally they have their place. As most people tend to always have their phones or tablets to hand, then, 'why not' indeed?

So the same view I always had applies I guess. I still love clip on tuners, but I have become more picky about what I use. Either way, if you play uke I could do nothing but encourage you to invest in one. If you are on stage I don't think you can beat a pedal tuner if you are plugging in regularly though and they will last a lifetime.  With any of them, you get what you pay for in terms of how long they will last, but they all tend to work the same way. Oh, and get a tuning fork! As one very well known uke professional said to me (Mr Phil Doleman!) - it's the only tuner capable of working as a fork for an after show Chinese meal too!

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