G7 capo Archives - Bluegrass Today

G7th releases new colors for their Nashville capo

The G7th Capo company has introduced several new colors for its quick release Nashville guitar capo, in conjunction with this weekend’s 2023 NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA.

The Nashville capo is designed to be an effective, spring-loaded model offered at a budget price. Like all their capos, G7th says that the Nashvilles provide just the right amount of tension, via the spring, to clamp the strings down only as much as is needed to allow your guitar’s natural tone to shine through.

These are lightweight capos, which are released by pulling the two bars together, making for quick and simple key changes, or storage on the headstock.

In addition to the standard silver, black, and gold, the G7th Nashville is also available now in red, white, blue, and green. And like all the G7th models, they come with a lifetime warranty.

The Nashville capo is offered for sale through music stores worldwide, or directly from G7th online, for $24.95.

The company has a wide range of capo options, from their super simple UltraLight, to their heavier duty Newport and Performance 2 and 3 series, and their top line Heritage models for the most discriminating users. Most are available for steel string guitar, classical guitar, and banjo. There are even a few 12 string guitar models, and most can be ordered with custom engraving to set your capo aside from the rest.

All can be seen at the G7th web site.

G7 introduces the Performance 3 capo

The G7 Capo company is introducing a new model at the Winter NAMM show this week in Anaheim, CA. Their new Performance 3 model is of the quick change, open-throat style that many guitarists prefer.

When G7 first hit the market at the IBMA convention in 2016, it was with their Heritage model, styled in the fashion that most bluegrass players prefer. Sometime described generically as a “McKinney-style” device, theirs featured a number of innovations that appealed immediately to attendees, and they sold every single capo they had brought over from their manufacturing facility in England.

But the Performance 3 is a squeeze and move capo that requires only one hand to adjust, with no thumbscrew to turn, or bar to snap into place. Players that want fast and easy capo changes should find this one very much to their liking.

It includes one of the primary innovations G7 has introduced, which they call Adaptive Radius Technology. The material used where it contacts the fingerboard assumes the actual shape of your instrument, and is able to exert even pressure on all the strings equally.

With the release of the Performance 3, G7 now has models in most all the styles being made for guitarists and banjo players in the acoustic music world. You can see them all on the G7 web site.

All of their capos are sold with a lifetime warranty and are offered in a variety of colors and plating options.

The Performance 3 capo sells for $54.95 in silver or black, and $64.95 in gold. It is currently only available for guitar.

G7 Heritage capo – reworked for 2018

We heard recently from the good folks with G7 capos, a British company that has made tremendous strides in capo design this past few years. Their Heritage model was reviewed here when it was introduced in 2016, and they wanted us to see their 2018 editions. More about those in a moment.

G7 is unique in that they offer products from inexpensive, clamp-style capos for around $20, to high-end professional yoke-style models selling for up to $150. Each style is their own design, and none look like knockoffs made to emulate other popular products. All are sold with a lifetime warranty, and two of the capo types can be ordered with personalized customization.

They are showing up in specialty music stores all over the world, so you may have seen them on display, but not all dealers carry all five models, and you may not be familiar with them all. A quick look at the web site will show you what is available.

Or you may have seen the clever video they put out earlier this year, with a pair of animated capos discussing optimal placement.

G7 wanted us to check out the Heritage capos, knowing that bluegrass players prefer the yoke-style devices, often generically described as McKinney capos, after the ones designed by Tom McKinney some years ago. Like most of these on the market, the Heritage is made from highly polished stainless steel, both for durability and visual appeal. And they are lightweight, running from 29g for the banjo capo and 34g for guitar.

They differ in three chief ways: the knurled thumbscrew that sets the tension remains in place rather than traveling along a shaft, the interior walls of the capo are lined with a silicone material to prevent neck scratches, and by the G7 Adaptive Radius Technology (ART) which allows any capo to adjust itself to any fingerboard radius. Another plus is that the neck rest doesn’t spin of flop around when the capo is moved or removed from the neck.

The Heritage is offered for guitar and banjo, with both a standard and wide neck spacing. The standard guitar accepts necks up to 1.75” and the wider will accommodate widths up to 1.875”. The standard banjo capo will fit most any banjo neck up to the 4th fret, and the wide will work at the 5th fret and above.

G7 has modified its ART for 2018, and it works quite well. Chief designer Nick Campling explains how it works in this video.

The G7 Heritage is packaged in a heavy cardboard box, emblazoned with their logo, which includes the capo in its sturdy leather stage pouch which snaps closed for secure storage in your case. You also receive a nice, microfiber cloth suitable for wiping fingerprints and smudges from the capo’s surface.

Most bluegrass players will probably store their capo behind the nut, so you’ll always know where it is.

The Heritage capo carries a retail price of $139, with a $20 upcharge for gold plating. Custom engraving runs from $20-$80.

These are truly beautiful capos, and wonderfully effective.

You can see all the various options and capo styles online.