Recently, I misplaced my Shubb capo (read my review here), and I decided to take this opportunity to try something different. The Shubb has a couple of disadvantages compared to some other capos:
- It requires two hands to affix it to the guitar, and
- You can’t clip it to the headstock. This makes it easy to lose, hence my dilemma.
So, I stopped by Guitar Center and picked up the Planet Waves NS Tri-Action Guitar Capo.
There is a lot to recommend this capo. It tries to have the best of all worlds. There is a trigger mechanism that allows you to clamp it to your headstock and use it one-handed. If needed, there is also a screw that will allow you to adjust the tension.
However, I have a couple of issues with it:
- For some reason I get more ringing and fret buzz with this capo. I’m not sure why; I’ve tried multiple tension settings, but none of them seem to provide the clear tone that my Shubb did.
- This capo is pretty bulky and I find that it can be a bit of an obstacle on certain chords.
This guitar capo might be the right one for many people, particularly if you don’t notice any ringing when you use a capo (once I lay down the cash to have my guitar re-fretted, I’m hoping many of these issues will go away regardless of which capo I use). However, for me, now that I’ve located my Shubb (hooray!), it has returned to it’s position as my default capo of choice.
What do you think? Leave your opinion of the Planet Waves NS Tri-Action Capo in the comments below.
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Wes Freeman is private guitar lesson teacher in the Atlanta metro area of Georgia. He teaches lessons primarily in the cities of Lilburn, Snellville, Marietta, Decatur, and Brookhaven. Learn more about taking lessons with Wes on his Lessons page.
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