Just got my very first...

 
Hard to believe that I've been playing guitar for 30 years but I'd never used a capo. But then again, I guess us guitar players tend to write music for guitar - especially when you come from a riff-oriented genre.
 
I always objected to using a capo - for whatever reason, I felt it was like cheating.
 
But working with my wife, I do find that some those cool awesome riff-based song that also make constant use of open strings and work so great in E aren't too easily transposed to G#. Things accidentally get muted that shouldn't be.
 
So I suppose a capo is the best option, but the purist in me still frowns upon it...

MakeShift
Rain,

Define cheating......like maybe....double tracking ......or punching in......or .......Melodyne .......or.....

Using BitTorrent.  

craigb

MakeShift
Rain,

Define cheating......like maybe....double tracking ......or punching in......or .......Melodyne .......or.....

Using BitTorrent.  

Am

Or digital recording or synths that sound like a piano........ cheating?
 
I hope this conversation doesn't get started again because someone will bring up the topic of.... uhhhhh... yeah...lets not go there...
 
Forget that...lets talk about the CAPO.... and it's use on a guitar.
 
Yeah, lots of beginners use it to "Cheat" until (hopefully) they can learn the REAL CHORDS.....   It does serve that purpose and speaking as someone who was, and could in some ways still be considered a beginner, yep...I used it for that very purpose.  
 
As I learned some stuff, I no longer needed to use the CAPO to cheat since I had learned the Eb and Ab and all those other strange chords.  I'm still working to master AM..... in the way BAPU has...... CAPO or not....
 
For a long time there in the middle,  I didn't own a CAPO. I think I gave it to another beginner.  
 
I forget the actual reason that I bought one again....perhaps I didn't buy it, it may have been given to me by someone thinking I was a beginner ...I don't remember.
 
Anyway, I am now the owner of another CAPO.... and I do find it useful to change the timbre of the guitar.  Slap it on and play and the guitar takes on a totally different sound quality that can be extremely useful to achieve a color to the sound that is unachievable in other ways.  So while I don't need it to play those "other" chords or in horn-like-keys..... I do use it for specific reasons related to tone and timbre.

 
Without the Capo, we wouldn't have Here Comes The Sun.
 
What Herb said about different timbre's and tones is what the Capo is great for.  I think Songwriters probably use the Capo more than guys who consider themselves guitar players.  Sometimes, just slipping a songs chord structure up a couple of frets can totally change the song you where trying to write, that wasn't coming together.  Or, create inpiration that wasn't happening in the original key.  Or, make you realise that if you sing a song in a different key, it works better for your voice. 
 
I guess I have never really worried about it, I can chord pretty much anything on the neck.  It has always been just another tool in the tool bag for me.
 

but, really, how many guitars are actually in correct tune?

 
....none.

My son believes capos are for lazy people who don't want to transpose.
 
I'm too lazy to agree or disagree.

Capos also are a great songwriting tool.  Sometimes changing the key and tonality can take your voice and the melody places where standard tuning or bar chords do not.
 
Alternate tuning and capos are indispensable song writing tools for guitar players.
 
My capo has a built in tuner, I am double cheating !!

kennywtelejazz
Yeah , lets talk about capos ..
 
here's a little something I did while using a capo in standard tuning 
 

 

 
Great stuff, reminds me a little of Duck Baker or Davey Graham. 
 
I absolutely love using a capo on a steel string. Everything becomes much less effort to play and to me it just sounds like a more balanced sound. I do a lot of "boom-chucka" banjo style picking on guitar and it sounds amazing with the capo high up, say on the 5th fret or higher. I also like to detune my B string to an A, you get that 5th interval going on the top two strings which is a great drone. 
 

I also can spin a wheel on my JTV 69 and use a virtual capo. 
 
I do not do this very often, but I can !
 
JR

UbiquitousBubba
I don't use a capo anymore. It's just more satisfying to hit the lead singer in the back of the head with a spare drum key when he needs it. The capo's aerodynamics leave a lot to be desired. 

AHH!!!!  So THAT'S why they give you another drum key with every extra bit of kit you buy!  It all makes sense now. 

MakeShift

I used that feature a fair bit on my Variax Jeff. Especially for drop-D tuning or for changing the 'key' of the whole guitar at once. I was always impressed with how Line 6 made that work so well.

 
.....isn't that cheating.    
 
I have always thought those Gibson robotic tuners were cheating a bit as well.  Why should they be automatically in tune when the rest of us are not?

that sounds more like jealousy!