Submitted by: Citrus via Submit a Kludge!
Favorite Comment: Fixer dono1 says, “I suppose helps you play in the write key?”
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Ikea FTW
You are NOT your Ikea pencil/guitar slide thingy.
Somehow the fact that it’s an *IKEA* pencil seems especially low. Like, if it had been a Dixon pencil it might have been okay.
I think it’s the fact that they’re free at Ikea (for you to write down your shopping list)
that makes it seem especially low.
Nice Capo
actually yeah. i am about to give it a try.
plus i have pencils like this.
Ah, the IKEA build-it-yourself capo.
This is the best usage of an Ikea pencil that I can think of. It’s certainly better than using it to write down the location numbers of an Ikea product and actually BUYING it.
At least the meatballs and the hotdogs aren’t such poor quality that they’ll be poor quality, wobbly and fall apart within months.
I think I’m going to try that on my guitar next time I need a capo. Looks like it would work pretty good.
This has nothing to do with calluses. You don’t know what a capo is?
Sure, a capo is a Mafia leader. Is that why you sound so irritated? Actually, please don’t answer that. Please…
Oh right, that’s what is meant here. That’s why it’s showing a guitar neck instead of a Mafia leader.
Main Entry: 1ca·po
Pronunciation: \ˈkā-(ˌ)pō\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural capos
Etymology: short for capotasto, from Italian, literally, head of fingerboard
Date: 1926
: a movable bar attached to the fingerboard of a fretted instrument to uniformly raise the pitch of all the strings
Bfffft! What makes you think THAT has anything to do with it?
Deve stare attento chi insulta, perché ci sono molti capi di Mafia in questo mondo, ed avrà bisogno del senso dell’umorismo quando siete trovato.
I’m thinking the exact same thing. What DOES it have to do with calluses??
Well, if you play the guitar a lot, you have to play barre chords. This involves placing the side of your whole index finger down against all the frets hard.
Anyone who plays the guitar a lot will get hard skin along the side of their index finger. I guess these *could* be compared to the calluses you get on the tips of your fingers.
Maybe they mean phalluses? A pencil can be considered a phallic symbol…
…when you consider that an eraser is also called a rubber in many places around the world… Did I just say that?
I once made a capo out of two pieces of lego, a belt loop a paper clip, and hot glue….worked well until the lego came apart
Shoulda used duct-tape
A capo just moves the nut up the fingerboard. You still have to fret with your fingers to play. This is still a callus-friendly setup.
What do calluses have to do with a capo?
Well, there’s a substitute for a capo. Why doesn’t the dude just go out and buy one? They’re only, like, $20.
yee,
reminds me of my first playing with “capo”
but nothing special really, back in the days when capodasters where not as widely available people probably did this all the time
This hardly seems like an epic kluge; it’s a pretty common quick fix if you don’t happen to have a capo around. I’ve done it.
This fix is really nothing to FRET about.
Yea, we should just let it SLIDE
Seems like they’re just stringing us along.
You had better change you TUNE, or else we’ll make you PICKUP bass. And maybe toss you off a BRIDGE with your NECKTHROUGH a noose. So quit being a NUT, erm, TRUSS ROD!
and on another note…
You should be strung up for that one.
You struck a chord with that one!
I think we have you guys pegged.
I’ve so done this.
I thought IKEA was a short for “Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd” but my misstake, obviousy it stands for “I Kludged the Enrire A#”.
Actually, it’s in G.
Usually it is, but there’s a capo on the 3rd fret, raising it by 3 semitones
“Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd” is a tr00 name for a scandinavian black metal band.
A# is +3 frets for the e string
gold!
Shoot, I’ve done this myself. In fact, this method works better on my 12-string than any other manufactured kapo I’ve tried…
A friend of mine made his own capo w/ a gripper and a butter knife.
Learn barre chords, you pencil-necked geek.
imho using the capo doesn’t rule out using barré chords and vice versa. i wouldn’t desist from using the “cheater” just because of some obscure guitarist-ethics-code
I have never understood why people feel the need to misspell “bar chords”. They weren’t invented by Mr. Barre. They don’t come from Wilkes-Barre, PA. And it’s certainly not a French past-participle. Your index finger forms a bar across the fretboard. Nothing more complicated than that.
Alternate spelling, not misspelling. Barré is a French word meaning closed or barred (which is most certainly a past participle, or as they say le participe passé).
Now, I’m heading to the bar myself.
lol barré is the past participle of “to bar” dude..
i guess you´re glad this happened here on the internet and saved you an emBARREsment irl xD
Wow, what a hideously pretentious affectation. Hope all you little francophiles are pronouncing it “barray” at band practice. No one’s going to get tired of that.
more like pencil necked capo.
Learn how to use a capo for reasons other than feigning bar chords you pseudo-musician! Capo’s change the tone, as well as freeing up your fingers for more fancy open chord playing
. I knew one guy who would downtune his guitar, only to capo the damn thing back to E because “he didn’t like the feel of the guitar”. The fool.
Try barring a G shape cord…
i actually did this when i couldn’t find my capo. a lot of guitarist do it
With his hands super-glued to the guitar during Music Class, Billy is glad that he used a pencil to create his makeshift capo when in his next class a math pop-quiz was issued.
This isn’t really a kludge.It’s a common trick guitarplayers have been using to not have to buy capos for decades.
Kind of like using a broken off winebottle’s neck for a slide.
Right, because the Kludge was invented with teh Interwebs, so kludges that existest before obviously aren’t kludges, but “tricks”. Everyone knows THAT!
Agreed. I’ve also seen someone use a battery for a slide, as well. Why pay for the fancy stuff?
This is a honestly great idea! I’ll start using it from now on.
I think we should keep this quiet, or IKEA will start charging for pencils. Also, for those paper ruler guitar straps.
man, is there *ANYTHING* Ikea doesn’t have a solution for?
I suppose helps you play in the write key?
Nah, it’s supposed to help your songwriting.
He must be good- it looks like he already has a band.
Yeah, but they’ll only ever be #2.
(btw: I know what a capo is. I’m a guitar player myself. I just said that for the sake of cheesy pencil puns =P)
Maybe they should sharpen their playing skills?
Looks to be quite capoble of performing its job to me.
Uhm…How?
What a capo does is barre down the notes of a fret.
What dono1 said is absolutely correct.
Say you’re in G(for which the capo is set on the picture).Say you’re soloing on the higher octaves of the fretboard and want to use a G on your high e as a pedal note.Without a capo it’s essentially impossible.
It opens up new possibilities,but it isn’t an insta-Satriani.
Whoosh.
Dude… it’s a joke about the pencil.
Capos are often recommended to help with songwriting – guitarist-songwriters may find they’re most comfortable around a restricted number of chords (who wouldn’t rather play in D than E flat?), and their voices are most comfortable around a particular range of notes, so they’ll fall into the same notes over the same chords over and over again. Putting a capo on the guitar makes the voice fall in a different place relative to the same chord shapes, and can help to open up new sounds and get out of a rut. But, yeah, the original commenter was right about what it actually does.
No it doesn’t. It shortens the fretbaord, in effect moving the nut, and thus being able to do open chords higher up.
Ever used a capo in your life?
It doesn’t shorten the fretboard.The fretboard is the same length while it bars down some frets.
And using it for open chords in a higher key is stupid.
You always play chords of the same root note without a capo and without sacrificing the area behind the capo.
Though then again,now that I hink about it,capos are pretty much useless.
no they are not… for christsake,
1. the capo doesn’t “set” your guitar to anything. if you capo your guitar on the 3rd fret and you play in E (relative to capo), then you´re in the key of G
2. it´s not useless but extremely useful for playing in a higher key than desired without having to resort to near impossible fingerings (for example you can comfortably fingerpick anything in the C-F-G range in the key you can sing most comfortably in) this being especially usefull in musical style that don’t vary much concerning the key. bluegrass and ragtime are good examples, the one happening much in the key of G (G-D-C major) and for ragtime much is happening in the above mentioned C-range..
there.. it is not indisputable but saying a capo is useless is just wrong.
Satriani doesn’t use capos LOL
I know.I just brought up Satriani as an example of a great songwriter.
First of all, Satriani is not the be all end all of guitarists… I just had to throw that out there. I own all of his albums and even owned the JS1000BP Ibanez for about a year. I just think he’s a little over-rated.
Anyway, capos are indispensable for certain tasks. Aside from the obvious use by singer/songwriters capos are used by fingerstyle guitarists (Antoine Dufour, Don Ross etc) to only cover a few of the strings, instead of all of them. If you want a prime example of this, check out Andy Mckee’s “Rylynn”
Finally if you want to check out some “real” guitarists:
Ed Bickert, Joe Pass, Lorne Lofsky, Kurt Rosenwinkel, George Van Eps…
”The WRITE key”??
Yeah, this is unrelated to callusses. This is a kludged capo, a device guitarists use to easily play in a different key.
Swidish version of “Guitar Hero”!
I’ve got a picture around here somewhere of country bluesman Sleepy John Estes using a pencil as a capo, just like this.
OK, well… he was blind. Maybe he couldn’t find the capo.
But it DEFINITELY wasn’t an Ikea pencil.
I’m off to look for the photo!
thats a pretty good makeshift capo. i should try that.
wait until they find out about how banjo players use tiny nails to capo the drone string!
if Mcgyver needed a capo…
Cheapo capo que curioioso but genius! Ready to make one of my own!!!
I have friends who play the guitar, this would be the stuff of their nightmares…
… bwahaha, thank youuu…
What chicks dig are guys willing to go to IKEA, so still a WIN.
This isn’t a kludge, it’s a capo.
Wow, thanks for pointing that out. I’m glad that you took the time to read through the rest of the comments before posting. Also, thanks for making your name “RealGuitarist”, that way we all know that you are a credible source when it comes to capos. You sir or ma’am are a hero…nay, a legend.
Bahaha! Comment win! (And btw I actually am a credible source: Toronto-based jazz guitarist.)
Clever Capo. I’ll have to try that, instead of borrowing other peoples ones at prac.
But it’s not going to prevent calluses.
Honestly, which guitar player hasn’t done this? I know I have on many occasions, using pens, cutlery, etc.
B.t.w. hair elastic works well also!
don’t fret about bass problems, it’ll just cause treble
Hey, this is a really good idea. I do it all the time when I don’t have a capo handy.
Well, minus the ikea pencil.
Someone’s going to make fun of the IKEA pencil and somehow that’s going to become the favorite comment.
Done, and done.
Umm… IDGI. What does a capo have to do with calluses?? A capo doesn’t prevent calluses, it’s for shifting keys across the strings without having to retune the entire guitar every time you want to shift keys. Usually you can just use your index finger, but that makes some cords impossible – especially the ones that take all five fingers to make. In that case, a dexterous, six-fingered freak would have a definite advantage.
BTW, IDG why some anti-capo people call themselves “purists” when capos have been around even longer than the guitar.
You are seriously impressed by your knowlege – pedantic jerk.
Here’s something the rest of us know, but it seems to have passed you by: the word “knowledge” has a “d” in it, between “e” and “g.” Learning to write is frustrating, I know.
Not really. I am a noob with guitars; have been for most of my life.
I was just confused at what the heck capos have to do with calluses and why some think that anti-capo people are purists. It was an anti-capo guitarist friend of mine who taught me what they’re for, that capos are older than guitars and that he’s NOT a purist because of that. He has more skill than I probably ever will.
So, if knowing how to spell and listen to people with more knowledge than me makes me a “pedantic jerk”, I’ll take that as a complement… Thank you.
The guitar “purists” that you speak of are guitar noobs themselves. You are absolutely on the right track about capos; they are a useful aid, not a crutch.
Well, it’s a kludgy capo. But I’ve done it before, and it’s a common enough kludge to actually have a photo as one of the examples on the ‘Capo’ Wikipedia page, so I’m not sure it’s really worthy of an entry.
been there, done that…
Now thats a crapo capo!
hahaha its funny ’cause ive hade to do that at a show
Yay product placement makes it to there I fixed it!
It being a pencil from Ikea, it will inevitably fall apart due to the lack of a key component that somehow failed to make it into the box.
Should have used one of those pens from the bank instead, you know the ones with the free chain…
also dont forget the free table
I recognize this guitar. It belongs to Ritchie “One-Chord” Havens. He’s older now and the arthritis hurts some days.
I’ve done that before, i couldnt get the band tight enough
Get a new drummer!
and a new bassist…..if your drummer and bassist aint tight,the rest of the band has no chance
But chicks dig arthritis.
hell yea! i do this all the time. works really well
yes done it, every guitarist i know has done it, it’s still a kludge….less fo one than using a pencil point for a bridge pin though, for when you restring at a gig and lose the pin cause it shot into some rednecks beer while he screamed for free bird….
Hey is a seat belt a kludged guitar strap or just re purposing at it’s finest…i should post mine
Post it! That would be a cool one.
I totally have done this myself! If you don’t have a capo, you get to be as creative as you have to!
GIBSON!!
the capo that also transcribes
Looks like he’s going to be playing in the Kea G.
Please don’t Fret about it.
This capo is pretty crappo!
Mad Capo
Hell, capos are considerably expensive (for the amount of technology involved)… this guy has the right idea.
IKEA in the video game industry. coming soon: Swedish Guitar Hero.
or
IkEA it’s a Swedish iDea for must Kill guitar and write the will.
If that’s his capo then he stole that guitar, and Les Paul is rolling over in his grave
whats sad is i have a capo just like it
honestly, i don’t have money to buy a real one so that’s what i do.
I won’t go on and on about wether a capo is a crutch or an aid, it is a tool..(by the by, some of the $20 variety go bad toward the edges of the fretboard at about the same lifespan as that rubberband holding that pencil in place) Free Pencil and Stolen Rubberband for the win!
Actually, I’ve done that, and I don’t hold anything against anyone else who does it.
finally A use for those Ikea pencils