— Begin quote from "BanjoAlDobro"
… and that all the pros use them. But who out there actually does?
— End quote
For one, BanjoBen does!
Railroad spikes
Crowe, Osborne, Dana Cupp, Ron Stuart, and many more as well.
Don’t discount the Shubb sliding capo. I love mine-I had a luthier put it on, which I would recommend. Don’t risk messing up your banjo if you are not skilled at this, whether you use spikes or the sliding capo.
— Begin quote from "tertom"
Don’t discount the Shubb sliding capo. I love mine-I had a luthier put it on, which I would recommend. Don’t risk messing up your banjo if you are not skilled at this, whether you use spikes or the sliding capo.
— End quote
My Washburn B-19 had a sliding capo installed when I bought it, and I took it off within 10 minutes of having it.
The added sliding capo works but sliding up and down a shaft installed on the side of neck. For me, my thumbs are a bit stubby - and that little added width made it hard for me to curl my thumb up over the side of the neck to grab some of those 5th string frets (Ben teaches the thumb method in several of his songs).
Not saying people shouldn’t install one, just wanted to give a different person’s perspective on it.
Just to give some light to the sliding capo. I have 2 banjos, one Alvarez which i use spikes on, and one Tanglewood which i have installed a Shubb FS capo on.
I have found as a beginner using capos, the sliding capo is excellent as it provides a new reference point for the 5th fret up the neck when the tuner is no longer on the 5th fret with capo on.
It also hides the markings on the side of the neck, which forces me to learn to navigate the neck in other ways when playing.
The sound is no difference in my ears when using the different capos. The banjo is not as good looking with the sliding capo on though.
So my thoughts is that if you have a sliding capo installed, or does not have a good luthier to install spikes or skills to install the yourself. I would use the sliding capo, especially as a beginner, it has helped me a lot both for navigating the neck and playing more by ear.
But for the looks of the banjo and playability when fretting the 5th string, i would use spikes all the way.