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Early Terz guitars - 'avec capo'

I'm rereading Heck's book on Giuliani. On page 51 he mentions the terz guitar, and Leonhard von Call's Quartet Op.121 for 'Guitare avec Capo d'astro...'

It seems the earliest terz guitar was a regular guitar with a capo on the third fret. It got me wondering about period capos. The earlier English Guitar used a screw-type capo, with holes drilled into the neck of the guitar. I haven't seen that on any classical-period guitars. Are there any photos of period capos?

It seems perfectly reasonable that the terz was born this way, with luthiers subsequently responding to players' demands. Who made the first terz? Stauffer, perhaps? Was it just a Viennese thing?

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Permalink Reply by Scot Tremblay on April 4, 2011 at 20:21

That capo museum is interesting. And the potato and ham museums are making me think about lunch...

On my Humel guitar (ca. 1820's) there are small "bolt" marks up the neck where a capo was used. They are mainly at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd fret but shows that it was used at various spots up the neck to the 10th fret.

I saw one of these capos years ago but have not seen another since. It was a wooden "D" with the bottom end open and a brass thumb screw through the back (curved part of the D) which tightened the capo and kept it from falling off. There are similar marks on a couple other original guitars in my collection. They must have been popular at some point.

Considering the damage on the Humel I'd suggest that this kind of capo is probably not what you are looking for.