In the summer of 2004, two musician friends in Woodstock, NY had a “what if “ conversation. Jazz guitarist Peter Einhorn and classical guitarist Frederic Hand wondered... what if it were possible to capo each string of the guitar individually? What if you could play in hundreds of different open string tunings? Imagine the extraordinary creative possibilities. Both had utilized alternative tunings such as dropped D and DADGAD. They knew that the potential for other tunings was mind boggling. Many of their students were tuning the guitar in unusual ways in order to achieve effects, textures and harmonies that were not possible in standard tuning.
The drawback in de-tuning the guitar is that as soon as one string is raised or lowered in pitch, the guitarist loses all of the familiar finger patterns of chords and riffs that they already know. But what if there was a way to change tunings without de-tuning the guitar? The result of Peter and Fred’s conversation was a journey that led them to the formation of Creative Tunings Inc. and the creation of the SpiderCapo.
Upon using the SpiderCapo, veteran guitar players, Peter and Fred found that they were experiencing the guitar with fresh ears, as if playing it for the first time. They called each other daily to share their discoveries of tunings, chords and sounds made possible by the new capo.
There were formidable engineering and design challenges in order to accommodate the differences in the sizes of guitar necks, fingerboards, tensions of different types of strings and the heights of string actions. Early on in the process Peter and Fred had the good fortune to be introduced to Herman Niekamp, a brilliant design/engineer and Michael Bergman, patent attorney. Herman and Micheal made enormous contributions to the development of the Spider. Four years and many prototypes later, the Spider capo was born.
