Capo Capo A capo (short for "capodastro", "capo tasto" or "capotasto" , Italian for "head of fretboard"; Spanish: " cejilla" or "capodastro"; French: "capodastre"; German: "Kapodaster"; Portuguese: "capodastro", Serbo-Croatian: "kapodaster"; Greek: "kapotasta") is a device used on the neck of a stringed (typically fretted) instrument to shorten the playable length of the strings, hence raising the pitch. It is a common tool for players of guitars, mandolins, mandolas, banjos, ukuleles and bouzoukis. The word derives from the Italian "capotasto" which means the nut of a stringed instrument. The earliest known use of the term "capotasto" is by Giovanni Battista Doni who,
Tuning mechanisms for stringed instruments set in blind holes, which allows the wood to retain more strength for a given weight. They can, however, also be set in holes drilled right through the wood, to look like older pins. Threaded pins can be installed with an arbor press, and do not need to be re-set, but should be backed off a few turns when changing a string to keep pin height even. Tuning pins may be known as wrest pins or zither pins, regardless of the instrument on which they are used. They are used on instruments with many close strings, as they are more