capo

Spring clamp capo A guitar capo with a lever-operated over-centre locking action clamp Demonstrating the peg removal feature on an Adagio guitar capo

A capo (/ˈkeɪpoʊˌ kæ-ˌ kɑː-/ KAY-poh, KAH-; short for capodastro, capo tasto or capotasto [ˌkapoˈtasto], Italian for "head of fretboard") is a device a musician uses on the neck of a stringed (typically fretted) instrument to transpose and 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 capotasto is by Giovanni Battista Doni who, in his Annotazioni of 1640, uses it to describe the nut of a viola da gamba. The first patented capo was designed by James Ashborn of Wolcottville, Connecticut year 1850.