D’Addario Cradle Capo

Created in collaboration with Ned Steinberger, D’Addario’s latest capo updates a classic design.

June 25, 2018

D’Addario offers an impressive line of capos, most of which have been designed in collaboration with famed instrument and accessory inventor Ned Steinberger. While many of Ned’s innovative creations seem to start with a blank piece of drawing paper, D’Addario’s latest Cradle Capo is a refinement of a classic capo style.

Made of stainless steel and aluminum, the Cradle Capo’s wrap-around design includes a centered adjustment screw and cradle that pushes against the back of the guitar’s neck. A hinged arm across the top presses on the strings, and the black rubber pad on the top arm is made from a black silicone material similar to the pads on D’Addario’s other capos. Rather than using a latch to secure the non-hinged end of the arm, the Cradle Capo is opened and closed by gently squeezing the capo, which allows a small hook at the end of the arm to drop into a counterpart on the main section of the capo.

I tried the Cradle Capo with a Lowden O10, a National Reso-Phonic Style 1 Tricone, and custom shop Martin OM. These guitars all have necks that are 1 ¾ inches wide at the nut, with shapes ranging from a low oval to a fairly deep V-shape. The Cradle Capo worked great on all of them, and I was particularly pleased that it was wide enough that it could be used all the way up to the seventh fret on the Martin, which has wide string spacing that flares out to 2 ⅜ inches at the saddle, making it too wide to use some standard six-string capos past the fifth fret. Using the Cradle Capo was easy, its self-centering design allowed for a high-degree of tuning stability, and like most other capos with a similar wrap-around design, it can be stored behind the nut when not in use.

Overall, the Cradle Capo completes D’Addario’s capo offerings, and players looking for a contemporary version of a classic capo style would do well to check it out.