At IBMA this year I had the pleasure of spending some time visiting with Phil Elliott of Elliott Capos. As bluegrass conversations go, we talked about music, family, and church. One particular aspect of a conversation with Phil is that you’re bound to talk shop about capos. Phil spends his days in a machine shop behind his house, individually handcrafting the finest capos available.

I walked away from the conversation in possession of a brand new Elliott Elite Capo for my guitar.

I owned one of the original Elliott push buttons for years, until it disappeared at a gig several months ago. I’d been laboring along with a standard, spring-loaded, clamp style capo until now. What a joy it is to once again have an Elliott capo on my Collings!

And this new Elliott Elite is even better than the original. The Elite design is so slender it doesn’t get in the way at all. This capo really is smaller than the previous model I had, which was smaller than the standard variety spring-clamp capo. This sleek design really serves to keep the capo out of the way of your left hand as you play.

The Elite also features a longer saddle (leather padded), which makes it easier to keep the capo centered on the instrument neck. And of course, the patented Elliot push button design.

Speaking of design, these capos are finely crafted and even though it’s a small piece of hardware, you can sure feel the quality of the craftsmanship when you hold it in your hand. The screw mechanism is smooth, nothing seems loose, but neither is it overly tight. The push button is perfect, easy to use, yet secure enough that you have no fear of it coming unlatched during use.

The real advantage of this sort of capo lies in the thumb screw. As opposed to a spring-clamp sort of capo, the thumb screw allows the player to adjust the capo to have exactly the correct amount of tension on the strings. Not over clamping, allows for a very transparent sound which doesn’t adversely affect tuning the way a spring operated capo does.

If you are looking for the best capo, look no further. The price tag is serious at $160, but if you’re serious about your music, you can’t afford to use anything less.

The guitar version comes in the following standard neck widths: 1 11/16″, 1 3/4″, 1 13/16″, and 1 7/8″. If you need something special for a different neck width, give Phil a call and he’ll take care of you.

For the banjo, you have the options of a B capo or a C capo.

I took a few photos of the capo to share with you. I hope these give you a sense of the capo’s size and craftsmanship.

Cindy Baucom sent along a number of photos from this past weekend’s debut North Carolina Banjo Clinic in Burnsville, NC.

She was in attendance with her husband, Terry Baucom, and sent us this report.

“Terry was an instructor, along with Tom Adams, Mike Scott, Jim Rollins and Bill Emerson. Josh Goforth worked with the old time players on clawhammer and Tom McKinney was on hand for banjo set-up. There were over 50 participants this year.

A Faculty Concert was held on Friday evening, where I was honored to join the instructors as bass player and tenor singer, as Tom Adams played guitar and sang lead and Terry baritone. That was a lot of fun and was followed by a big jam session with the students. On Saturday night, Bill Emerson & The Sweet Dixie Band performed.”

The event must have gone well, as event producer Rod Johnston has already made plans to do it again in November, 2010.

Many thanks to David Hollender, upright bass and banjo instructor at Berklee College of Music, for turning me on to Ragtime West, makers of some of the most amazing musical creations I have ever seen.

The company is the brainchild of Ken Caulkins, who has modified the concept of the player piano for a variety of other stringed instruments and percussion. He has also created full-sized MIDI music boxes with actual instruments that perform upon command.

Ken is obviously a bluegrass fan, as he offers several versions of his automated music players in a Bluegrass Special line. The lovely conversation starter pictured above is his Grade 3 model, complete with banjo, guitar and bass, selling for $37,950 in cherry.

Here’s a look at one in action.

Hollender forwarded me the following video, which gives a great look at his robot banjo in operation, this time in clawhammer style.

What do you get for the bluegrass picker who has everything? You can see more and get full details on these fascinating machines at www.ragtimewest.com.

There is an interesting interview with Punch Brothers on the Paste Magazine web site. It features the guys sitting down with Paste’s College Music Journal correspondent to talk about the instruments they use.

If you are interested in old instruments and the stories behind them, you’ll want to give this a look.