capo tasto Mus.
(ˈkapo ˈtasto)
Also capodastro.
[It., lit. ‘head stop’.]
A device consisting of a bar or movable nut attached to the fingerboard of a stringed instrument for the purpose of raising the pitch of all the strings at once.
| 1876 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms 75 The capo tasto, or capodastro as it is sometimes called, is screwed over the strings on to the finger-board and forms a temporary nut. 1879 Grove Dict. Mus. I. 306/2 The construction of a capo tasto varies according to the stringing and shape of the neck of the instrument it is to be applied to. 1897 Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Price List, Capodastros. 1961 C. Bunting in A. Baines Mus. Instr. vi. iii. 141 The use of the thumb as a movable ‘nut’ (like the guitarist's capotasto). |