Introduction
The Thalia Capo made their internet debut in 2014 by running a kickstarter campaign. Combining a fresh design with a compelling story the campaign was a big success. The company was founded by Chris Bradley and his daughter Thalia, the namesake for the capos. As the story goes when Thalia was eight years old she was looking a poster of Taylor Swift. Taylor had a gorgeous looking guitar, but Thalia was disappointed in the capo on the guitar. Her father took the idea of creating a beautiful capo and sought to add modern engineering concepts. Thus (they claim), the Thalia is both a work of art and an impeccably designed machine. We find, in terms of style, the Thalia is indeed gorgeous. In terms of engineering the Thalia is quite amazing. Nonetheless its functionality is not necessarily better than the simpler Kyser or Shubb.
Beauty
Part of the origin story is that Chris Bradley sought to create a capo as a work of art. And indeed the Thalia is beautiful. In the tradition of classical guitars Bradley incorporated various inlays onto the body of the Thalia. There are capos with exotic woods like rosewood and Hawaiian Koa knots. There are capos with mother of pearl and abalone. There are some less classy ones with more flashy designs, like a shiny Tye-Die or Stars and Stripes. The company has a design team that continues to create new looks for the Thalia. If you go to their capo page at anytime you can see what current designs are available. One of the drawbacks of this company is that each design has a limited run, and the one you want may not be available. Then again, this is a company that prides itself in craftsmanship.
The inlays are not the only nice part of the design. The whole capo looks sleek. The body is made from buffed zinc. It is shaped is a boxy and elegant "C" and engraved with their trademark logo. The thing looks great!
Make
The Thalia really is a different kind of engineering than most capos out there. It has been designed and created with modern fabrication techniques, as they are proud to tell us about. The computer design programs, like CAD, allowed the Thalia team to put together a fantastic machine. The internal spring mechanism feels more sophisticated than most capos. While Sophisticated could mean complicated and liable to break, this is not so for the the Thalia is. It is truly is designed well and made with precision. The capos of the previous era, like the Shubb and the Kyser, were designed with a completely different set of tools. Further, The materials are all top notch to match the engineering. It does seem a little like overkill, but we love it!
The body is heavy, and we love it. 3.25 oz does not sound like much, but when you pick it up, it feels solid and powerful. The spring mechanism works every time. This capo seems like it will last forever.
Reverse Action
Chris Bradley has created a completely new style of capo! Like the Kyser, it attaches from the side with a spring mechanism. The Thalia has a reverse action spring. You have to squeeze it together. As you push the top and bottom together, the spring lever inside opens in the opposite direction. If this sounds confusing, it took us a few tries getting used to. After a few goes it became natural.
Chris Bradley claims this feels a bit like playing a barre chord, a feeling guitar players are used to. We're not so sure about this. While being an entirely gripping mechanism we found it to be no better or worse than the more traditional trigger quick-action capos, like the Kyser or the Dunlop. Certainly, the Thalia is made with more modern engineering. However, in terms of functionality we found the Thalia the equal to the Kyser and not superior. All capos do the same basic task. The design is all about how this gets done. Complicated does not make a better capo. Guitar players want a capo that works. The Thalia works, it grips well. It requires quite a firm grip, which might be hard for some people. Our point is that the all the fancy engineering is cool, but it actually doesn't do the job better than a standard spring loaded capo.
Fretpads
...That is unless you count the fretpads. The Thalia has one more unique feature: a choice of fret pads. This may strike you as unnecessary, but we love this thoughtfulness. Most acoustic and electric guitars have curved fretboards. The problem many capos have this curvature is different from guitar to guitar. If you take a capo and gently press it against a fretboard it may not match perfectly, so they touch in some places and not in others. To compensate for this many capos increase their pressure. This pressure can result in intonation issues: the capo actually pulls the strings tighter raising the pitch.
Another capo that has sought to deal with this problem is the G7th Performance 3. The Thalia's solution is to provide fourteen different fretpads, each with different radii. Thalia have produced a guide for matching the correct fretpad to your guitar to reduce the intonation issues. Pretty cool.
We found the fretpads a little annoying on the two Thalias we tested. The fretpads slot into the top part of the pad, and they are only held in by pressures. When you take the capo on and off the guitar the fretpads can slide around a bit and even partially slip out. You might need to reset the pad when you reset the capo.
An interesting result of this pad matching is that you can place the capo in the middle of the fret. Most capos should be placed near the front of the fret to reduce the intonation issues. The Thalia company claims that you don't need to worry at all about these issues if you have the right pad, so you can place the capo in the middle. Neat.
Conclusion
The Thalia is a great capo. If you are looking for a capo the combines state-of-the-art engineering techniques and a gorgeous form factor, look no further. This is a premium capo. Not everyone will think it is worth the price tag. The price various, depending on what inlay you choose, but they start at $75. If you are willing to shell out the cash (and let's be real here, for many guitarists shell out lots of cash for guitar gadgets) this capo really is a work of art.
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