Creating a Better Fretpad: The Solution for 12-Strings

Every Thalia Capo now includes our proprietary Human Touch™ Fretpad, engineered to mimic the elasticity of the human finger for improved tuning stability, even pressure across every string, and exceptional performance on everything from 6-string acoustics to challenging 12-string and baritone guitars.

But Human Touch™ didn't happen overnight. It was the result of an ambitious research and development project that began with a simple question: Could we create a better capo for every 12-string guitar without relying on excessive tension? 

That pursuit ultimately led to Human Touch™—our patented fretpad technology. Rather than simply making a softer or firmer rubber, we set out to create a material that behaved like the human finger: soft enough to conform around the strings, yet firm enough to apply even pressure where it mattered most. Originally developed to solve one of the biggest challenges in capo design—cleanly fretting 12-string and baritone guitars without excessive tension—we soon discovered the same technology offered benefits for 6-string guitars as well. Watch the video above for an overview, then read on for the full story behind the development of Human Touch™ technology. Please note: When this video was originally produced, Human Touch™ Fretpads were called OctaveTouch. While the name has changed, the technology is the same.

Our goals for this fretpad project were clear. The solution that we were looking for only required a new fretpad, where the resulting design was compatible with all 12-strings and baritones, no matter how they were strung. (Some are strung with the octave string on the bass side and some on the treble side of the standard gauge string.) 

Now, some of you may be asking, what the issue is? After all, we do have thousands of 12-string users that experience excellent results with our standard capo and high tension fretpads, but...12-strings are notoriously finicky and some just don’t like capos at all, at least their octave strings don't. So, our goal was to create a solution that worked perfectly on those persnickety instruments and improved performance for all.

Typically, a 12-string capo usually works by increasing the tension of the capo. This is because the capo needs to fret the standard gauge string and the smaller gauge octave string in order to get both strings to ring true. The issue with this approach is that you will undoubtedly push your guitar out of tune when cranking up the tension. 

So how did we solve it? It was actually quite simple. We simply modeled our new fretpad material after the human finger. Not a bombshell revelation by any means, but in retrospect it was a breakthrough objective because no other capo has ever effectively done this.

First, let’s look at how a human finger reacts to strings on a 12-string guitar. 

The finger tip is initially very soft, molding around the strings but then quickly bottoms out on bone, so that both strings are pressed against the fret with equal tension. Here is how it looks when you barre with the side of your finger.

As you can see the fleshy part of the finger makes contact with the fretboard and depresses the octave strings. Now, let's take a look at how a rubber fretpad makes contact with the strings.

As you can see the rubber conforms slightly to the strings, but it is nowhere as soft or as pliable as a finger. This means that a lot of force is being applied to the standard gauge strings in order to press them down far enough to hit the octave strings. It is important to note that our capos actually apply less tension than a Kyser, Dunlop, G7 and other trigger style capos. It may not feel like this is the case when you squeeze it, but we dialed down the tension when we matched the radius so that we would not impact tuning.

So the first thing that we tried was making fretpads out of every durometer of rubber that we could source. Durometer refers to the softness or elasticity of rubber materials.  Some were too soft, some not soft enough. We also tried every type of rubber from silicone to butyl rubber and started mixing custom batches or blends with different additives. The issue that we ran into was if it was too soft it didn't depress the strings enough and we had buzzing. Too hard and it didn't conform around the strings... We tried metal cores inside of the rubber as well as numerous other methods. Eventually through lots of trial and error we solved it with a proprietary silicone blend that exactly matches the elasticity of the human finger. We call this proprietary fretpad material Human Touch™.

Here is how a Human Touch™ fretpad looks on a 12-string guitar.

Once we had a prototype that we were in love with, we made up a small batch and sent these out to some of our customers who have had the biggest problems with our capos and 12-strings. The results started coming in and the solution worked across the board. 

Extensive testing confirmed what our engineering suggested from the beginning: Human Touch™ provides more even pressure across the strings while requiring less overall tension than traditional capo materials.

With the 12-string challenge solved, our attention turned to 6-string guitars. What began as a solution for one of the most demanding capo applications quickly demonstrated benefits across virtually every guitar we tested.

During development, one test stood out...

I have found that these new fretpads in our standard tension depth are even better at keeping my 6-string guitars in tune more than our rubber models. In fact, in a test with my Gibson SJ200, a Peterson Strobe Tuner and my Thalia Capo with a standard tension Human Touch™ fretpad installed at the 5th fret, the capo kept the guitar perfectly in tune to my ear but consistently 4-5 cents sharper than without the capo on, according to the Peterson tuner. I then took off the capo and barred the 5th fret with my fingers, modulating the pressure of my barring to the point just above where buzzing occurred while watching the Peterson Strobe Tuner. The result, my barre chord was also 4-5 cents sharp. So what does this tell me? That at least on my SJ, the capo is exactly modeling the pressure of my fingers when I am not barring too hard :) (It was very easy to press too hard and press chords/notes sharp, so I also learned to have a softer touch with this little test..)

After years of real-world use by guitarists around the world, Human Touch™ has become the standard fretpad included with every Thalia Capo. Whether you're replacing a worn fretpad, matching another guitar's radius, or exploring one of our other fretpad materials, you can shop our complete collection of replacement fretpads.