Shubb Capos Celebrates 40 Years

As 2014 begins, Shubb Capos’ Rick Shubb looks back on the company’s successful history: “In 1974, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency, Muhammad Ali defeated George Foreman to regain the heavyweight championship, and Mel Brooks released Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. I was a young banjo player with an idea for an improved 5th string capo for banjo.

“I carried drawings of my design around with me until one day one of my banjo students, an auto mechanic named Dave Coontz, built me a prototype. We formed a partnership based on a handshake – and that’s how it stands today, a fact that drives banks and lawyers nuts.

“I spent that summer in the southeast, going from one bluegrass festival to another, spreading the word about our new 5th string banjo capo, and soon some orders began coming in. The business was fun and gratifying, but it was only a part-time business until 1979, when we designed and introduced our best-known product, the Shubb Capo for Guitar.

“In each of these forty years our sales have topped the prior year, and the Shubb Capo is as popular and highly respected today as it has ever been.”

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