Lakeside High Grad Seeks Manufacturer for Musical Invention

It’s kind of like having an extra arm. If having an extra arm means that you’re able to play a guitar faster and smoother than ever before.

The Slide-Capo is a guitar accessory that takes two relatively unrelated devices – a slide and a capo – and makes it possible to play music that wasn’t possible before using the device.

“I thought that if you had a slide that could give you the functionality of a traditional capo, it would give you a lot of flexibility if you could combine the two,” said Daniel Chaney, the 2007 graduate who invented the gizmo.

A slide is a metal tube that is worn on a guitarist’s finger to change the pitch of the instrument. A capo changes the key that the guitar is in. Combined, they brought Chaney $15,000 worth of prize money at The InVenture Prize @ Georgia Tech competition in March.

“It’s really more. When I combined them, it created a whole new range of things you can do.”

The 22-year-old is originally from Tucker, but the recent Georgia Tech graduate currently lives near Evansdale.

In the three months since the competition, Chaney says his focus hasn’t been on marketing the product but on finishing his degree in industrial design. With graduation in the past and summer starting, he said he is meeting with his mentors to work out all the bugs before going in for the kill.

“Right now we’re just continuing to refine it,” he said. “I’m just trying to get it to the level where it works really well on any guitar.”

Chaney has done casual, online research but hasn’t approached any serious contenders who would manufacture his product.

“Optimistically, it could be before the summer is over,” he said. “Or it could be a year from now.”

For now, the recent graduate is looking for investors and thinking about the possibility of licensing the Slide-Capo for royalties. And as any recent graduate would be, he's also started applying for jobs while coming up with a final design.

“I’m not counting on this project to completely fund the rest of my life," he said.

Most importantly, he said he wants to work out all of the kinks before any real players are approached.

“I don’t want to release a product that’s low quality,” he said. “I’m pretty set on getting a good stage of refining it before I actually release it.”

Chaney will continue to post updates and high-quality demos on his web site and will soon put up Georgia Public Broadcasting footage he’s received from the contest.

“Nothing like it has ever been made,” he said.