What are those guitar clampy things for anyways?

I have to admit that I've often wondered what those guitar clampy things are for... I'm an apostate when it comes to capos. I rarely-to-never use a capo with my six strings, though I do keep a capo in each guitar case. If a song needs to be in another key for me to sing it, I generally just transpose the key. I've found only a few songs where I felt it necessary to use the same chord shapes somewhere higher on the neck in order to play a tune ('for instance': most people play "Norwegian Wood" in D, but I prefer to sing it in E, and I think the song actually sounds better and fuller played in E without a capo.)

I do use a capo when I play "Losing My Religion" -- I have a loop playing the chords without a capo, and I capo on the 12th fret so I'm playing up an octave and can imitate the mandolin that plays some of the lead parts in the tune -- so yes, I'm not entirely capo-free.

I do use a capo somewhat more frequently on my 12-string... but that because it's tuned in D standard and I'm using the capo on the second fret to get to E-standard for a few tunes (or when I'm playing with other people tuned to E-standard doing songs I don't know, and I'm watching their fingers in order to play along.)

But in general, no capo for me, thanks.  I know that makes me an outlier, but hey, different strokes, right?

Generally don't use a capo, use my capo most when doing guitar maintenance.
Only have one capo, a shubb, nice neat little job, Nickel plated steel.

"But they do more. Capos change the voice of the instrument. You will notice many songs that are written and performed with a capo. The capo provides a unique tonality to the tune."

According to my information Shubb's nickle-plated capos are Brass.

The Original Shubb Capo ("C" series) is available in either nickel or brass finish. They are all made of brass, but some are nickel plated and others are left unplated.

Deluxe (S series) are stainless steel.
I would assume the Black Chrome Capo Noir series is also Brass since they are also C series. (CnK)

Do you remember the Series letter?

S.. are stainless steel, looks dull compared to Nickle plated

C.. are Brass;plain, Nickle plated (oh! shiny! or brushed nickle, or black chrome

You wll just have to buy another to be sure!!!!

Yes that was the point I was trying to make. Your post seemed to have reacted to my 1st paragraph and ignored the 2ed