[HaVIC5]

Reminds me of a funny story from my days of playing in a church worship band though. The guitar player slapped a capo on after handing me the chord sheets and said "Oh..wait...how good is your transposing?" so I grinned at him and said "Pretty good, pretty good" and slapped a capo on my bass.

Haha! Amazing.

I use a lot of open string transition notes in my playing, having the root and fourth on the E and A strings is a lot more useful in the highly diatonic music I want this for than having the open maj7th and third. Note choice is extremely limited (basically, just the root and fifth and the songs are 90% 1-4-5 with the occasional relevant minor) so having those notes on the opens frees me of unneeded movement and allows me to add interest in other ways rather than just hopping up and down the neck finding notes. A lot of the songs are unfamiliar to me too, so I have to watch the guitarist and follow his chords, regardless of how much I practice I'll still be more accurate and better on the quick changes when using a capo. It basically frees me of unnecessary technical complication and lets me concentrate on playing.

You hit on the main utility of a capo/tuning up - the open strings. This is what old school solo bassists basically did when they tuned up to F#BEA, the "solo" tuning for many double bass concerto's/concert work. The higher tension and open string possibilities that became open allowed for a much different sound than standard tuning allowed. Much of the talented composer's composition for strings lies in his understanding of how string players play open string's and their particular sound. This is why a lot of music written for string orchestra is in G, D and A - good keys for string players.

How does this translate to electric bass? Well, you might notice that a lot of contemporary music/jazz is written in the keys of F, Bb and Eb, mainly since they're good keys for horns...but unfortunately terrible keys for bass. This, however, is a blessing in disguise, because most contemporary players have spent lots of time shedding in those keys, exploring the techical requirements of the specific keys, and learning how to overcome them.

My point is that although using a capo is good for open strings, which are important maneuverability points in certain keys, you're just shooting yourself in the foot by relying on a capo. From what you just said, it seems like you're going to be using it as a crutch to not practicing in the key of F (having to "find" notes rather than just knowing already where they are). Theres a difference between knowing how to use open strings and NEEDING the open strings in order to play. You shouldn't rely on them by any means.