Your perception is good enough for me, Lucius.
Capoing the first five strings, as mentioned earlier by John and Easy, can be done with a standard Shubb capo or one similar by putting it on with the open end facing up. If you do it at the 2nd fret you can play in E using a first position D form and will have that (uncapoed) low E in your bass. This also means you can play your 1st position G form to get the 4th (A) and your 1st position A form to get the 5th (B) without having to bring your thumb over to fret the low E. It opens up some new possibilities and makes some things easier for dropped-D (-E).
Another trick that can be done with Kysers is to cut out spaces to allow one or more strings to go unfretted.

Dave