Micropatterned electrodes based on thin multi-walled carbon nanotube films are grown by catalytic chemical vapour deposition on lithographically defined quartz and Inconel alloy substrates. The electrical contact at the interface between the root of the nanotube arrays and the thin Ti hardmask layer on the quartz surface is found to be poor disabling proper capacitive characteristics. On the other hand, nanotube-Inconel electrodes show low series resistance and good electric double layer capacitor operation close to that of ideal devices. Patterning of the electrodes enhances both specific capacitance and power in reference to non-patterned bulk carbon nanotube film electrodes. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.