I've been asked, "does the Shubb Dobro capo only work on a square neck, or does it work on a round neck, too?" Before we look at the answer, let's look at the question:

Square neck or round neck?
...or shouldn't we be saying:"Hawaiian style or Spanish style?"

Probably. We're either going to clear up some confusion here, or create some more.

Technically speaking, the terms "square neck" or "round neck" refer to the actual shape of the neck, not the the string action. The terms "Hawaiian style" and "Spanish style" refer to the setup ...whether the strings are raised high above the fretboard for slide style (Hawaiian) player, or lower for fretting with the left hand (Spanish style). These terms aren't used much these days. Most bluegrass players don't think of their music as being particularly Hawaiian, and your average blues man doesn't identify with Carlos Montoya. Still, these terms accurately distinguish the two setups common to Dobros, or resonator guitars.

In recent years people have begun using the term "square neck" synonymously with "Hawaiian" (above). Now that's fine as far as it goes, because you CANNOT set up a square neck instrument to play Spanish style. But you CAN set up a round neck instrument to play "Hawaiian" style, and some are built that way.

So back to the question: "does the Shubb Dobro capo only work on a square neck, or does it work on a round neck, too?"

The answer: it's made to work on guitars set up to play "Hawaiian" style. That means all square necks, and some (but not most) round necks. Fortunately, we have several other models of capo to cover all your round neck needs.

I'm glad we got that straightened out. Or did we?