Review: GM Dobro, Squareneck, or Hawaiian Guitar Capo

A customer of mine was interested in slapping a capo on his raised-string Hawaiian guitars and lap steels and I started hunting for a design that could work for anything. I have to say that it's actually really hard to find ones that are universal and easily-fit. This GM capo works beautifully, however, due to its reversible mounting (brass capo-nut fits either above or below the strings).

The thin black downmpressure bar (adjusted via a set-screw like my favorite NS capos) fits under the low-clearance strings of vintage instruments like Weissenborns, flattop squarenecks, and older Dobros and Nationals. It's also low-pressure enough when fitted "just enough to get a clean note" that you can wiggle it around to get your stopped notes pitch-perfect without having to pull it off and try again.

While $49.95 from Elderly Instruments might hurt at first, it's a cheap fee for turning your Hawaiians into multi-tuning instruments on-the-fly.