[gmassman]

Yes my dobro is a squareneck built by Richard Deneve. It’s tuned to open G, typical for the bluegrass style. I haven’t ventured into lap steel but I have played a little when friends give me the opportunity. Personally I find acoustic instruments incredible just for their portability. Also everyone and their parents owns an acoustic guitar, so finding people to play with has never been an issue :)

For me, music started out as a practice of getting better and developing my abilities as a songwriter. As I’ve gotten older though it’s shifted more towards sharing the joy of playing with others. Jamming with people and making them happy by sharing songs is a reward in and of itself.

[dofm]

My picking is not fast enough or consistent enough for bluegrass unfortunately, but I will end up with a dobro one day! The weissenborn type I play has a similar scale length and luckily my lap steel is not the shortest (23") so my brain is not being truly warped by short scale.

Always been a bit of an admirer of Jerry Douglas (and Al Perkins, who I saw in 1992 with Emmylou Harris at the Crystal Palace Bowl in London — AFAIR he also dropped in on Mark O'Connor's set).