Slikerbill, people say I got the hardest workin' pinky in the folk/blues bidness. They also say I got more talent in that little pinky finger than I've got in the whole rest of my body. I'm not sure how to take that last comment. *BG* ;~)

My guitar is actually a cross between a National and a Dobro so I call it a Nobro. I've hybridized the bridges of both by combining a piece of a vegetable steamer made of cast aluminum (like the spider on a Dobro) and a slice of an old baseball bat (like the biscuit on a National) so that mine includes both ideas and I use a Quarterman type resonator cone. I get a unique sound that no one else has or maybe even wants! It doesn't quite sound like a Dobro or a National. It also has brass back and sides and a spruce top. I used 100 year old German piano soundboard for the top. So my guitar's body has both of those aspects, metal and wood. I've only seen this done in one other guitar, an old steel bodied National with a wood top that I spied for sale at local shop a few years back, ($5000.00). Further proof that I hold no convention as sacred, is that I've used a neck from an old Harmony brand square-neck guitar or lap type guitar for my Nobro and I play bottleneck fashion with the action down low, as if it was a round neck.

I've tried using heavy gauge strings but let me tell ya when they get stretched out and die they really sound thuddy. I like light gauge because I now use a tuning that couldn't function with heavy gauge strings. I tend to do a lot of fingerpickin' but I've never been accused of sounding like Leo yet. I also have a pickup on my Nobro that helps me crank when the need arises.

Okay, let's see, is there anything else that weird about how or what I play? I'll get back to ya about that.