I love your system where you pull the riff from the greater lesson. A new student can get lost and distracted by focusing on popular solos and intros without having some idea as to how the author got to them. Are they playing with a band? Do they have friends that play other instruments regularly? If not, some of these 'riffs' just become dead end alleys without the accompanying players. There are still many songs that are a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle that I'll seek help with. But thanks to your general lessons, I figure most of them out on my own.

I am a guitar collector and I USE my guitars. My expensive D18's and D28's all have the lived-in look. Ive tried to trailer queen them a few times but then I become a slave to paranoia whenever another guitar player comes over. Worrying about the slightest scratch. Peak magic with my guitar is after sets at festivals around a fire with other singer songwriters and you'll become a pariah if you give your tool any princess treatment. They lay on the grass, up against a chair. Available for anyone to jump in and show you what they can do using your specific tool. Everyone is respectful, but nobody is giving it any special treatment. The guitar case is used for storage and transportation.

Great playing and great tone!

Definitely has a different sound to it. You can have a bit of nail, no need to go long. Ive found that the longer you go, the less they last, but I do prefer the sound of longer nails when fingerpicking songs. Songs like most of Jose Gonzalez. Mind you, he plays nylon strings.