I didn't really want to buy a pickup for the dobro... I tried using a mic, but holding it on my lap while playing, I couldn't maintain a consistent distance between the mic and the resonator.

Its a fairly quiet instrument to begin with, and I had a hard time getting the mic loud enough to capture the dobro without also picking up every other transient sound in the room or getting feedback. Noise to signal ratio was never good for me, and you know how that works out.

Also my picking hand was in the way about half the time. The pickup solved all of those problems. I researched all the options before buying that one. Its not the best one available, but I felt like it delivered 80% of the best one's quality at about 50% of the price

this website has instructional videos for sale and quite a few free demo videos to watch. The guy is a BIAB user too, so its nice to support the brotherhood.

http://www.lessonswithtroy.com/dobro_lessons/DOBRO-BASICS-VOLUME-1.html