Well Jeff, all things being relative, I would bet you wouldn't think it sounded like a Dobro if you were playing a Dobro next to it. Also, the recording aspect is a good question, and one I never thought of. I can tell you for sure, that you can really sweeten your guitar through one; I mean a LOT. However, I never tried to just go for a "modelling" transition...meaning I just dialed it up until I really liked the way MY guitar sounded. I went through the basic choices until I found a few that were close, then I altered them from there until I got just the sound I was looking for. In that respect, it gave me the nicest sounding acoustic guitar on the planet. The electric box though (G2) I didn't find that easy to get where I was trying to go.