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No- I use them all week, 40 weeks of the year, and if anything most times the cheaper, chinese-made leads outlast the $40 dollar name brands.

Not, being an aussie, that I have any interest in beer of course, but how much, ballpark figure, is a draught beer in $USD there?

Yeah, a big Amen to that comment...what a nightmare that is. Never ever again.

Yeah, that's the sound- crisp, sharp and far louder than a normal accoustic, as well, because these were developed pre-electric guitar days to get over the top of horns and pianos in dance bands.
This is the first resonator I've owned, and it's great fun to play- in fact the first new guitar I've bought in 20 years. Mostly I use it for slide, Olly, delta blues mostly in open D and C, and swamp rock stuff like John Fogerty.

Yes indeed- get back to the roots with John Lee Hooker, BB King, Muddy Waters...track down some Django Reinhart and Stephan Grapelli, sample a little Clapton from his Unplugged album. Not a piercing or tattoo or power chord in sight, plenty of minor keys....
As someone old enough to be your grandfather- but nowhere enough of a positive role-model to be- it's not surprising that I don't get excited by the same music, but an endless diet of three-note chords, no minors or anything else, basic and predictable beat patterns and trite dreary pap as lyrics has to be rather ( yawn..) coma-inducing 
I except Greenday's 21 Guns from the above though, one of my favourites of theirs.

It's an accoustic amplified by a metal cone in the centre and usually two smaller cones up near the neck- used a lot in blues. If you can remember seeing the cover pic on the Dire Straites album Brothers In Arms, the guitar there is a Resonator.
The sound is quite different from a normal accoustic, and it's often played using a slide.
There are heaps of Resonator forums and most major brands produce one or two models at least.

Well, that brings me back to the improvising, Olly- some folk I teach, no matter how talented and motivated just can't let a direct connection happen between their brain and their fingers and think outside the square to the extent that they can improvise and as a direct result compose, and the fact is that improvisation in the music styles and era I mention is, saddly, very much the exception, not the rule.

There's a guy in the same town as myself with a collection of over twenty vintage guitars- 30 year old Strats, National Resonators from the '40's, old Les Pauls and Martins, Guilds and Gibsons, who doesnt play a note..they are all investment, locked up like Fort Knox.

Well, if you fit the usual student profile for this form of blockage you are early 30's to mid 40's and have ( no offense ) developed a musical tunnel vision, locked in around mid-90's in a Nirvana/Metalica/GNR/Blink182/Oasis mindset- in other words, the diminishment or elimination of improvisation and the advent of powerchords, mostly majors and simple beat patterns. If you can't improvise you are driving on four flat tyres when it comes to vocal or instrumental composition- because improvisation is really composition on the run.
The solution I find works best in most cases is a complete lateral shift in style- the open tunings I have mentioned elsewhere, or in normal tuning working up something as basic as a 12 bar but playing in a minor key..Am Dm and E7, for example. There are many ways to do this, but the important point is a shift in technique and a widening of musical vision and approach to playing.

One factor worth consideration is that as you age your music tastes change- for example, where once a progression of non-syncopted, basic beat patterns and powerchords appealed, it now sounds bland and predictable.
As you say, exposure to more music can be the key, but more styles of music, not more of the same techniques.

No way will I book people in fortnightly- firstly, because I run a teaching studio, with all the associated costs like rent, power, phone, insurance, etc..and secondly because if a student is doing something the wrong way, and they practice that way for two weeks, the error is so imprinted it's very very hard or impossible to overcome.

The cost per ten week course on this site is around the same as a term (10 weeks) with a teacher, based on average rates here - and the choice of styles and levels is very limited...also, while backing tracks are good, a real live person is far better.
Most music teachers find that around 50% of students who book in for lessons have already tried to teach themselves from CD, DVDs or from online sources. It works fine for a minority, but something as simple as a bowed neck, over-heavy string guage or a poor beat sense or ear can defeat the purpose.
And most full-time teachers provide phone and email support now, as well.