I'm in the same boat. Fingerstyle blues player, standard tunings, playing regular acoustics. I want to branch into open tunings and slide, and I
love the sound of resos. I don't like heavy guitars, and I wanted a top-quality build. I recently bought something in-between, price-wise: a Beltona Southerner -
http://www.beltona.net/nav/guitar_southerner.htm .
I have a question for reso players: how do you deal with sympathetic string vibrations in open tunings? The tone from the Beltona is magical, but if I play a single note on any string while in open G, I get audible notes ringing from all the other strings. Does this happen on Nationals?