NEW TO RESO AND NEW TO DOBRO..a little help please!

Hello to all my new friends out there in resoland..........first of all, i have never owned nor played a dobro in my life but i'm anxiously looking forward to it with great excitement....i started on violin when i was five and picked up guitar, drums, bass, writing, singing, and recording along the way. I fell into owning a dobro a few days ago when at a neighbors house i saw them kick this old dirty guitar out of the way to get to something else in their messy garage, i asked if i could buy it as a mantle peice and they said yes and so now i have a 1965 Squareneck Dobro. It took a while to clean all the grime off of it.  it appears to be a pre-mosrite built by either rudy and ed or by emil dopyera (i think it;s emil's design) and is clearly marked inside 4-5-65 in pencil on both sides. This guitar seems in very good condition (minus some dings from being kicked around for many years) with a lot of cool crazing on the finish and looks well built. 

One interesting thing however is that it appears as though it should have on of those aluminum nuts that screw in the headstock, mine is missing and i don't know where to get one. I have heard that the tone isn't really too cool with the aluminum, can this be replaced by a screw in bone nut?...can i use a regular bone nut?...if so, how would it sit on the headstock, just by tension?........also, it has the spider and cone in it, so do the strings just set atop the aluminum bridge or is there another piece that goes on top of it?...just one more question please,....what kind of strings should i get for this?...i have seen all the strings and advertisements but i'm sure on of you reso's will have a better clue rather than me just buying any strings.

Now that i have this guitar i am dying to get started but i cant until i get it working..........i have a song that's been sitting for a while that screams for the Dobro sound, i just didn't know it when i wrote it.

Thank you all for your comments, answers, and feedback

danny