As far as John's 7-string goes, whenever asked he says he got the idea from Big Joe Williams' 9-string guitar. He had at least two guitars that he made into 7-strings. One was a wood body I'm not sure what brand. On Blues, Rags and Hollers he plays mostly on steel bodied National 7-string. I think he sometimes plugged into a small amplifier. He definitely likes to tinker, lately he has been building a boat. 12-string guitars were maybe somewhat hard to come by in the late 50's but obviously Dave Ray had a couple. There is an ad from around this time in the Little Sandy Review (Minnepolis folk periodical) for "Smith" 12 string guitars. Dave had a Smith 12 for sure. John began playing 12 string guitars by the early 70's for sure. He had a Yamaha he used in the early-mid 70's, then by 1981 an Epiphone that he modified a bit. Lately he has also been using a weird old Gretsch 12-string that is pretty cool.