I was a big fan of the Blues, Rags and Hollers albums that John, Tony and David put out in the '60s. I looked up Spider John's website and was glad to see that he's still performing, but all the pictures showed him playing either a 12-string or a six string. In the Blues, Rags & Hollers days he played a seven string. This was not a George Van Epps style 7-string with an extra bass string, nor was it a lenny Breau style with an extra treble string. It had an octave string added to the G string. Does he still play this guitar?
My reason for asking is that Martin has come out with a seven string with an octave G string called the Roger McGuin model. I've seen a couple of articals on Roger where he talks about this guitar, but nowhere does he mention Spider John. Although Roger's playing sounds nothing like John's, I'm sure that Roger must have been aware of the Blues, Rags & Hollers albums. Not many folkies made it through the sixties without hearing them.