BBJ, I'm not sure how closely John follows the vintage Martin recipe. Having talked to him, I know he's now using a slightly taller X brace than Martin would have used in those days. This gives the guitar more power and mids. My sense is that he's zeroed in on his own sound. I wouldn't say his guitars are copies of the old Martin formula, but I've also played a lot of old Martins and feel like that "old formula" results in a pretty wide spectrum of tone - case in point being two 1930 Martin OM-28s that I played at Schoenberg that sounded VERY different.
I think he is getting close to guitar number 200 under the Circa name.
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