Thanks all so far for your inputs.
Bruce; that was very enlightening.
I have wondered if, with Martin in the 30s/40s, that there was a bit of chicken and egg going on. The company was chasing to catch up with the musicians desire to play heavier strings (perhaps because that's what happened with the ever popular archtops at the time) - so bracing patterns were changed to enable the guitars to stand up to the more popular heavy gauges. Rear shifted X bracing was nothing to do with creating a tonal change but simply to stop dreads folding up with 14-60 string sets!
I dropped a set of 80/20 mediums onto my A&L Legacy 000 a few days ago. It normally wears 12-54s. I'm enjoying the punch and different note blends - it is certainly not choking. I'm going to play it at an open mic' on Friday evening in a big theatre, just mic'd, and I think that it will do just fine.
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I'm learning to flatpick and fingerpick guitar to accompany songs.
I've played and studied traditional noter/drone mountain dulcimer for many years. And I used to play dobro in a bluegrass band.
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