Everybody that makes a steel string guitar should probably send Martin a dime, perhaps even a dollar for each one produced. Even though they may look different on the outside, under the top virtually everyone uses that brilliant X brace . . . I'm kidding of course. I'm well aware of how human knowledge progresses idea upon idea. When you come up with an existential idea, like it or not, it kind of becomes the property of everyone despite the best efforts of patent and copyright law. Once an idea is shared, there's no take-backs. Like a launched child it has a life of its own.