Taylor Guitars and the V Class Bracing System

[William2]

I have become really interested in aspects of guitar construction, woods, etc. I've never played a Taylor as I play lefty and haven't been particularly attracted to their sound with the exception of their rosewood body models. Recently I was watching an Alvarez video about the differences between 12-fret and 14-fret construction. They said with the bridge moved lower on a 12-fret instrument X braced instrument, it yields a quicker response (volume) but also a quicker decay because of the lack of stiffness a 14-fret X braced instrument has with the bridge over the bracing. Looking at this V class bracing it would appear that wherever you placed the bridge it would be over the bracing to increase sustain. Has anyone played a Taylor, and do you think they are louder and have more sustain because of this bracing system regardless or 12 or 14 fret configuration or is this just hype? My luthier sells Taylor instruments. A salesman played one (300 series 12-fret) for me and it did sound very loud. I guess when I think of Taylor Giutars, I always think of cutaways and installed electronics, and some previously unused wood, things I dislike. But the idea of V class bracing seems to make sense when I think about it.

"A New Platform to Solve an Age-Old Problem

While traditional X-bracing has stood the test of time for over 100 years, it creates an inherent trade-off between two key elements of an acoustic guitar's sound: volume and sustain. A guitar's top (the soundboard) contributes to both. Volume comes from the flexibility of the top, while sustain comes from stiffness. The trade-off is that when you make something stiffer, you reduce its flexibility, and vice versa. With an X-braced guitar top, increasing one comes at the expense of the other. V-Class bracing changes that. Now an acoustic guitar top can be both stiff and flexible in ways that produce more volume and sustain. And as it turns out, this innovative bracing design also improves the intonation of the guitar. Discover how we broke away from tradition and reinvented what the acoustic guitar can do."

[jpmist]

When the bracing first came out, Taylor was doing road shows with the new offerings and I really did come away impressed. "More volume" is too subjective for me to weigh in on, but what I noticed and really could hear was how the intonation up the neck was spot on. Perhaps that guitar was worked on more precisely than usual, but the technical pitch at the time was that the bracing helped offer fewer completing frequencies making the fretted note ring out clearer. Even my horrible hearing could tell a difference so I came away impressed.

[William2]

That is interesting BOWIE. I never heard of this bracing before Taylor came out with it. wonder if this bracing was derived from that type of bracing, they use on archtop guitars where the brace spans the length of the instrument. I was looking around trying to find a good video demonstrating this bracings attributes but didn't find one I liked. I did watch Andy Powers playing a GP model which is their slope shouldered dreadnought and I did like how the bass didn't overwhelm what he was playing. I think it was a builders addition model. But I would have thought he would have showed these things V bracing did instead of playing a bunch of tunes. He is a good player. I did try the sustain thing on my 12 and 14 fret Larrivee's. While the 14-fret instrument does have a longer sustain, on mine I didn't find it an appreciable difference. I don't currently have any pieces that require more sustain than my 12-fret guitar offers.