For those interested, here are some general photos of the V Class with some measurements. Some observations of my own as well. This guitar was spruce topped with Koa back and sides.
The bridge plate is two pieces. It resembles a maple overlay on top of a spruce reinforcement. Both pieces run horizontal to the top grain. The braces go over the spruce plate but the maple is flush to the braces.
The cutaway was a solid piece of mahogany, the back and sides of this one were koa. It was stained a bit darker than the koa to blend it in with the color and grain. The line is visible on the front but stupid hard to photograph.
Something interesting to note as well, is that the area directly below the fingerboard extension was reinforced with a sizable (at least 3/16"s thick) piece of mahogany. On older models this was not present.
A look at the bevel insert in the body.
Back braces are all angled like the new 800 series
On the top (deflection?) There was hardly any arch to the top on this example. I had to use a feeler gauge to show the space at the edges of the top.
The area in front of the bridge was even flatter. Likely because it's a brand new guitar but the top was VERY flat compared to the other models in the shop.
One last detail, the nut seems to have been polished/finished while on the neck. There's almost no seam whatsoever
Some thoughts on the tone.
It does not generate overtones in the same manner as guitars that we would call traditional. For an overtone test I simply played each string one at a time while leaving the others open. The overtones generated were significantly less (different) than other x braced guitars. For reference I compared the overtone generation to a Breedlove King Koa exotic, Martin D18 Authentic, Collings OM1, Kalamazoo WL12.
The overtones generated in a different fashion as well to my ears. 5ths and 4ths don't generate overtones in the same manner as 3rds (obviously) but the big difference to my ears is that on certain chords it amplifies given intervals (3rds and such) much more pronounced than it does 5ths and 4ths. When tuning by intervals it was way easier to hear the beat between the different strings such as A and D on open strings. This is different, not bad. I'm not overly techie when it comes to tone and sound. But suffice it to say that it does not sound like a typical Taylor to my ears.
Anyway, YMMV
