Grand Designs

In case you hadn’t heard, Taylor’s master designer Andy Powers is set to see his V-Class bracing system permeate the company’s entire fleet of guitars and it’s currently reached the Grand Concert instruments. V-Class replaces the more established X-bracing pattern that has been standard for generations and is said to increase sustain and improve intonation. We’ve looked at a few V-Class Taylors in the past and found them to be sweetly voiced and characterful, and so expectations are high for the duo in front of us here.

The Grand Concert body shape is smaller; Taylor comments that it represents the perfect dimensions for “players of smaller stature as well as those who simply prefer an intimate guitar-playing experience”, and that the addition of the V-Class bracing makes for “a fuller, more robust