The recent landmark structures of KvAP, a voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channel, provide the first high-resolution experimental structural models of this class of proteins. Previous extensive studies of Kv channels provide a means to evaluate and interpret the KvAP structures. In this minireview, we survey different experimental approaches to Kv channels and map these findings to KvAP, showing that the relationship between the KvAP structures and other Kv channels is uncertain.