When I was growing up, I played Suzuki Method violin with about a dozen other kids. Three of those kids — who happen to be siblings — were (are) very, very talented musicians. As an eight-year-old, one of them locked herself in a bathroom with her violin and didn’t come out until she had taught herself the entire Book 8 (the Suzuki books start with Book 1, being the easiest, and go to Book 10). Another sibling traveled the world as a performer. Though I don’t know the details, I recall hearing that she had a bow (just the bow) that was thousands of dollars.
I came across an article by way of Bob Collins’s News Cut that described the use of CAT scanners in replicating instruments. Specifically, a 307-year-old Stradivarius violin.
The short story is that a radiologist by the name of Steven Sirr left his violin, which he practiced in his quiet time at the hospital, on a table near a scanner while he attended to a patient on his way to surgery. When Sirr returned, he thought he’d scan his violin. (Out of boredom? Who paid for that? Anyway.)
The data was used to build very near exact copies of the antique Stradivarius.
Read the whole article here.