Saving the sound of the Stradivarius


An interesting project is taking place in Cremona Italy. A link to a brief piece in the New York Times describes the effort to chronicle the sound of various Stradivarius instruments before they have lost their mojo.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/arts/music/stradivarius-sound-bank-recording-cremona.html?action=...

ghasley
They are not the first.   Quite a number of years ago I worked for a company that was going through a transition and decided to create the sound of a Stradivarius through a new design of music synthesizer integrated circuits.

Being an audiophile and an electrical engineer, I had to chuckle to myself.  Only the most arrogant group of engineers who know nothing about the quality of sound or even know how to play a stringed instrument, would try to make a synthesizer create the sound of a Stradivarius.  

I left the company and in a few years the company folded, never completing the project.    I am sure they are not the only ones who have tried.  At least this approach has a lot of merit. 
What makes anybody think these Strads are gonna loose their mojo? They're already hundreds of years old and, unlike vintage Les Pauls and Stratocasters, they get repaired if need be. I noticed a beautiful old Stratocaster in an add once that was more valuable because it was untouched from original, even though it didn't actually work. The only thing that seems to effect the tone of a Strad or any other fine wood acoustic instrument is not playing it...there's a Strad in Cremona at a museum that is played for 15 minutes of so every day for that exact reason, a fact I recently learned from Richard Hoover of Santa Cruz guitars. 
@wolf_garcia 
If you read the article, even the conservators believe the instruments will be too delicate to play, despite being cared for. 
Bob