Guido - I know more about guitars than violins but certain things are common. Everybody knows about presence, projection, sustain, separation and tone but the tone is mentioned most often (simplification). There were attempts to build synthetic guitar to no avail - perhaps because of complexity of sound.
Another issue is price of the instrument and our American set of values. There is a luthier in the small German town who makes absolutely perfect guitars (Matthew Daman). David Russell plays on one of them. They cost about $20k - typical for guitar of this class but wait period to get one is 9 years. From the business point of view it doesn't make any sense (why not charge more?) but for him 9 years of waiting is a better prize than money.
Another issue is price of the instrument and our American set of values. There is a luthier in the small German town who makes absolutely perfect guitars (Matthew Daman). David Russell plays on one of them. They cost about $20k - typical for guitar of this class but wait period to get one is 9 years. From the business point of view it doesn't make any sense (why not charge more?) but for him 9 years of waiting is a better prize than money.