Sound scientific research to better understand instrument tonality is much needed and welcome in furthering the quest..sure the biggest factor is the in the fingers but maximizing materials and construction is very important …..

These guys are leading the field of the science of quantifying measurable wood properties and correlating them with acoustic performance. Importantly, PRT has developed a certified coefficient (Q) for each set of panels produced. Q ~1/damping coefficient.

one thing all acoustic builders are not considering is that the bass strings should be longer than the treble strings-i.e. all guitars should be reverse headstocks because in nature,which is what music is the sound of nature-the male-lower E strings are most of the time bigger-longer and the sound resonates longer than the treble strings simply because they are deeper.

Has anyone done similar work on woods for violins?

Only thing missing for me is transforming the human interpretation of the sonic character of a guitar, or a piece of wood, into a visible and minimally biased EQ curve. Saying "brighter, rounder, warmer..." etc is still so subjective.

Jesus likened people to trees,after he healed the blind man he asked him what he saw and the man answered i see men walking around like trees!!! If you study how a tree operates the photosynthesis process the absorption of water up and down the trunk-they operate just like the human body!!! And every tree is different in its sound scape-like he said in the beginning-its not about what the wood looks like but how it sounds-i.e. according to how it reacted to the climate while it was growing.