How not to mention their exorbitant prices – but every day we develop more scientific tools that can help us construct new violins with similar performance attributes. As luthiers, we know there is no such thing as ‘the perfect violin’, but when a musician tells us, ‘I want a violin that sounds like this particular instrument,’ of course we can aspire to fulfil that kind of request. This article looks at three violins that have been crafted with this in mind.