Physics Today - Evaluating Musical Instruments

There are quite a few decent books about this sort of thing. Some are properly academic/scientific works (almost all on classical instruments because that's what gets funded) that, though the real deal, are not what I'd call friendly reading.
 
 
But this one, though it's sort of on building your own (non-traditional) musical instruments, has good and not ridiculously technical descriptions about how instruments "work":
 
http://www.amazon.com/Mus...on-ebook/dp/B0058DW4BM

Wow, this is good...  (Finally having a chance to read the article.)
 
Two take-aways so far:  The first is that sympathetic vibrations contribute to the overall performance (sounds obvious, but you KNOW that digital keyboards don't model that feature).  The second is how much the interaction between an instrument and the musician contributes to the perceived quality of the instrument by the musician (another area that most digital keyboards are weak in). 
 
Ok, on to violins!  (I wonder if there will be any sax to go with the violins?  )

craigb
"Cross-Modal Interference" - Good name for a band. 

Exactly the hidden meaning of "The CHB".

Dat tu brutay

^^^
There's brass I do not want to play!
 
Having been a tuba player, I can tell you that the psychology of playability (ability to play?) is based largely on the perception of how well constructed (or branded) the instrument is.  I always prefered the Meinl Weston with rotaries to the Miraphone.