Yeah it did strike me too as quite funny. Pun intended or not, is the question.

Old string instruments generally remain playable[1] so it most probably wouldn’t be too delicate to play. However most old Amati and Stradivarius instruments will have had a refit during the Romantic period to play on metal strings. This massively increases the string tension compared to the gut strings that would have been used in the original design. This refit often involves a new bridge, soundpost and nut[2] and (if it happened) would have moved the position of the soundpost relative to the bridge. So you’d want to undo all that to hear it in its original state. You’d also want to remove the end pin and use a historically accurate bow as cello players used to play by sort of cradling the cello in their legs rather than having it on a pin and the bow changed shape.

Gut strings have more resonance and a much better sound (in my opinion) at the expense of being less loud and much harder to keep consistently in tune. The romantic movement led to larger forces in the orchestra and more brass, which meant strings had to be louder and in greater numbers to get a balanced sound, and obviously being able to stay in tune over the course of the (longer and longer) pieces of music was convenient!

Here’s an example of a historically-informed performance of the Bach cello suite no 1 in G so you get an idea what the gut strings and bow sound like. https://youtu.be/cGnZHIY_hoQ?si=J1GMF4Yg2h4dQ6-A

Source: Wife is an “early musician” albeit not a string player and teaches at a couple of big conservertoires in London. I was a professional bass player (not early music, Jazz and similar) so know about string set up from that. Have lots of early musician friends.

[1] Unlike old wind instruments (recorders etc) where the players’ breath causes the instrument to degrade so they literally become unplayable over time. That is why even though we have renaissance recorders for example, they are in museums and modern reproductions made by copying their measurements etc play better than the originals. That’s not true of old string instruments. There are 16th century string instruments out there being played all the time.

[2] That’s not as radical as it sounds. The soundpost plays a crucial role in the sound production of the instrument as it transmits the resonance of the strings into the body of the instrument but it’s basically just a piece of dowling rod. The nut and bridge would conventionally be replaced whenever you put a new fingerboard on, which happens a lot as you wear them out.

Stradivarius instruments deserve being put on a pedestal for historical reasons. Stradivari basically defined the sound of the modern violin, using flatter arching and f holes with smaller hole areas than the Amatis, which resulted in a significantly more powerful instrument that was better suited to playing in a concert hall (vs. the chamber music of earlier times). Stradivarius violins are also noted for their extremely fine craftsmanship and attention to detail. The majority of modern violins are still modeled after Stradivarius examples (with a probably smaller number modeled after del Gesu instruments and some other makers). Most top soloists play on (heavily modified) Strads, and so it seems pretty clear that, at the very least, Strads are not holding any soloists back - and that is not the case for Amati instruments, for example, which despite being coveted for their age and history just don't have the same power and sound projection as Strads.

But, as other comments have said, there have been at this point a good slew of blind tests, and Strads are hardly ever recognized better than chance when compared to modern instruments, even when played by experts and judged by experts. People have been studying and modeling after Strads for so long it would be pretty shocking if we couldn't make instruments that sounded as good. In my mind that doesn't make Strads any less valuable - an original Picasso is still valued so highly because it was created by the master that invented Cubism, but that doesn't mean that a modern painter couldn't create a Cubist painting that was "just as good", objectively.

I'm a semi-professional violinist who got to borrow a Strad for a couple months and whose long-term teacher has the lifetime loan of a del Gesu (and has had access to a Strad but prefers the del Gesu!)

I don't have Studies to back this up, but anecdotally:

* Playing fine violins takes a lot of practice with the specific instrument to begin to unlock its potential. I was scratching the surface after a couple months; people with longer-term loans say it takes years.

* Strads in particular are surprisingly hard to make sound good at first. I'd say there was a good two weeks where I sounded better on my $2500 Chinese-made violin than I did on the multi-million dollar Strad. (del Gesus sound great out of the box. This is widely agreed upon but I don't know why it is)

* In terms of pure craftsmanship there are many contemporary makers who are working as well as Strad and del Gesu, and I don't place much stock in them having access to uniquely good wood or magic varnish or anything like that.

* However, for poorly-understood reasons the act of playing a violin "opens up" the sound and also gives you access to more and more tone colors. A 300-year-old violin that's been played a lot will therefore have a much bigger tonal palette than a contemporary violin, even if any individual tone color isn't strictly better than the tone of a contemporary violin.

* The corollary is that in the year 2300 I believe top-end contemporary instruments will be as good as Strads are now.

* If you just thought "what if we simulate the vibrations of playing on new instruments to expedite their aging", you're not the first! Some luthiers hook new instruments up to a specialized amplifier and effectively play music through the violin for a couple weeks before selling it. A lot of people claim this helps a lot, but I don't have first-hand experience of it.

I think modern day instruments are competitive and only getting better (I bought a modern cello by an excellent maker and couldn't be happier).

One large difference today is instrument makers are starting to share their techniques with each other, whereas Stradivarius took that information to the grave.

With Strad you're getting a high end instrument but also paying through the nose for rarity and legend.

A bit of engineering and a lot of myth and degradation due to time.

The engineering seems to be a combination of genuine construction advances and the usage of wood that was abnormally dense due to having been grown during a big drought.

This, of course, contributed to the "myths" around the Strads with the varnishes, techniques, etc. supposedly being "The Thing(tm)" that made Strads so much better.

Finally, wood degrades with time--period. It doesn't matter how much you try to preserve it, it's just fact. The current Strads are either "Ship of Theseus" type violins, or they are heavily degraded.

At this point, modern luthiers create better instruments than even a Strad in its prime. They have access to better woods, better glues and finishes, better tools and training, better analyzers and better players than anyone in the time of Stradivarius.

When played as close to double blind as is possible, the data comes back with modern players preferring modern violins made by modern luthiers over the old Strads.

Only a handful of controlled tests have been conducted and listeners failed to identify or prefer the Strads. None of the experiments were very big so there might be a perceptible difference that can be detected with more statistical power. Blinding the eyes and noses of top level musicians might bias the results.

It is very difficult to obtain access to the instruments. The general sentiment from musicians and collectors seems to be that they don't want a bunch of scientists to come into their world and tell them that what they are or are not hearing or they just don't understand why controlled tests are required.

Doubt it. But I could believe it would be a Roland 808.