Some instruments are crafted for playing. Others? They’re destined for museums, billionaires’ vaults, or the hands of legends. From centuries-old violins to guitars once strummed by rock gods, the ...

If you have a trained ear-or just a strong sense of music and tone-it's easy to hear the difference between a cheap instrument and a well-made model built to resonate across the world's greatest ...

At the Library of Congress last month, Roberto Díaz was playing on an exceedingly rare viola. What didn’t cross his mind, he says, is just how much the hunk of maple and spruce clutched beneath his ...