> However, automation generally results in higher quality items with fewer defects. So, hand crafted is more likely a selling point without any actual benefit for the product.

Ummm.... no.

Every piece of wood is different. CNC gets you a "violin shaped object", not a violin. It is the plate tuning and set-up that finalizes the instrument, not the mold shape that you start with.

There are decent factory fiddles, but they tend to be heavy in the wood and dull sounding. A nice workshop instrument is much more of a joy to play.

("bench built" == master luthier, "workshop" == one of the aprentices got his fiddle approved by the master, "factory fiddle" == mostly automated, "VSO" == violin shaped object)

There are a lot of good luthiers working today. My daughter has now (and her previous fiddle was) a Ming Zhang Zhou workshop instrument. Very nice, under $3k budget. Huge difference between that and a CNC special.

Don't get me started on bows.... once I was waiting for an adjustment to my instrument, and was just going through the bow showroom trying stuff. I picked up one that amazed me! I felt like it played itself! Made the instrument come alive with power! I glanced at the price tag and realized I had gotten into the $5K and up drawer by accident....

A friend actually worked on mass producing for a musical instrument, they included feedback loops to verify the note was correct by playing them. You can do similar things with wood, it just costs more and wood shaped is good enough for the price point.

However, I am saying workshop with apprentices is mass production because they involve standardized products and a two or more step assembly line. Otherwise the Aprentice would be working without supervision or quality inspection.

While you can automate the bulk production of instruments, you cannot make anything truly great. A core principal of making a violin is graduation of the plates with utmost care and consideration of the woods being used. For example: If I take 10year old sub 5k ft altitude american spruce and 100yr old +5k Alpine spruce and have a machine carve them out I will get dramatically different tonal results. And that's before I change all of it by varnishing. Automation may be good for sheer volume, but in this case it will never be good for uniform "higher quality".