Okay I'm back in CA now. We had an amazing time, stayed in Venice, Milan, and Como. We did a LOT in 2 weeks, and ate tons of gelato.
We saw a lot more Amati and Stradivarius instruments than we thought we would in Cremona because some guy with a big collection had loaned it to the museum for a limited time. We even saw an Antonio Stradivari guitar (one of two left in the world, I believe). So that was pretty awesome. They had a huge collection of his luthiery tools and shaping forms, even diagrams that he drew for constructing the instruments. I bought a book about the "Cremonese" violin building method that explains the whole process in great detail, almost like a text book manual for the luthiery school there. It is very old-school, no power tools are involved at all. The finishing section is pretty interesting.
But anyways, I am severely jet-lagged, but I'll start drawing up some ideas as soon as I can. Get back to you tomorrow or tonight!