So I read this article from The Economist 9/22/12:

MELODIOUS SOUND FROM FUNGUS? The sound of a Stradivarius violin is the time-tested standard of excellence. The warm, mellow tones of the violins made during the late 17th and early 18th centuries by Antonio Stradivari were a combination of extraordinary craftsmanship and created in his workshop in Cremona from different types of wood and, possibly, different chemical treatments. Today, Dr. Francis Schwarze of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology is seeking to equal the sound of the Stradivarius by using a fungal treatment in order to make what he calls “mycowood.” Knowing that sound travels faster through healthy wood, which is stiff and dense, than it does through soft wood that results from a fungal attack, Dr. Schwarze began applying two types of fungus to Norway spruce, used for the instrument’s body, and to sycamore, for the back, ribs and neck, to make his violins. The unusual thing about the fungi that Dr. Schwarze used is they thin the cell walls of wood without destroying them. After the fungi has done their job, he treats the planks with a gas that kills the infection. The result is a mycowood instrument that a panel of experts thought was a Stradivarius.

Does that mean if I take my old fiddle and give it a fungal treatment, will it sound like a Strad? Somehow I doubt it. Besides, its a FIDDLE!