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Though I initially fought it, the best woods for the purpose have turned out to be the original ones, of course. I know a lot of makers who use American woods, and I did also for a long time, but I almost exclusively use European wood now, especially the spruce for tops. A common top wood for many American makers is Englemann spruce, for instance. I find the instruments it makes to be relatively plain sounding compared to European spruce. Though many players don't notice the difference, it's definitely there. Other American varieties have turned out even worse for me. I guess it makes perfect sense that in trying to replicate particular old violins, I should be using the same materials that worked well for the original makers. For this reason incidentally, I don't think that modern synthetic materials have much of a future in fine violinmaking, though they might turn out to be utilitarian for cheaper instruments of consistent quality, much as has happened with bows. 
                                                                    
Do you have a particular model that you prefer to use, or do you experiment?
It seems like a waste of time to use anything less than the best models for instruments. My favorite, and the one that has been the most successful for me, is an absolutely typical Stradivari from 1715, The specific violin is the ex-Baron Knoop, a very beautiful instrument with a great reputation. It's nearly identical to a number of fine violins he made in that period, all of which are fabulous instruments. Almost all of the last 70 or so violins have been from this model. Though many players like to think they're "del Gesu players" if they had a chance to play a really fine late del Gesu they probably wouldn't like it, because of the force required. Since I try to make accurate models, by extension I don't think they'd care for my rendition of that model, so that's not what I generally do. The several times I've made accurate del Gesus on request I've had to regraduate them to act more like Strads.
Stradivari instruments are so incredibly sophisticated that doing the same model over and over is really a great pleasure for me. Each time I try to learn more about the details, and work more accurately to the original intention of the instrument, putting myself as much as possible into the aesthetic of 1715. Historically, the best post-Cremonese violins have come from the makers who were best able to subvert their own historical position in favor of making their instruments as someone of the proper period would have done. It's very hard to learn to work with the aesthetic of a period that's not your own, and I'm fascinated by art fakes for this reason. Invariably, fraudulent paintings reveal themselves through being artistically untrue to their supposed period, and there is much more written about this problem in the art world than in the violin world.

The more I've studied and worked to be a violinmaker of 1715 the better my instruments have become. Essentially, the quality of violins dropped precipitously after the deaths of Antonio Stradivari (1737) and Joseph Guarneri del Gesu (1745), and it's has never recovered. I figure that if I could ever merely replicate the work of Stradivari, I'd be the second or third best violinmaker that has ever lived. Any path that diverges from that goal leads in the wrong direction, as far as I'm concerned, so I'm not much into innovation for its own sake, as many makers are.

What influences your choice of varnish?
One thing only: the original varnishes of Cremona. For me there's nothing else. Any path that doesn't lead me in that direction is immediately abandoned. Like many makers, I'm fascinated with varnish, and I have done a lot of experimentation with it. My current varnish is the closest I've come yet (not close enough, of course,) but that doesn't mean that next week I might do even better. 
  
It can be a bit of a battle with violinists, though, because the original varnishes were very tender and fragile, and wore very quickly. Even now, all you have to do is look at them too hard, and they chip right off. As a result, my varnish is also very vulnerable, and I almost always do at least a little bit of antiquing on my violins, so the first scratches are mine rather than the owner's. The very few surviving Cremonese violins with untouched varnish have much more texture than modern violinists are conditioned to find appealing, as a result of the varnish's thinness and the way it hugs the wood.                                                                                                                                      Cont'd