Thanks Everyone!
well the answer to my question Mill or Router has been resolved. the answer is: Laser!

i have ordered an Epilog "Zing 24". it can cut abalone like butter, gives me a sharp corner with only a .004" radius, will rip thru the thin woods i use when building a stringed musical instrument and has a bunch of other applications like carving or engraving. A few people in my industry are using them with really nice results. One example can be seen here:
http://www.rgmusic.com/gallery.html . it opens up a lot of possibilities for additional aesthetic techniques not normally applied to luthery.
I want to thank everyone who put in their two cents regarding this post. You all made me think about my decision process, regarding what direction to take regarding my next machine purchase and to take a look outside of the box. for this i am grateful.
If any of you are interested you can check out the laser i picked at:
http://www.epiloglaser.com/zing_24.htm . The only regret i have is the name of the machine "Zing" sounds pretty tacky. This model can be had for around 10-14k, depending on options, their smaller "starter" model in the 7k range. really not much more than low end industrial router.
some of my decision factors were: table size an nice 16x24 inches, cutting speed measured in dozens of inches per minute as opposed to single digit feeds, accuracy close to a low end milling machine, no tools to break, few wear parts, quiet operation, spot size of .005" and ease of use.
These things just use a modified windows print driver you can "print" any common graphics file, like corell draw, dxf etc..., to this driver and it will interpret fine lines as a cut and thick lines or gray scale as a carve. Gee i should sell these things, i'll get off my soapbox.
i guess you can see i am enthused, we shall see what the reality of this thing is like in a few weeks when i take delivery.
Again, thank you all,
Jen