Originally Posted by
muscat
Why on earth do cellist and double bass players take instruments with them? Pianists seem to manage OK with whatever the concert hall provides them.
String instruments are definitely considered to be amongst the most sensitive and personalised - with players having preference over things like the resin used, the type of bow-hair, the brand of strings, how long they need to be played in before they are ready for a concert etc.
Pianos are relatively robust and highly engineered to mechanical perfection - much more standardised at the top end.
String players are very, very protective of their instruments - she must have been horrified. I'm an orchestral conductor and during my last performance at a large music festival in the UK, there was a dedicated storage container and security man for the string orchestra to store their instruments. They were still nervous when out and about between performances!