As I continue to contemplate trying to turn my old Burton into a rental, I
am struck by the difference in outlook required regarding reliability.  If
something breaks on an instrument as I noodle on it in the living room, I
can go to bed and fix it tomorrow.  If something breaks at a rehearsal or a
perfomance, that is a whole different scenario.  So how do you pros out
there deal with this?  I assume that one part of it would be to play the
H... out of the instrument before sending it out, but as is the case for
other machines, this approach can also push the instrument up the "wear out"
curve and actually increase the probability of failure if taken to extremes.

And when you rent an instrument out, do you normally hang about during the
rehearsals and the performance, anticipating the necessity for quick
repairs?  And how do the people who rent the instruments from you feel about
all this.  Nervous?

The odd thing is,  I have played viola and violin in lots of performances,
and so far (touch wood) never had a string break in public, and I have not
witnessed but a few break for other people.  In retrospect, this seems
pretty amazing.

Just curious.

jbunch