Its a misnomer that guitars dont need playing in. Well guitars dont. But the strings do.

When you fit guitar strings (in fact any fretted instrument) you need to 'stretch' the strings and for a good while they will be pitch unstable. This is with steel strings!!!

I also play violin - and although the synthetic core strings are better than gut core the same applies - they dont get 'stretched' in per se - but do require playing in. For a new gut-core top of the range pirastro oliv string playing at say 1hr-2hrs a day you can expect the string to take about 1-2 weeks to settle properly.

I cant see how a skin can require anything less - its going to change when you start hitting it...