Greetings, I have a dingbat of a customer with a Steinway upright from the teens who claims to be a 'wizard of interpretation' and to play the 'tone' of the piano, 'unlike most professionals'. She hasn't tuned her piano in 12 years and the action was so frozen and out of regulation that it was impossible. Did the usual, file the hammers, adjust let off and blow, protek the action, teflon the butt leathers, voila, plays great. Unfortuneatley, it's no longer the piano she loved. It seems it has lost it's unique voice that she preferred over any other piano she has heard, the best included. She mentioned today that Liszt 'preferred' his pianos out of tune - found them more inspiring - and it brought to mind a story I heard 30 years ago about an itinerant 'toner' that followed along behind the itinerant tuner. She - that's how the story goes - would slightly detune 1 string of a unison, restoring the charm and strength of voice of the instrument that somehow was lost in the tuning! Has anyone EVER heard of this??? I'm actually thinking of trying it on her; she's crazy enough to love it!!! Christopher Ris PS About 6 months ago I heard a snippet of a piano piece that was prepared like this, but out of tune enough the have that 'honky tonk' sound. I'm
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