Chris - I had a customer kind of like yours a few years ago. I did a pitch raise and spent a good deal of time getting it to sound good. (I thought!) However, the customer was very disappointed, and he let me know that was not what he expected or wanted . He wanted the piano to sound like those he listened to in the bars in Central City. Well!! I could handle that. And the customer is always right. (He still had the money!) So I went through and destroyed all those nice sounding unisons I had worked so hard to do just right. IT WAS JUST WHAT HE WANTED. dcp@sosinc.net Don Price 816 Vickie Ft. Morgan CO 80701 -----Original Message----- From: ChrisRis@AOL.COM <ChrisRis@AOL.COM> To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org> Date: Tuesday, July 06, 1999 1:33 AM Subject: Piano 'detuning' >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
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC