Piano 'detuning'

[Paul S. Larudee]

ChrisRis@AOL.COM wrote:
> 
> 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

Chris,

As you say, it's been done for "honky tonk,"  but I've occasionally been
advised to induce a slight roll to improve pathological unison tone that
won't respond to normal voicing or other techniques.  Larry Riley or
Sheldon Smith can tell you more about that if you and they are at
tonight's meeting.

If your customer went for 12 years without tuning, however, I suspect
we're talking honky tonk, not subtle rolls.  She got used to the sound,
which came to set the standard for her.  I've run into that before, but
I tell them to be patient and give themselves time to get used to a
piano that's in tune, and to call me after a couple of months if they
still don't like it.  Never had a problem.

Well...one rather bizarre case, still unsolved.  A very discerning
customer with a Boesendorfer grand.  Restrung it three years ago. 
Largely rebuilt the action a little over a year ago, Abel hammers.  Tone
was close enough that I didn't touch a needle or anything else to the
hammers until the customer had a chance to try it out.

She was ecstatic!  She said the piano, which had been in a plumbing
accident prior to be moved to this part of the country, had regained the
sound that it had lost.  She opened a bottle of champagne.  Six months
later I come back to tune, found it hardly out at all but gave it one of
my best concert tunings anyway.

She was horrified!  Called me back to say that the beautiful sound was
gone.  I thought it needed some voicing, since I hadn't done any after
rebuilding the action.  It helped, but she still didn't think it had the
same sound.  I'm thinking of the Smith/Riley slight detuning solution. 
I'm also going to give her a historical temperament, since she doesn't
play 19th or 20th c. music, although I'm not sure that would make a
difference.

Hey List!  Any ideas?

Paul S. Larudee, RPT
Richmond, CA