Don't have your piano tuned unless you hear trouble!

I recently saw a post here to the effect, "Be sure to have your piano
tuned".  This has bothered me since I saw it, and I can't rest without
responding.  It's a mistake to have your piano tuned unless you hear
something wrong with it.

Here's what everyone in favor of fixing stuff that's not broken is
overlooking: a piano which has recently been tuned has no more charm
or character than any new piano on a showroom floor.  If that's what
you want, have your piano tuned.  Anyone who has been peeking in here
as long as I have has read stories about someone tuning a piano as a
surprise favor to someone without their knowledge with disastrous
results.

Now, Listen Up!  There is _obviously_ something [nice] about a piano
which is _uniformly slightly out of tune_ that results in a sort of
charm, the likes of which hasn't much been anything anyone can reproduce
deliberately.  It might be worth the trouble of someone with tuning
skills to research the matter to see whether desirable results can be
achieved through skillful mis-tuning.

In any case, I would caution anyone from the notion that routine tuning
necessarily leads to desired results.  Wait until you hear something
you don't like coming out of your piano before having it tuned.

Lee Rothrock