Inharmonic partials make discretized strings sound sour despite adjustable tension

Evidence

The tone produced by a sharp pluck is a little sour and is especially defective at the higher frequencies due to the presence of high modes that are flat compared to their counterparts in an ideal string. The tension can be adjusted to raise or lower the pitch, but the note is still sour. (The fact that there is a definite pitch at all, and exactly what that pitch is, since the time signal is not periodic due to inharmonic partials, is an intriguing and subtle question, to which we will devote chapter 23.) — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 802

Categorization

• XREF: The inharmonicity→sourness mechanism resonates with why real (stiff) piano strings need tuning stretch compensation and why digital samples must correct for timbre drift.
• QUESTION: Why does an inharmonic, non-periodic signal still produce a definite perceived pitch at all? The author flags this for chapter 23 — worth following.