Slightly detuned strings produce a richer, slower-decaying sound while large detuning sounds bad

Evidence

Appropriate tuning of multiple strings is a few cents apart, and this results in a richer sound, which decays more slowly than exactly in-tune strings would. If the strings are out of tune by around 12 cents or more, then the result is the “pub piano” sound. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1103

Categorization

• CANDY: The ‘pub piano’ effect from slightly-out-of-tune strings is a fun, immediately-graspable tidbit.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader study of acoustics, specifically beating phenomena from Section 2.2 referenced here.