Piano Tuning Kit - Professional Piano Tuning Hammer Lever + Mute Kit

It was a great kit for tuning your own piano. I have to say having a longer tuning wrench would be easier, but this really did work well. Though just because the tools work well does not mean a perfectly well tuned piano. It is harder to complete then I first expected, and I have a few notes that are hard to get perfect. But if your up for the task, this is a great tool to tackle it with.

This product works for an old piano I got for free. I was able to get it to sound much better, but there is a reason why people will pay $300+ for an extremely stiff carbon fiber tuning hammer. While I was able to get the strings in a key pretty close to the same, I could still detect a beat frequency and found it nearly impossible to get rid of, because there is just enough flex in this steel hammer to make the process too random. I spent 1/2 hour on a singe note trying to get all three strings exactly the same. I got two of them, but after 1/2 hour, I gave up on the third. I think I got the second string to agree by random accident, and could never repeat that accident. Overall, the piano now sounds much much better, and it is just fine for plonking out New Orleans blues or jazz stride. In fact, it can be used for any music and it sounds OK, but if you have an indoor grand piano like a Steinway, or even a nice old Baldwin tall upright, and you play a lot, you will never be satisfied with the tuning you would do with this hammer. Also, I broke one string using this hammer, and I do think the hammer may have contributed, in that I was not sure of the direction to turn the peg (This was my first time tuning a piano), and tightened it when I should have loosened it. I think it was an original 1889 string and because of the unpredictable movement of the hammer, it overtightened and popped the string. Replacing a string is about $350, and cannot be done by an amateur like me, so I will live with that note with only two strings. But if I had my nice Kawai Studio Upright and was tuning it and this happened, well, I would be kicking myself for not getting a better hammer. Take that into account. I really want to try a better tuning hammer, but this piano is my last piano, and my new harpsichord will not require a hardcore hammer to tune because the string tension is much lower. If you are going to tune an expensive piano, and expect to get the full promise of the instrument, get yourself a carbon fiber or aluminum tuning hammer that has extremely low flex. The whole process will go much faster, and your results will be a perfect tuning. Two professional tunings will pay for the hammer. That's what I would have done if I weren't tuning a piano that was given to me.

I am NOT a professional piano tuner. I am just a pianist who finds playing more enjoyable when the instrument are in tune. I purchased this tuning kit primarily to do touch-ups on tunings that go off because of changes in temperature/humidity in the house. This tuning kit has all the tools I need for touch-up tunings I do myself between the professional tuning sessions. There are enough rubber mutes and temperament strip; the tuning hammer feels solid and balanced.

Well this investment has certainly paid off. Took me over 4 hours for my first tuning ever. The unisons are very hard to get right. Often overshooting or undershooting. As a pianist, I'm very sensitive to out of tune unisons. Annoys the heck out of me. But I must say it was somewhat satisfactory the first time, then on the next day, detected a couple more out of tune unisons. This took about half an hour to fix. Now it sounds very satisfactory. The best part is that you don't have to call the tuner to come back when you realize he missed a unison or two. Or live with bad unisons for 6 months or till the next tuning. Just do it yourself whenever ! Not only that, you will learn to listen to a single note, with an intensity and focus you didn't realize you needed. You will need to learn to detect beats that are generated when two slightly differing frequencies are combined. I wish I had picked this up a lot sooner. Would have saved quite a bit with the tuning fees. A must have for every fastidious pianist. Included instructions are basic but adequate (no mention of beats through)

Instructions that can with the tools were poorly printed. Looked like the printer cartridge they used was dry. I wrote a complaint about it but one replied.

The tuning hammer is okay, but I would suggest you check around, I found the same or similar for much less $39.95 after I bought this one and used it for a while so I didn't return it, however I feel stupid for not simply doing a web search for tuning hammer. The temperament strip I received is 3/16th inch thick, I can't use it on my Kawai, so I bought 1/8" strips elsewhere again, I'm new to piano tuning so was ignorant, but now I know the 3/16 is just to thick when it's folded you have to really bend the strings to shove this felt in and that puts way to much pressure on the dampers, and it's probably bad for the strings too. Overall I'm convinced I paid way to much for this set, and if I was was buying a kit now that I have some experience I would buy elsewhere.

These are the same tools I see professionals use in tuning pianos. Looking forward to seeing how much better I can make our (very out of tune) piano sound.

Not much to say... it's a piano tuning lever. Works as expected. It is not the top of the line, but it does the job. Decent quality for the price.