Best Piano Tuning Kit for a Beginner: Review 2024
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links, which can provide compensation to me at no cost to you if you decide to purchase.
Concha Cielo Piano Tuning Kit Pro Review
This universal piano tuning tools kit set is quite popular among piano tuners who are new to the craft of piano tuning. Concha Cielo has done a good job at offering a basic kit for mass distribution.
The quality of the tuning lever itself is sub-par for any professional tuner (which really shouldn't stop a tuning beginner from buying the kit), though, there are lots of useful little tools to help you get started in addition to items that seasoned tuners would find supplementary.
Surprisingly, after over 10 years of working in the piano industry, I'll certainly be adding a few of these tools from the piano tuner kit to my personal tool bags (and/or re-supply).
Piano Tuning Equipment / Piano Tuning Tools
The kit comes neatly packaged with almost 30 Tools for Tuning a Piano.
Temperament strips
Tuning lever/tuning hammer (star-shaped head)
Papps mutes
Felt mutes
8 pcs rubber mute set
Philips head
Flat head
Tuning tip wrench fastener
Tweezers
1 Awl (Metal pokey tool w/ handle)
Portable case
Read: Piano Tuning Hammer Review - Xuyiyue vs. Concha Cielo
Read: The Best Professional Piano Tuning Kit Tools for a New Tuner
Piano Tuning Lever
The Piano tuning lever is just what you need to get started.
Though, after having worked with a lever like this, I would never seriously consider tuning with one of these at a professional tuning appointment. Though, it's perfect for beginners if you don't have any tuning tools!
In a perfect world, this kit would come with at least a carbon fiber tuning lever, which doesn't cost more than $100.
In case you're wondering which lever I'm referring to, I will do a review shortly of an inexpensive carbon fiber lever that is much better product quality than the lever included in the Concha Cielo kit.
I'll also upload a comparison article between the Concha Cielo tuning lever and the carbon fiber mentioned above.
Piano Tuning Hammer Review: Xuyiyue vs. Concha Cielo
Tools for Tuning A Piano
This Piano Tuning kit comes with 2 "Papps Mutes," which are most useful for technicians when it comes to muting areas that can be extra tricky to mute.
When I first used this mute style, I didn't like it. That's why I don't actually carry this tool in my kit.
Since I now purchased the Concha Cielo Piano Tuning Kit Pro, I'll add it .
This is the first blue "Papps Mute" I've ever seen. There's nothing extra special about it, only a different color.
Tweezers are always handy in a variety of different repairs.
Come to think of it, I only have 1 set of tweezers in my tool kit...
Having ample tool redundancy is a large contributor to having a successful appointment after only the 1st visit. This is part of the reason why I'll be happy to add these to my kit!
I'm confident that the bend at the end of the tweezers on the right will prove to be useful in a particularly difficult to reach situation.
Surprisingly, I haven't owned individual felt mutes until I purchased this kit.
Felt mutes present a more professional appearance to your tuning practice.
Also, when removing felt mutes, the sensation of removing felt from strings vs. a typical rubber mute has an organic feel to it that can only be fully understood through experience.
The felt mutes certainly look nice, are brand new, and will be a perfect addition to the mutes I carry on-hand.
These mutes are some of the only high quality items that this kit provides.
These screwdrivers are as basic as basic gets in comparison to the proper array of screwdrivers that a piano technician must carry.
I recommend: The Best Roll-Up Screwdriver Set by PB Swiss Tools
Though, these two screwdrivers will get you started when it comes to removing most case parts, mute rails, and basic action tightening.
The screwdrivers are not magnetic, they won't help in all scenarios, and are bulky in comparison to my array of screwdrivers now.
Though they are nice to begin with, I won't be adding these to my tool bags.
I use rubber mutes every day to tune pianos. The drawback here is that they get old and lose their flexibility, ability to stick between the strings, and can wear down at the edges.
The good news is that piano mutes are inexpensive. I'll definitely incorporate these mutes into my tool bag.
There's nothing like new rubber mutes after working with ones that have aged.
I'd also like to point out that these can/should be cut or trimmed off at the tips of the long wedges. This is because I find that there's extra material at the narrow point that isn't useful and mostly gets in the way.
The kit comes with an "Awl." I don't often find a use for this tool, so I generally don't carry one with me.
However, the other day I had a specific use for it, so I may end up adding this to my tool bag as well.
This tool seems a little dangerous, but I've never had a problem handling them. So just be careful!
Alright, here's an example of how buying piano tools from easy sources online is not always a good idea.
I was trying to remove the tuning lever tip with the tool below and you can see how the tuning tip wrench gave way and couldn't provide enough torque.
See how quickly this tool became useless after the first try of removing the tuning lever tip.
Unfortunately, this piece of the tuning tool kit did not hold up.
Though, you can rest assured that the tip attached to the tuning lever is on there tightly!
Oh well! Onto the next few tools.
It's always nice to get brand new strip mutes.
Typically, the red continuous mute felt wears down over-time, get dirty, and lose their muting ability.
Having a few extra strips on hand is useful, though, be aware that strip mutes of various widths can only be ordered through legitimate piano tuning supply warehouses.
Just looking at them makes me want to tune a piano!!
What a wonderful kit to have when you're just starting out.
Usually, collective kits will have many tools that are unnecessary or won't be used often.
I think that most of these tools are actually useful besides 1 or 2 items. I approve of its selection, although I encourage purchasing a better tuning lever.
While the kit looks very nice, I'll take the supplies from here and disperse them as I see fit into my favorite tool bags/backpacks.
Read: The Best SwissGear Work Backpack - Tool Bag Review
There you have it, an overview of what I think about the Concha Cielo Piano Tuning Kit Pro assembly of tools.
Contact me if you have any questions!
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Best Piano Tuning Kit for a Beginner: Review 2024
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links, which can provide compensation to me at no cost to you if you decide to purchase.