Best Piano Tuning Kit for a Beginner: Review 2025
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 piano tuning tool kit is quite popular among piano tuners who are new to the craft of piano tuning and piano maintenance. Concha Cielo offers a good option for mass distribution in a compact size. It's among the best piano tuning kits available on Amazon for anyone starting out.
The quality of the tuning lever itself is sub-par in the eyes of any skilled tuner (which really shouldn't stop a beginner from buying the kit). There are lots of little tools in this nifty kit to help you get started. Some of these tools, however, could be useful to replenish some supplies for a seasoned tech.
Even after 10 years of working as a professional piano tuner, I've added a few of the mutes from this piano tuner kit to my personal tool bags. It's always great to have a new rubber mute!
Piano Tuning Equipment / Piano Tuning Tools
The kit comes neatly packaged with almost 30 of the right tools for a piano tuning kit. ConchaCielo is constantly updating the mix of tools provided, so if you get the kit, there may be a few surprises!
Basic tools:
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
Professional piano technicians agree that this piano tuning tool for acoustic piano is an excellent choice for those who'd like to become professional technicians. In fact, I don't think there's ever been a better tuning kit available on Amazon thus far!
Scroll down to see photos of all the tools/goodies that you can have all to yourself!
Read: The Best Professional Piano Tuning Kit Tools for a New Tuner
Read: Piano Tuning Hammer Review - Xuyiyue vs. Concha Cielo
It's exciting for any beginner piano tuner to open this kit and dream of how much better they could make the pianos around them. Having a kit like this opens a whole new door of possibilities!
Piano Tuning Lever
This stainless steel piano tuning lever and wood handle is just what you need to get started! The basic lever, mutes, and tools provide a small foundation for piano tech enthusiasts!
Keep in mind, after having worked with a lever like this, I would never seriously consider tuning with this lever as a professional tuner. Though, the kit offers good value for a beginner if you don't have any tuning tools yet to get you started.
In a perfect world, this kit would come with this carbon fiber tuning lever available on Amazon, which doesn't cost more than $100. It's better because it's rigid, ergonomic, has adjustable length, and has a better overall design.
Instead, the Concha Cielo piano tuning kit comes with this tuning hammer below...
:-(
It'll do the job, but at some point it would be appropriate to upgrade. The rudimentary design is better for doing workshop tunings or tuning work that requires less precision.
I talk about comparing these levers side by side in my blog post below. If you have any thoughts, let me know and reach out to me on my contact form!
Piano Tuning Hammer Review: Xuyiyue vs. Concha Cielo
Tools for Tuning A Piano
This Piano Tuning kit comes with 2 "Papps Mutes," which are useful when muting difficult areas. They're especially helpful near the break of each register (where muting with rubber mutes presents a challenge)
When I first used this mute style, I didn't like it because it either didn't mute perfectly or required too much finagling. That's why I don't actually carry this tool in my kit.
Since I have now purchased the Concha Cielo Piano Tuning Kit Pro, I've added a few Papps Mutes to my kit (however, I still don't use them, lol).
Papps Mute
This is the first blue "Papps Mute" I've ever seen. There's nothing extra special about it, only a different color. The color adds a bit more fun!
Tweezers
Tweezers are always handy for a variety of different repairs. This tool can also help out in tricky regulation situations or when things go wrong.
Before owning this kit, I've only had 1 set of tweezers in my tool kit. Adding these two tweezers to my kit helped provide more redundancy to the tools that I carry.
I'll admit, these tweezers are low quality, it's best to eventually upgrade to a pair of high quality tweezers. Up until then, it will give any new tech some lead-time before investing in a better pair of tweezers.
Again, while these tweezers look like they may be useful, it's best to invest in higher quality tweezers, which I'm sure wouldn't cost very much more anyways.
Felt Mutes
Surprisingly, I hadn't owned individual felt mutes until I purchased this kit! I like the idea of having felt mutes to help with my tunings, though I find that they get dirty in my tool kits.
Felt mutes possess a professional appearance to them, which will add to your credibility as a beginner tech. Funny enough, I work with rubber mutes, perhaps it's time to change that!
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.
As a bonus tip, give a felt mute to your piano tuning mentor (if you have one), I'm sure they'll appreciate it! It's sorta like getting a holiday present if you've been working on pianos for many years!
These felt mutes look nice, are brand-new, and will be a perfect addition to the mutes I carry on-hand.
These mutes are the only high-quality item provided in this tuning kit. Everything else is good enough to get you started, which is okay too!
Screwdriver
These screwdrivers are as basic as basic gets in comparison to the proper array of screwdrivers that a piano technician should carry.
Kev's recommendation: The Best Roll-Up Screwdriver Set by PB Swiss Tools
Though, these two screwdrivers alone 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 have a far more compact and advanced screwdriver set that helps me in a variety of different piano problems.
Kev's recommendation: The Best Roll-Up Screwdriver Set by PB Swiss Tools
Piano Mutes (Rubber)
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 rubber mutes are inexpensive so I order a bunch at a time if I need extras. I'll say that there's nothing like new rubber wedge 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 gets in the way.
I also trim/cut the metal handles to the length I prefer, this way it's easier to move the mutes around the piano.
Breaking in the rubber mutes will happen after a few tunings. Essentially, the smooth rubber surface will wear down so that the mute can slide between the strings better.
Awl
The kit comes with an "Awl." Normally, awls aren't very useful in piano work, so I don't generally carry one with me.
However, they can be useful for marking exactly where you'd like to drill, should you need to drill into the piano.
It's worth considering whether this tool may be useful for you. I've found that I don't use an awl very much, so I never carry this tool around with me.
This tool also seems a little dangerous, but I've never had a problem handling them. So just be careful!
Tuning tip wrench
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 2 star tip with the tool below and you can see how the tuning tip wrench gave-way and couldn't provide enough torque.
Before:
The tuning tip wrench looks promising, but it turns out that it can't handle a lot of torque.
After:
See how quickly this tool became useless after the first try of removing the tuning lever tip.
Oof!
Not good!
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!
Better/high-quality wrenches for tuning tips can be found at piano supply companies. Better tuning tips provide a superior fit onto the tuning pin.
...Oh well, onto the next few tools!
Strip Mute
It's always nice to get brand new strip mutes. Professional Piano Supply companies offer strip mutes of varying widths (thin, standard, and thick). The ConchaCielo kit offers the Standard size only.
Typically, the red continuous mute felt wears down over-time, gets dirty, or loses its 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.
Each one of these felt strips is called a temperament strip.
Just looking at them makes me want to tune a piano!!
ConchaCielo Piano Tuning Kit
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 a few items. I approve of its selection to get started, although, constantly improving your tools should be a high priority.
This piano tuning wrench 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!
Good luck!
Piano Tuning Hammer Reviews/Articles
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The Worst Piano Tuning Hammer Kit on the Internet
Piano Tuning Hammer Review: Xuyiyue vs. Concha Cielo
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.