Chonchacielo VS. YZN Life Professional Piano Tuning Hammer

Kevin Busse Sep 13, 2024
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Conchacielo Vs. YZN Life Piano Tuning Hammers

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. 

These Piano Tuning Kits are some of the most popular on Amazon for beginner piano tuners.

I have a clear preference that the "YZN Life" tuning hammer is the better choice than the "Concha Cielo Tuning Levers" when deciding between piano tuning hammers.

On the other hand, the "Conchacielo" kit offers a wider variety of accessories for the beginner piano tuner.

You'll see why I prefer each kit and you'll see why I prefer one over the other.

YZN Life Piano Tuning Hammer and Tool Kit

YZN Life Piano Tuning Kit

This kit includes:

  • 1 higher quality piano tuning hammer

  • 1 Flat head and Philips head screwdriver

  • 1 Wooden Pin polisher

  • 1 Tiny hammer/mallet

  • 1 Temperament Strip

  • 1 Felt Mute

  • 1 Papps Mute

  • 1 Tuning Fork

  • 1 Tweezers

  • 1 Awl

  • 2 Small rubber mutes with handle

  • 2 extra long rubber mutes

This kit has a better tuning hammer for the piano technician but lacks in accessories comparatively.

The YZN Life Piano Tuning Hammer

This piano tuning hammer is much better than the Conchacielo piano tuning lever mostly because it is more rigid, and therefore takes less energy to tune a full piano.

One of the most important attributes to a good piano tuning lever is that it is rigid, not "flexible." The more flexible a tuning lever is, the more energy is wasted working on getting the tuning pin in the correct position.

Another valuable attribute piano levers should from the perspective of a piano tuner is that it's lightweight. Neither of these levers are particularly lightweight, so I would pick the YZN Life Piano Tuning Lever due to its rigidity.

The YZN Life Piano Tuning Kit Accessories

The accessories in this kit are a weak point for this product.

Cleverly, there's only about 1 of each of the tools provided in this kit, that conveniently competes with the Conchacielo kit. However, it does not go above and beyond to provide extra supplementary tools for the early piano tuner.

Oddly, the piano tuning fork is not correctly calibrated to A440. This means that the tuning fork would actually make the piano tuner tune the piano sharp if he/she were to use the pitch from the fork to tune the piano. The tuning fork emits a pitch between A442 and A444, depending on the temperature of the metal.

This kit does carry a Pin Polisher that the Conchacielo kit does not have. Though, this tool doesn't provide much added value in my opinion in my many years of experience as a professional piano tuner.

YZN Life Piano Tuning Kit Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Rigid Tuning Lever

  • Includes 1 of each of the tools provided in the Conchacielo Kit

  • Tuning hammer is the same weight as the Conchacielo tuning hammer

Cons:

  • No redundancy in extra piano tools

  • Bare minimum accessories

  • Weak branding

  • The tuning fork is not accurate (wrongly claims to be calibrated at A440)

The bottom line is that the piano tuning lever is better, though the accessories suffer.

Conchacielo Piano Tuning Hammer and Tool Kit

Conchacielo Piano Tuning Kit

The kit comes neatly packaged with almost 30 individual piano tools:

  • 1 Tuning lever/tuning hammer

  • 3 Temperament strips

  • 2 Papps mutes

  • 4 Felt mutes

  • 4 small rubber mutes

  • 4 extra long rubber mutes

  • 1 Philips head and 

    Flat head screwdriver

  • 1 Tuning tip wrench fastener

  • 2 Tweezers

  • 1 Awl (Metal pokey tool w/ handle)

  • Portable tool bag

The Conchacielo Piano Tuning Lever

This piano tuning lever is more flexible, which requires more effort by the piano technician to position the tuning pins correctly.

This means that the piano tuning will take extra time and the piano tuner will feel more worn out after the piano has been tuned.

This tuning hammer is one of the most "bare bones" piano tuning lever available for purchase on the internet, which will be noticed by the piano tuner when tuning the piano.

The Conchacielo Piano Tuning Kit Accessories

The accessories that come with this kit are quite supplementary.

There are plenty of redundant tools provided which can be very helpful to the beginner piano tuner or hobbyist alike.

Instead of including only 1 of each accessory (like the YZN kit), this kit includes anywhere from 2-4 of each supplementary item it provides in the kit.

Conchacielo Piano Tuning Kit Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Good array of accessories

  • plenty of redundancy of tools for the early piano tuner

  • Strong branding

Cons:

  • Tuning hammer is inferior/too flexible

  • Tuning hammer requires more energy and takes additional time to tune the piano

The bottom line is that this piano tuning kit suffers due to the actual tuning hammer that is provided in the kit.

However, the extra accessories will be very useful for the beginner piano tuner who may not have any tools to begin with.

Related:

Piano Tuning Hammer Reviews/Articles

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.