“VOICING” is highly skilled work and it is carried out after tuning, not the other way round.

We should think of voicing as the even control of the dynamic range of the piano tone. Piano tuners or technicians can sometimes be quite secretive about this work and it has been known that they will only work at this if left alone. It takes major concentration!

The condition of the hammer heads will mostly determine how successful the voicing might be, if your technician says it is not possible to voice the piano they will have good reason to offer that advice. If the hammer heads need reshaping before further voicing can take place don’t expect this to happen in a hurry. Reshaping hammers is time consuming and together with fitting of hammers to strings afterwards to ensure even distribution of the pressure of the hammer against the string is very skilled work requiring good experience.

The technician will have various tools to their armoury with this ranging from glass paper sticks, needles, little bits of chalk and sometimes a special liquid.

Before agreeing to or requesting voicing or hammer reshaping make sure the technician/tuner is happy about the work involved and has enough time to carry out the work properly.