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Few weeks back, I had a piano tuning and paid the tuner slightly above 300$ for his trouble, but I also requested a voicing to which he told me that we will do it after few weeks.

This week, he’s supposed to come and voice my piano but I have no idea how much to pay him. And here’s the trick, he wouldn’t tell me how much to pay him, in fact, I’m pretty sure if I asked he wouldn’t charge anything for it.

This happened in my first tuning in which he did not charge me anything, he’s a retired tuner and doesn’t really tune for people anymore but he does my piano since he’s friends of my friend. He only accepted the last payment when I insisted.

So can someone help me out and tell me how much should I pay him? He’s easily the best tuner in my location which is why I want him specifically to voice my piano.

It really depends. Sometimes I do some voicing for free, if I have time after a tuning, but unless I have regulated and voiced the piano completely before, it will only be rough, to take out the edge of the tone, and to show what can be done. Other times it can take hours to regulate the action, shape the hammers, and do fine voicing. Also, my financial situation is not like most other technicians, so what works for me may not work for others.

Would it be unreasonable to pay the local tech hourly rate x the number of hours?

$300 is a lot for a tuning but since you volunteered the amount it's up to you. Plus he had already done one tuning for free. As others have hinted, voicing can take a variable amount of time depending on what's done. I think a rough estimate could be anything from one to eight hours. So if you're looking for a ballpark figure dogperson's suggestion makes the most sense to me as long as you can afford it if he spends many hours on the piano. You could ask him ahead of time about how many hours it will take and then decide if you can afford the typical hourly rate x the number of hours. If it's too much, then ask him for suggestions about what can be accomplished in a shorter time period.

A little over $300 for a tuning? Yikes. Where are you located?
I’ve heard of tunings costing $200 in some high-cost locations in the US (like Washington, D.C. metro). Where are you located? Was that all which was done?

If it’s something that’s going to take 5 minutes after finishing up a tuning, then I don’t charge anything. If it’s going to take a half hour or more, it gets added to the bill at an hourly rate. Voicing can entail small-scale or large-scale amounts of effort.

You like him because he's clearly the best around in your area. He clearly has talent and skill others do not. You clearly appreciate these things about him. Assuming that the voicing appointment fully satisfies your ears and playing, it is appropriate to compensate him similarly to the tuning appointment AT LEAST. If it does not come out as expected that's another story, but if it does, he should be rewarded commensurately. Let your generosity speak. That shows appreciation for high quality work. Few people today think this way.

Peter Grey Piano Doctor

You have received fine advice here. I'd say if by voicing you mean the light smoothing out hammer work done after a tuning, your $300 should already have covered it, since this would only take an additional 15-30 minutes. Arguably he should have done this when he was there for the last tuning, though maybe he didn't have the mental energy left after delivering a fine tuning.

In this case, you might just give him an extra $75 or $100 for making a second trip to your home for a quick voicing visit. He might decline this money, but give it to him anyway.

OTH, if by voicing you mean several hours of reshaping the hammers - the sort of work often done in shop, not in the home - then absolutely pay him by the hour and handsomely.

IOW, it really depends on the state of your hammers, and your personal voicing preferences: i.e., if other tuner-technicians had been voicing your hammers all along, and voicing is now just a touch-up, or conversely if you are looking at a major shift in hammer sound.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I’m glad to report that the voicing went extremely well. The technician both voiced and retuned my piano that it’s sounds completely different now. Much warmer and sweeter.

I decided to pay him exactly as the last time because honestly, to me, his services are worth it.

👍

Peter Grey Piano Doctor

There is voicing and then there is voicing.

The kind of voicing that basically transforms your piano into an instrument that makes you want to fall on your knees and start weeping, is priceless. It actually has a price over here: It's 180 EUR per hour and I wouldn't let anyone close to my piano, who isn't working on that level of expertise, because it's worth every single penny.

OE1FEU — Beautifully said, BRAVO! I’m so jealous you get to live in beautiful Vienna, my favorite city ever!

Most of the top techs in the Seattle area are charging $200 for a regular tuning. Some are much higher.

We've been at $225 for two years for a normal service call. People still ask me if that's enough. I tell them: "that'll do, thank you". 😊

Peter Grey Piano Doctor

Don’t forget that voicing might be the most esoteric and difficult-to-learn skill in piano work. It doesn’t just involve needling hammers, but includes hammer shaping, string leveling, regulation, assessing and attaining precise center pin friction, and voicing up with lacquer and other chemicals. Even tuning is part of the equation.
In other words, skill with every aspect of piano work, combined to bring out the best possible tone. It’s the pinnacle of fine piano service.

There are few formal opportunities to learn voicing, and you have to start slowly and carefully as you build experience—you can’t just start poking needles into a fine instrument. There is a risk of ruining hammers.

So I’d say that a skilled voicer should be well compensated.

My technician has learnt his skill over a five year period when he spent two months a year in Japan at Kawai and now is an official MPA.

On my piano he doesn't use any chemicals and/or lacquer at all and he is happy with the piano's tuning as it is when we have your regular appointments about twice a year. By now this is about 30-40 minutes of work for him, reshaping the hammers and mating them to strings and do a quick action regulation.

That is, working appointments, because outside of that we are also friends and enjoy cheese and red wine very much. Otherwise I probably couldn't afford him anyway...