The Powered Voicing Tool

I've been exploring the use of a new tool that has transformed the way I voice pianos. It allows me to work quickly, accurately, thoroughly, and without incurring too much impact on my hand. I am calling this the powered voicing tool. As a piano technician, finding tools that improve efficiency, precision, and reduce physical strain is crucial. The powered voicing tool has done just that, and I'm excited to share how it works and why it's better than traditional methods.

How It Works

The powered voicing tool is a handheld, reciprocating motor designed to use needle cartridges of different patterns to achieve different tonal goals. It's shaped like a thick pen or screwdriver handle, allowing you to hold it lightly while guiding it across the hammer felt. The motor projects the needles repeatedly out of the tip, making the process of needling smooth and precise. The tool has a rotating depth adjustment allowing the voicer to set how deep the needles project out of a tool.

This tool eliminates the need for heavy pressure and reduces impact to the body, making it ideal for the repetitive job of voicing. It's small, lightweight, and fits easily in my tool bag allowing me to deliver shop/factory level voicing in any setting.

Features and Benefits

Adjustable Depth and Speed Settings: This tool offers customizable depth and speed controls, providing complete control over the voicing process. Ranging from 0-6mm, you can precisely adjust the needle penetration depth and intensity to suit different piano sections voicing objectives and tonal requirements. This is a great feature because I can taper the depth as I move from larger to smaller to smaller hammers, or areas where I want the tone change to have more of a gradient.
Portability and Lightweight Design: Its compact design allows for easy transportation, fitting effortlessly into your toolkit. Despite its power, the tool is remarkably lightweight, reducing fatigue that might dissuade a technician from doing another pass to get the instrument sounding just right.
Replaceable Cartridges: A variety of needle configurations and sizes are available, catering to different voicing techniques. Switching cartridges is a simple twist-and-click operation. The 3 cartridges I enjoy using at the moment are the single needle cartridge, the curved 25 Needle cartridge, and the straight straight 25 needle cartridge.

Why It's Better Than Traditional Methods

Prior to adopting the powered voicing tool, I relied on hand powered manual voicing methods such as single-needle, triple-needle, and quadruple-needle tools. Although effective, these traditional methods demand significant force, precision, and time, often leaving my hands sore the next day.

To achieve the desired depth and precision with traditional tools, I have had to balance power and control. Exerting significant force can lead to less accurate stitches, while a more controlled approach may sacrifice power. By employing a powered needle tool, however, technicians can delegate the physical exertion to the machine, maintaining a relaxed hand and arm position. This relaxed state fosters greater precision and control of where the needles strike.

Powered Voicing Methods

Shift Voicing

Shift Voicing: Typically, the traditional method involves using a large diameter single or triple-needle tool, stitching deeply in between the string grooves. This softens the felt that strikes the string when the left pedal is depressed. When using a traditional single needle hand tool, the stitches add up quickly. Let's say 10 stitches per line, 4 lines per hammer, and 88 hammers. That’s 3,520 stitches. 3,520 muscle flexes. 3,520 impacts on one pass and I rarely hit my target in one pass. The powered voicing tip that I enjoy using for this job has 25 needles split into 2 long rows with rounded corners so that they don't dig as you move them from side to side. The rounded/tapered edges also allow for me to feather the depth on entry. I’ll hold the tool oriented so that the needles match the lines in the photo. With a relaxed grip one can easily guide the tip between the string grooves. Moving from left to right, every 8 or so hammers I will rotate the depth of the tool deeper one click to account for the larger hammers.

Deep Shoulder Needling

Pre-voicing hard-press hammers is a particularly demanding task, traditionally requiring the use of 3 or more needled tools to drive needles deep into the hammer shoulders. This process, often involving forceful and repetitive stabbing motions, can lead to significant strain on the hands, neck, back, and shoulders. It was this physically taxing aspect of the job that initially prompted me to explore alternative tools. For deep shoulder voicing, I've found the powered voicing tool to be invaluable. I prefer to use the straight 25-needle cartridge held horizontally at full depth to cover the entire width of the hammer from the equator up toward the edge of the string grooves. This technique allows for me to open up the tone efficiently while minimizing strain on the technician.

Sugar Coating

Sugar coating is shallow surface needling focused toward the crown of the hammer intended to soften the pianisso and attack portion of the tone. It isnt the most long lasting of voicing which makes it fairly forgiving and a great technique to be able to implement quickly. For this type of voicing I like to use either the 25 needle straight cartridge or the single needle tool. With the depth setting fairly shallow I soften the entire crown of the hammer. If I want to effect just the string grooves, I can use the single needle tool effecting the resting position tone.