Choose a soft tip (7)
I believe the answer is:
appoint
'choose' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a soft tip' is the wordplay.
'soft' becomes 'p' (musical abbreviation for 'piano').
'tip' becomes 'point' ('point' can be a synonym of 'tip'**).
'a'+'p'+'point'='APPOINT'
(Other definitions for appoint that I've seen before include "Fix" , "Nominate" , "get the post sorted" , "Officially assign" , "Employ; take on" .)