Stress On The Pegs When Tuning a Fiddle

Video Transcript

Hi I'm David Kaynor for expertvillage.com. I'm going to talk briefly about the implications of tuning the violin by its pegs. The pegs are hold in place by the friction between the peg box, which is maple, and the peg, which is either ebony—in this case—or sometimes boxwood or rosewood. Friction is what holds the peg in place. The peg is tapered, and the holes are tapered using the same pitch; and friction holds the peg in place against the tension of the string. Any time you turn the peg relative to the peg box, wood rubs against wood and there is friction...and inevitably there is wear. There is no way around it. A well-fit and well-lubricated peg will turn more freely, hold more reliably, and involve the least amount of wear. A poorly fitted or an unlubricated peg will wear more. Eventually a violin technician who has the right tools can restore both the peg and the holes to the proper matching taper. And then they'll work together well again. The problem with that is that after a great deal of fitting, enough wood is lost that either the peg is very thin or the holes in the peg box are very wide. A peg can be replaced fairly easily; to reduce the diameter of a hole in the peg box requires fitting in new wood, gluing it in place, and then drilling a hole in the new wood and using a tapered reamer to achieve the correct taper within in the new wood. That is often called bushing and redrilling, and then retapering. That is actually quiet a time consuming process and it requires some fairly well-developed skills, and therefore it is pricey. So in a lot of peoples minds, that process can be slowed somewhat by doing as much tuning as possible with fine tuners.

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