AaronS76 Posted July 30 Report Share Posted July 30 I bought new pegs for a violin I am working on. I saw that there were different ratios and took a stab from some rough measurements and the new pegs don’t fit. Considering I understand little about this stuff my dumb question for the day is - do you ream holes or shave pegs? Or does it depend? I figure you shave pegs because they are cheaper and easier to sort out if you screw it up. Am I missing anything here? Prefer to not learn by mistakes if I can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davide Sora Posted July 30 Report Share Posted July 30 Each new peg must be shaved to perfect the taper of the shaft so that it matches your reamer (or your holes). They are not intended to be used directly out of the box. A shaper/reamer match is essential to get good results, adjusting the shaper is quite tedious and difficult. In your case, evaluating the state of the holes (size, taper, roundness) to decide what to do is essential. The thing that gives the best results would be to intervene on both the peg shafts and the holes, to get the match mentioned above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS76 Posted July 30 Author Report Share Posted July 30 2 hours ago, Davide Sora said: Each new peg must be shaved to perfect the taper of the shaft so that it matches your reamer (or your holes). They are not intended to be used directly out of the box. A shaper/reamer match is essential to get good results, adjusting the shaper is quite tedious and difficult. In your case, evaluating the state of the holes (size, taper, roundness) to decide what to do is essential. The thing that gives the best results would be to intervene on both the peg shafts and the holes, to get the match mentioned above. Many thanks for sharing. That actually makes sense. I’ll read up more and try it on a crap instrument first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacobsaunders Posted July 30 Report Share Posted July 30 I think you will find that fitting pegs isn’t a DIY job. In principal one fits the pegs to the holes, although one often needs to get the holes perfectly round first Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiddleDoug Posted July 30 Report Share Posted July 30 If the original pegs were 1:20, and the new pegs are 1:30, you may not be able to ream the peghole enough to fit. In that case, the peg holes would need to be bushed. In any case, old peg holes can wear somewhat unevenly, so both the pegs and peg holes need to be addressed to get a proper fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Victor Posted July 30 Report Share Posted July 30 I think it depends on your objective when replacing pegs. My objective was to make tuning more feasible as as I passed from age 70 towards 80 (tuning problems with osteoarthritis); I decided to replace my wooden friction pegs with "geared pegs" (Pegheds, or Knilling or Wittner, I've used them all). Those pegs are of several fixed diameters so the only choice is to chose a diameter at least as large as your largest present peg and have a reamer and a micrometer for accurate diameter measurement. My first try was on a cheap violin. When that worked I then refitted my whole "menagerie" and ended up doing my 4 violins, 2 violas and 3 cellos. I also put geared pegs on the violins of my son and granddaughter (14 instruments in all including one 5-string violin/viola). Just never forget the carpenters' rule "measure twice, cut once!" Really think the whole process through before you start. I always measured thrice! I am not a luthier!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS76 Posted July 30 Author Report Share Posted July 30 A few different perspective and tips. I think I will buy a reamer. Make some peg boxes using pieces of timber (not carved), see if I can understand it, then give it a go only if I can get the hang of it. The violin is a $1000 Laberte 1930’s low-mid range violin. Don’t want to ruin it or require a bushing but also keen to learn this stuff. I did woodwork for my leaving year at high school and started making a violin. Was given assistance by an amateur maker but I/he underestimated the time and I only got the top done and had to change projects because it was taking too long. Nearly 50. Time to scratch that itch again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Dorsey Posted July 30 Report Share Posted July 30 6 minutes ago, AaronS76 said: …I think I will buy a reamer. Make some peg boxes using pieces of timber (not carved), see if I can understand it, then give it a go only if I can get the hang of it…. Good idea. It is easy to make some dummy peg boxes to practice on from maple scraps. It’s better to mess these up than mess up your violin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FiddleDoug Posted July 31 Report Share Posted July 31 You need both a peghole reamer and a peg shaver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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