Chris_Khouri
Oud Junkie
Posts: 183
Registered: 7-13-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Guitar pegs. Any good?
Greetings ladies and gentleman,
It has been a long time since I have been on this wonderful forum. I hope everyone is doing well!
I wanted to take my friend's opinion on the guitar-like pegs. I have an oud with such pegs and my initial impression is that these would be more
robust and stable in regards to tuning, but I have found that they are:
1. More difficult to use as they require extra turning for the string to be at the correct tension/tuning.
2. Not as sturdy/stable as the I thought they would be. In fact I feel they are less stable than wooden pegs.
Can someone please advise on this. Thanks!
Chris
|
|
|
jdowning
Oud Junkie
Posts: 3485
Registered: 8-2-2006
Location: Ontario, Canada
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
When you refer to 'guitar like pegs' I assume that you mean the metal geared machine tuners generally fitted to classical acoustic guitars rather than
the wooden pegs often fitted to flamenco guitars?
If the former, apart from the added weight to the pegbox that might make the oud feel unbalanced and as it is non traditional so might in the eyes of
some be judged as ugly, the geared head might have some positive advantages if well manufactured and properly fitted.
Nothing worse than the tuning nightmare of poorly fitted wooden pegs badly made from poor quality wood.
|
|
|
Chris_Khouri
Oud Junkie
Posts: 183
Registered: 7-13-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Thanks.
Thanks for your reply. Your assumption is correct. I was describing metal pegs that are used in the classical guitar.
The asthetics of the oud are not that much of a concern to me. My concern really is the reliability of the pegs. It's very difficult to tune an oud
with bad pegs, and in addition, it often slips during performance.
If you were compare compare high quality, well made metal pegs to high quality, well made wooden oud pegs, which one would you say is more stable?
Chris
|
|
|
Brian Prunka
Oud Junkie
Posts: 2916
Registered: 1-30-2004
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Member Is Offline
Mood: Stringish
|
|
I would say there is no difference most of the time. If the humidity/temperature is changing a lot, then geared pegs will likely be a bit more
stable.
However, tuning the geared pegs is more work when restringing the oud.
Here are my observations regarding tuning issues and pegs:
1- a lot of beginners have difficulty with tuning standard pegs.
2- a lot of beginning ouds have poorly-fit pegs made of bad wood.
3- Tuning issues arise as often, if not more often, from a poorly-cut nut than from the pegs.
4- Wooden pegs take a little bit of extra skill to tune; this is something that is learned with experience but it is not exactly a flaw.
5- I have never met an accomplished oud player who thought that there was a meaningful improvement to be gained from switching to metal pegs.
6- most geared pegs are heavy and 12 of them would cause the oud to be unbalanced.
If you really want the advantages of geared pegs, there are (somewhat pricy) alternatives that keep the weight down and preserve the traditional
aesthetics:
http://www.amazon.com/Perfection-Planetary-Violin-Pegs-Size/dp/B003...
http://www.pegheds.com
Wittner
|
|
|
Chris_Khouri
Oud Junkie
Posts: 183
Registered: 7-13-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Thanks Brian.
Thank you Brian. These are very promising.
I have read the reviews on these, and while most of them are positive, there are some reviewers that report that slipping is still a problem. I
wonder if a violin maker can fit these on an oud. They are not cheap, but they are very interesting though and might solve the problem.
I will do more research on them.
|
|
|
jdowning
Oud Junkie
Posts: 3485
Registered: 8-2-2006
Location: Ontario, Canada
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
If you are experiencing problems with traditional wooden pegs then they are likely to be substandard either in material or fit. Note also that the
wood of the peg box also plays an important part - there should be a differential hardness between the woods so that the pegs grip properly.
Also peg taper makes a difference - a relatively steep taper 1:24 say will be more likely to 'pop out' with a change in humidity than one with say a
'slower' 1:30 taper.
Tapered wooden tuning pegs have been the norm for centuries on both plucked and bowed instruments. Modern professional players of both kinds of
instruments travel the world and perform under all kinds of variable atmospheric conditions without significant problem with their wooden pegs.
|
|
|
jdowning
Oud Junkie
Posts: 3485
Registered: 8-2-2006
Location: Ontario, Canada
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Note also that string tension is an important factor to be considered in the stability of the wooden tuning pegs - the higher the string tension on a
peg the greater the friction forces required to keep it from losing its grip on the pegbox.
Modern acoustic guitar string tensions are usually much higher than typically found on an oud (or lute or guitars of an earlier time period). This no
doubt accounts for the almost exclusive use today of metal geared machine tuning heads on modern guitars. Higher string tension equates to greater
instrument loudness.
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbprobrown/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
