8/23/2023 0 Comments Cello tuning pegs‘The string world can be a reactionary one,’ says cellist Lynn Harrell, an enthusiastic advocate of geared pegs since he first tried them more than five years ago. The modified physical action makes geared pegs suited to players with limited strength or mobility, including older people and young students This might have something to do with the fact that their increasingly discreet appearance makes them difficult to spot, but also with a tendency among some luthiers (and performers) to reject modern solutions to historical problems. And with shanks made from plastic or aluminium, geared pegs are immune to the changes in temperature and humidity that can cause pegs to seize with the changing seasons and, for some people, require a twice-yearly trip to the luthier.ĭespite the advantages they appear to offer, geared pegs are, however, far from ubiquitous. But these pegs required bearings to be fitted permanently inside the pegbox and, with time, their mechanical components wore out, leaving the pegs susceptible to slipping and their owner facing a hefty bill for having ordinary pegs reinstalled.Īlthough they were popular for a time, especially among students, the Caspari pegs were quickly passed over and standard low-tech friction pegs once again became the only option, much as they had been for hundreds of years.Īs well as improving accuracy, the modified physical action of geared pegs makes them suited to players with limited strength or mobility, including older people and young students. In the 1970s, pegs made by the Italian manufacturer Caspari allowed the amount of friction to be controlled with a screw – the player could reduce the friction when tuning and then increase it again afterwards to prevent the pegs from slipping. ‘I was jealous! Violinists, violists and cellists all rely on the friction of wooden pegs against the pegbox to keep their strings in tune, but that friction can make it very difficult to tune quickly and precisely.’ ‘The machine heads fitted to the pegbox of a double bass operate using worm gears, which allow the strings to be tuned more accurately and with less physical effort,’ he says. ![]() ![]() ![]() Watching the ease with which the double bassists in his orchestra tuned their instruments, cellist and Pegheds geared pegs inventor Chuck Herin first began to think about the possibility of an alternative to traditional wooden friction pegs. This article is from The Strad’s Accessories 2018 supplement, available with the June 2018 issue - download on desktop computer, via the The Strad App, or buy the print edition
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