>My understanding of how an instrument is "bushed' is that a tapering cylinder (essentially a peg without a key) is glued into the peg holes and the excess (the parts that stick outside the peg box and the parts that run between the cheeks inside the box) are cut off. You then have discs glued into the peg holes. Those are smoothed off and the holes re-drilled and reamed. It would be unnecessarily difficult to try to fit discs into peg holes, especially since the thickness of the cheeks can vary.
So one could, in theory, take any material that could be turned and shaved to peg dimensions and use that as bushing material -- provided that it could be securely glued. If you wanted plastic bushings (and I understand the explanations that have been offered of why one might not want them), that is how you would do it. Many plastics can be stained, so you could even stain them to match the cheeks. But why anyone would make the bushings red is beyond me. The point would be to make them invisible, so your instrument doesn't look like a old car with mismatched fenders. Tim > > >---- Original Message ---- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu >Subject: Re: Pegs, revisited >Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 10:45:25 +0100 > >>On the question of bushings, these are a standard repair for >violins. The >>ebony will always wear the maple to produce bigger and ultimately >irregular >>holes. The first step, when the pegs are going too deep into the >peg box is >>to ream the holes true, and shave down peg blanks to fit. When the >holes >>are too big to allow new pegs to be shaved, it's time for bushing. >> >>The thing is that a frequent choice for bushings is box. This being >harder, >>it will not wear as fast as the maple, and being pale it can be >touched in >>reasonably well to hide it. A more logical choice would be the same >wood as >>the pegs, which would give minimal wear, but if that choice were >ebony it >>would be regarded as unaesthetic. >> >>These plastic bushings would seem to be manufactured, which may >account for >>the size problem. Making bushings from an appropriate wood is >considerably >>less complicated than making pegs, and the thickness could be >adjusted to >>suit the pegbox. At a push, they could be considered decorative. >> >>Tony >> >>----- Original Message ----- >>From: "Leonard Williams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>To: "Dana Emery" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> >>Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2005 11:19 PM >>Subject: Re: Pegs, revisited >> >> >>> A good number of years ago a bass violist I played with >had some >>> kind of red plastic bushings installed in the peg holes of the >tuning head >>> of her viol. I believe the idea was to reduce wear on the pegs >and >>produce >>> a smoother tuning action. It was a costly job, since the peg >holes each >>had >>> to be reamed out several millimeters more (in diameter) to >accommodate the >>> bushings. The bushings were rather heavy: a lute tuning head >would simply >>> be too slim to accomodate such extra material (IMHO). >>> >>> Regards, >>> Leonard >>> >>> On 3/8/05 1:27 PM, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>> wrote: >>> >>> > Jon Murphy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: >>> > >>> >> I agree with the comments on friction and >>> >> Delrin. Guitar tuning machines would be a good solution for the >lute, >>and >>> >> shouldn't affect the sound. >>> > >>> > delrin is a bad idea on several grounds, one not yet mentioned, >it is >>soft >>> > enough >>> > to be subject to surface wear, it will loose its slickness from >that >>wear, and >>> > I >>> > suspect is just not the right material. It has been around long >enough >>for >>> > its >>> > properties to have been evaluated by the likes of Martin, >Gibson, et al; >>they >>> > arent taking any advantage of it, I think in that lies a clue. >Delrin >>nuts, >>> > yes, >>> > I see them on the market, but not pegs. >>> > >>> > We have discussed guitar machine pegs for use on lute before; >the >>opinion >>> > reached >>> > was weight in the head is a bad idea. >>> >>> >>> >>> To get on or off this list see list information at >>> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >>> >>> >> >> >> >>
