..now, if somebody could double the length of my left arm, it might be possible to tune my theorbo diapasons on the fly!
On 2012-08-17, at 1:23 AM, Edward Martin wrote: > OK, Nancy asked me to jump in, so I will. > > The first experience with these pegheds was on Dan Winheld's 8-course > lute. I really liked them, a lot. > > Then, about a year ago, I took my first plunge with these gears > (pegheds). I had them installed on my 6-course vihuela, and they > immediately solved many, many problems. First off, baroque guitars > and vihuelas (probably renaissance guitars) have problems, in that > the traditional peg goes through only one hole, as opposed to two > holes for a lute. Therefore, the vihuela has a greater tendency to > slip. The pegheds remedied this problem, and I later decided, last > early spring, to have them installed on my 11-course lute. My > 11-course baroque lute partner, Tom Walker, also has a lute that is > an exact match to mine, and he also has pegheds. So, I have > experience with 4 instruments in pegheds, (very limited with Dan > Winheld's 8-course, however). It improved my 11-course instrument > dramatically, with better tuning. This is especially important when > using gut, and all these instruments are entirely strung in gut. > > By the way, Tom'sa lute was just 5 days old (!!) when he received it, > and we had a concert that night. The hall filled with people, and > the heat and humidity went up. The gut strings were so stable with > pegheds, that we had NO TUNING for the entire concert, with exception > of tuning diapasons to a different key!! That in itself is remarkable. > > Plainly put, I love them. They are unbelievably smooth, as in a very > expensive guitar machine. They are adjustable in tension - as with a > traditional peg, push them in and they will be tighter, pull them > out, and looser. Whether in a tight or loose setting, they are > smooth. They never slip, never stick. This summer, with all the > humidity, I had no problems with stuck or slipping pegs.... they > stay, it pitch, where you put them. Speaking of tuning, they are > geared at 25% as compared to a peg. For example, if one wanted to > tune a half step sharp, one turns the gear 4 times further than when > using a traditional peg. That makes for much more accurate tuning, > as they will not skip too sharp, as compared to a traditional peg. I > find myself tuning more, but very much faster than before, and yes, I > tune sometimes while playing. Tuning with pegheds is actually a joy > now, as I can tune more accurately, and much faster. No more sore > fingers trying to turn stick pegs!! > > We all know what it is like to adjust to a certain pitch... we play > around, get it where we want, let go, and it slips with traditional > pegs! Now, I have trust, so I can quickly adjust, without fear of > slipping; yes, I can no adjust tuning "on the fly" while playing. > > As for weight, Dan Larson has on his web site, comparisons of the > weights of pegs vs. pegheds. Different types of wood make different > weights in pegs. Pegheds are , if my memory serves me correctly, > just 2 grams more, or so. I cannot distinguish any difference in the > weight of the neck or instrument, and the pegheds made, in my > opinion, no difference whatsoever in sound, other than sounding > better because I can now tune more accurately, therefore sounding > better. No, the 11-course lute does have any perception to added weight. > > There are 2 drawbacks: > > 1. When changing a string, because the pegheds do not slip, one has > to un-wind the peghed to get the old string out. This is not a > problem, as the added time (perhaps 7-8 seconds) lost is nothing, > compared to the time saved in fast and accurate tuning. > 2. For those that only want authenticity, pegheds were not used in > old times. Neither was nylgut, nylon, carbon, or perhaps wound > strings for that matter! Many people who saw them on my lute this > summer were fooled, into thinking they were ebony (they are not). > > Thanks for asking..................I would put them on all my > instruments, if I could afford to do so. > > > > > At 12:45 PM 8/16/2012, Ken Brodkey wrote: >> Has anyone tried the mechanical pegs made by Pegheds? I have a >> customer who is interested in replacing his traditional pegs with >> these. Any comments are much appreciated. >> >> Thanks. >> >> Ken >> >> >> >> To get on or off this list see list information at >> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > Edward Martin > 2817 East 2nd Street > Duluth, Minnesota 55812 > e-mail: e...@gamutstrings.com > voice: (218) 728-1202 > http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1660298871&ref=name > http://www.myspace.com/edslute > http://magnatune.com/artists/edward_martin > > >
