Dear Claudia,
Looking ahead 6 months to a drier future down under, and borrowing trouble
therefrom, may I share experience of having just the opposite problem in bone
dry semiarid inland southern CA. At the LSA meeting someone whipped out a
plastic peg tuner and I asked "what the h is that?" The well known instructor
said in a condescending tone: "a peg tuner, you use it for turning the pegs."
For eons, I have had the opposite problem, tuning pegs coming loose or slipping
at the most inopportune moments. Only very rarely (maybe once or twice in two
dozen years), have I encountered stuck pegs and I remember using a leather
hammer to pop them out just as other wise men have described here. Sadly, a
big dog got hold of my leather hammer and now it is all chewed up and saturated
with saliva.
Recently, a local religious grade school went out of business and I got hold of
their genuine white chalk, perhaps straight from the cliffs of Dover. Much
better than the colored gooey stuff sold at Walmart. I have used chalk for
decades to stop my pegs from slipping, and am worried now that I am doing
something stupid, especially after the instructor mentioned above vehemently
and without further comment rejected a chalk stick which I offered him when his
own peg slipped just before a concert. Is it foolish to sit there tuning with
face smeared with white chalk (I sometimes savagely use teeth for turning
errant pegs)--please let me know, lute cognoscenti, if I am doing something no
longer considered HIP?
Mark Seifert MD
---- Claudia Funder <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I've just joined the Lute List and am a new player having taken up
> Lute in 2010. I have a beautiful instrument made for me last year by
> Stephen and Sandi in London which I picked up in May. Now that it's
> summer I am also experiencing huge peg turning issues (as per Anthony
> Hind's note of last year). It's very wet and humid this year with
> all the La Nina rain. (which is all through Aus not just in Queensland
> etc).
>
> For last few days I haven't been able to turn the pegs at all. I've
> tried the heat/drying technique suggested but given it hasn't really
> helped. (Actually, I might try a hair dryer....Hmm)
>
> Today I've managed to move the pegs a bit and have almost re-tuned the
> whole instrument. Now I have numb fingers and thumbs and practice will
> have to wait!
>
> If anyone can let me know where I can get a peg turner from to help
> that would be just grand. I can't find anything on the interweb...
>
>
> Regards to all.
>
> Claudia Funder
> Melbourne
> Australia.
>
>
>
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> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
