Mark Seifert wrote:
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?
Chalk works, and I would expect is much more "HIP" than peg turners. The downside of using chalk is that it is abrasive and prolonged use could wear the peg smaller and the hole larger producing looser pegs. A better solution would be "peg dope" which appears to be a solution of some sort of pine resin. Use it sparingly and work the peg after applying it - it can behave rather like a weak glue otherwise.
As for "peg turners" they were invented to make winding new strings onto the pegs (whether guitar machine heads or friction pegs) rather than forcing stuck pegs and are not optimal for the tiny adjustments in fine tuning.
Stephen Fryer To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
