I have planetary tuners called âPegheads'. They were installed in my 1970 David Rubio 8 course lute by Mel Wong during a restoration he did a year and a half ago. Let me share some observations:
1) The original friction pegs had gone very out of round and were very difficult to use. My understanding of this process is that it is caused by anisotropic expansion and contraction of the woods, which is extreme in regions that have extreme changes in humidity with the seasons. The 'Pegheads' seem immune to this problem. I know this can be avoided by regularly moving the pegs, but prior to the restoration, the instrument had been unplayable for over a decade, and I just never even took it out of the case to look at it. 2) The 4/1 mechanical advantage and absence of âsticking' make it much easier to adjust the tension on the string between the peg and the nut. 3) The improvement in adjusting the tension does not necessarily translate into improvement in tuning, since on my lute, the strings stick at the nut. Perhaps I need a new nut, or need to repair and re-install the âroller-nut' I built 40 years ago that I removed for the restoration. I have just been too busy playing, and perhaps a bit lazy and procrastinating so far. 4) Changing strings requires a lot more (4X) knob twisting, and they do not fit any guitar string winders I have seen. 5) As a former industrial and university failure analysis engineer, I am always worried that one day, something inside the peg head will go âPop', the peg won't work, and my lute will be essentially disabled, and I will not be able to fix it myself because I have no idea what the âguts' of the mechanism is or if there is even a way to take it apart for repair without destroying it. A. John Mardinly, Ph.D., P.E. Retired Principal Materials Nanoanalysis Engineer On Feb 11, 2017, at 8:59 AM, Roman Turovsky <[1][email protected]> wrote: A question for the Collective Wisdom: Looking for opinions on planetary tuners for lutes or vihuelas, cautionary tales, where to get them, which brands, how to install etc. Thank ye all, RT To get on or off this list see list information at [2]https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.cs.dartmouth .edu_-7Ewbc_lute-2Dadmin_index.html&d=DQICaQ&c=AGbYxfJbXK67KfXyGqyv2Eji z41FqQuZFk4A-1IxfAU&r=MAuGvnWTcVQkxORgQD0QS50ZicPM3Nw-61ygSK-LNEQ&m=qhk PbCA9hO80PkW18vkevfqksMnDfwT3D4yosPLAH9Y&s=bWPEnXQeUDe15yQrHzezPd2v4Mu_ YRly_RHlQF1hFMs&e= References 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.cs.dartmouth.edu_-7Ewbc_lute-2Dadmin_index.html&d=DQICaQ&c=AGbYxfJbXK67KfXyGqyv2Ejiz41FqQuZFk4A-1IxfAU&r=MAuGvnWTcVQkxORgQD0QS50ZicPM3Nw-61ygSK-LNEQ&m=qhkPbCA9hO80PkW18vkevfqksMnDfwT3D4yosPLAH9Y&s=bWPEnXQeUDe15yQrHzezPd2v4Mu_YRly_RHlQF1hFMs&e=
