FRETS.COM Illustrated Glossary


Tuning
Pegs
© Frank Ford, 9/6/98 Photos by FF

The classic tuning pegs:

They're tapered wooden pegs that fit into matching holes. You must press inward as you tune up to avoid slippage.



The same thing fitted to a guitar peghead:



Some tuning pegs are made of metal and have a patented friction mechanism to keep them tight and relatively easy to turn:




Now here's a head full of tuning headaches:

How about NINETEEN of these babies to wrestle every time you play? I believe it was Julian Bream who said a lute player literally spends half his time tuning!



Geared tuners are often called "pegs," but they're more properly known as tuners, gears, tuning machines or machine heads:




The only exception that comes to mind is the geared banjo tuner, which is made to look as much like a friction peg as possible:

These are never called machine heads. They're "geared pegs" or "tuners."















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