My son has a violin that he dropped the other day and snapped one of the tuning pegs.
I though I could just buy a new one and spent £13 on new pegs but it is not as simple as that.
A new set of pegs arrived the description said pre tapered and ready to use but they are much thicker that the originals. to get them to fit you need to match then up and this requires special tools. A reamer and and a peg shaver is needed but these are about £40. My research also suggests this is a skilled job to get right.
I did epoxy the broken peg back together and it seems to be holding for now.
Is it worth me buying the tools and attempting to fit the pegs myself or am I in danger of ruining the instrument. Normally I would take it to a shop. The violin only cost £60 originally common sense says use it as is and just buy another if it breaks again but it seems criminal just to throw it out
Comments
1, Turn your lad into the Seasick Steve of the fiddle playing world
2, Buy him a new fiddle and turn the old one into a piece of art putting it on eBay where it will be snapped up by someone opening a hipster coffee shop
3, Convince your son playing guitar is the best option and give him one of yours thus creating the need for you to buy a replacement guitar
It's actually ridiculous that violins still have friction pegs, it's purely tradition - it makes them a pain in the backside to tune. Much better if they had single guitar-type heads...
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