japarts
Active member
It's relatively easy to find information about old Martin ukuleles, but not as many sites talk about the tuning pegs. In the attached photo, the one on the left is from a beat-up old taropatch and the one on the right is from a Martin concert ukulele, date uncertain.
There was a letter from Martin describing the taropatch's tuners as "patent pegs" and they do look somewhat similar to Albert Grover's illustrations in his 1921 patent. (Is that where the term comes from?) But the few sites I've seen that show "patent pegs" look like the tuning pegs on the right*. Am I right to assume that both are Grover patent pegs and that the design changed at some point? Does anyone know when that was?
Does anyone know of any good sources for information on these old tuning pegs? I'd like to be able to write about them but I'm finding the terminology confusing and details sparse. Any help would be really appreciated!
* To be fair there was one banjo site that described ancient pre-1900 pegs as patent pegs and the ones on the right as "Champion Pegs", but who trusts banjo players?