Upgrade from friction pegs to Pegheds

As some of you may have seen, I recently got a tenor Fluke:

https://forum.ukuleleunderground.co...8-NUD-Finally-joined-the-club-Koa-Tenor-Fluke!

It had the friction tuners which I didn't mind - I've quite liked them on sopranos and concerts I've had. In the end, they needed to be so tight to take the tenor string tension without slipping that fine tuning was irritating. As my birthday was coming up I let it be known that I wouldn't mind a set of Pegheds! My lovely mum duly obliged (and had lots of nice things to say about dealing with Magic Fluke Co.) and so I had a set to install. Here were the tools I used:

• Screwdriver to undo the friction pegs
• Violin peg reamer to enlarge the holes with the correct taper
• Rubber band to provide grip on the Pegheds for screwing them in (don't use pliers or you can crush them)
• Superglue gel

Installation is simple - ream the holes, screw the tuner in to make sure the hole is the right size, pop some glue on the tuner and screw it in permanently. The Pegheds have a left and right hand threaded version so that string tension causes them to tighten in the hole, not loosen.

If you look closely at the peg reamer you can see the line of where I got to for the correct size for the holes. This meant going very carefully and slowly for the first hole and then the subsequent holes could be done really quickly afterwards. These reamers aren't all that cheap (this one was £50) but it's hard to beat having the right tool for the job. It was excellent.

Before picture:



After picture:



I've had UPTs on a uke before and the mechanism of the UPTs is unrivalled and definitely superior to the Pegheds - smoother and easier turning. I have to say, the aesthetics of the Pegheds wins hands down for me. I love the look of them and would gladly install them on other ukes.

Not wanting to waste anything, I also replaced the crappy geared ears on my soprano with the friction pegs from the Fluke. It looks a million times better!

Midway through / hybrid pic:



After picture:

Nice post.. I bought a cheap reamer. It lasted for a set and a half of tuners ha. I don’t care for peg heads. The ones I had came already installed on the Uke I bought. I’ve had 2 different ones that would turn as I tried to tune them. I wound up taking them out and putting UPT in. I really do want to love them because they are so light! I think maybe they just have to be installed perfectly! Or heck maybe someone put them in backwards! They look great on that flea!

Pegheds are simply better than Friction tuners in pretty much every single way in my opinion.

Jee what would you prefer?
Tuners that are frustratingly difficult to tune accurately due to an archaic 1:1 ratio?

Or accurate, steady tuners with the same appearance that allow you to tune accurately in about a quarter of the time, fuss-free?


(Recently acquired a Cricket violin, made by Magic Fluke, with the Peghead tuners. BIIIIG difference and improvement from my other violin that has traditional friction tuners).

Why work 4 times as hard using technology from a time people died of the common cold at 20 years old?

I love the way Pegheads look. They are still no match to a good set of high ratio tuners, as 4:1 is much harder to tune quickly especially if you are on stage. But compare to real pegs, they rock

Jddewitt81 said:

Nice post.. I bought a cheap reamer. It lasted for a set and a half of tuners ha. I don’t care for peg heads. The ones I had came already installed on the Uke I bought. I’ve had 2 different ones that would turn as I tried to tune them. I wound up taking them out and putting UPT in. I really do want to love them because they are so light! I think maybe they just have to be installed perfectly! Or heck maybe someone put them in backwards! They look great on that flea!

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I'm not thrilled with my cheap reamer. It works, but it doesn't cut very fast. I think I'm going to buy a violin reamer from Amazon. They're still cheap, but they might be better. But which one to buy?!

https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=violin+reamer&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

NAFIGATOR said:

I love the way Pegheads look. They are still no match to a good set of high ratio tuners, as 4:1 is much harder to tune quickly especially if you are on stage. But compare to real pegs, they rock

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There are pros and cons to each.

For instance, a disadvantage of higher ratio tuners is that they're a pain to wind up new strings, and also when the strings are stretching.

I actually prefer the 4:1 ratio of Pegheads over higher ratios.

Speaking with a local luthier, Pegheads changed the original style or design, not sure which. I think he sent the last order back and is looking at switching to Gotahs for now.

Jerryc41 said:

I'm not thrilled with my cheap reamer. It works, but it doesn't cut very fast. I think I'm going to buy a violin reamer from Amazon. They're still cheap, but they might be better. But which one to buy?!

https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=violin+reamer&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Click to expand...

Yeah mine was cheap too. I guess it has payed for itself and it does still work but it’s so dull already that it takes forever to do anything. Looking for a new one myself!