Geared violin pegs

A luthier friend of mine just installed a set of geared violin pegs on my elderly German factory fiddle, thereby enabling me to sacrifice those four unsightly fine tuners cluttering up my tailpiece! Played my first "gig" with them yesyerday (the funeral of a friend's father) and they worked marvelously well. Anyone else have them or is anyone else interested in trying them?

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Permalink Reply by Paul Doyle on September 19, 2009 at 2:51pm: They are great but murder to uninstall, years after they are bedded in and dont come out cleanly, coupled with a mid section inserted wrong way round by some idiot who can not see they are tapered led to a crack in one pegbox i had to remove them from,,,dont want to frighten you Dave but make sure no one em fiddles with them,,Paul; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kitty Herbert on September 20, 2009 at 8:04am: Tim Phillips put some Wittners on my Revolin (one of his) and I loved them so much I got some Planetary Pegs on ebay and my husband fitted them on my cheapie - lovely! Both work well, but I think I do prefer the Planetary Pegs as they are smoother and don't clunk over to the next notch - I find them just a bit easier to use, but the Wittners are brilliant too.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bob Whitehead on September 22, 2009 at 4:26pm: Hi Dave I installed my own Knilling pegs and the thing I notice most, the strings stay in tune.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TimK on September 23, 2009 at 3:01pm: I had a set of Perfection Pegs installed earlier this year and am very pleased with them. I won't hesitate to recommend them. Very funtional !; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Adam R Sweet on September 24, 2009 at 10:45am: I've seen them. I never went in for the fine tuners, why would I go for gears instead of pegs?

Perhaps I'm old-fashioned

I know people who would benefit from them, however. My dad has arthritis and tuning his cello pegs can be an agony. I think they could be great for all ages!

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Permalink Reply by Dave Onastik on September 24, 2009 at 12:53pm: They are really nice if you ever do any cross-tuning.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ròidh on September 29, 2009 at 7:24am: ive seen the old style geard tuners ,they are still made and have seen them on new repro stroh violins, im unsure if lark in the morning carries the parts for the violins they sell but do sell the instruments for sure,they are an online company if you wanna look up pix,best wishes !

Jerald Franklin Archer said:
The tuning gears may only be available for a limited time, but they appear to be quality and at a decent price:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250499984124...

The Internation Violin Company also offered some (with the pearloid heads) but I don't know it they are still available:

http://www.internationalviolin.com/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=7601

The old tuning gears seem to be a very difficult item to find today, but obviously some company is still making them.; ▶ Reply to This