Violin Forum/Message Board

[John Cadd]

Original violin strings made of gut were relatively soft on ebony nuts. They may have thought of using pencil graphite to lubricate the sliding action when tuning .Now we have synthetic strings the metal windings can act as tiny files against the ebony .That is a big change.Ebony can endure gut strings rubbing. Can ebony endure metal windings grinding and pinging as you tune up .Will the metal try to dig into the softer material we are so used to ? Bone has no drawbacks tonally. Plastic would be a step backwards. Bone is more wear resistant than ebony .Much of the effort in tuning with a wooden peg is overcoming the grip between ebony nuts and string windings.If you try to turn the wooden peg and press the pegbox length with your thumb nail , the thumb nail makes the peg turn more easily . When you press the string you hear a pinging sound as the nut resistance is overcome and the Winding to Ebony Grip or Catch is released .
The problem has crept up on us and the latest happy solution is to fit geared pegs . It saves us addressing one of the reasons that made geared pegs so desirable .

[roseblack22]

[John Cadd]

Roseblack the geared pegs don`t affect an ebony nut .The pressure and friction is the same . If you see a video about Martin Schleske making violins you see his new instrument has a bone nut .I don`t think they mention if the pegs are wood though . For the new violin on the video it would make more sense to mention the bone nut .
The gears will always make tuning easier but an ebony nut will be smoother (as in String versus Nut not smoother for the player ) with string windings and the windings will not catch and unravel so quickly .