Perfection Planetary Pegs - Information

Technical information

Shape, weight & taper

Perfection pegs have a standard taper and fit in the same holes as standard wooden friction pegs. They have the same shape, weight and taper as a set of good ebony pegs.

Heads

The head of a Perfection peg is made either of ebony, rosewood, or ABS synthetic (the plastic often used in car bumpers). The head is attached to the central sun gear.

Shank

The section just below the head is the shank, which is made of aircraft-grade aluminium, turned, polished and anodized. When the peg is installed the shank is fixed in the peg box and remains stationary.

Planetary gears

Concealed in the shank is a set of planetary gears that are built into and around the central shaft, and the brake which holds the gears in position against the tension of the strings. The gears are fashioned from the same toughened steel used for helicopter rotor-shafts. They are immensely strong and give the pegs their accuracy and control. They are permanently sealed, and lubricated with the grease commonly used for binocular focus assemblies.

Shaft

The shaft sits below the shank and is made of anodised aluminium and Delrin industrial nylon. It's the part with the string hole through the middle. The shaft is driven by the gears and turns as the head is turned.

See the Perfection pegs planetary gear diagram. 

Perfection peg operation

Turning the head of a Perfection peg rotates its main central sun gear. Three planet gears are held between the sun gear and an outer ring gear. As the sun gear turns the planet gears orbit around it. The motion of the planet gears rotates the shaft, which then takes up the string. The shaft turns once for every four turns of the head. The 4:1 gear reduction gives the Perfection peg the precision to act as its own finetuner.

When tuning: pressing the head of a Perfection peg inwards as you turn it stiffens the action in a gradual and crontrollable way, and this allows the peg to hold the string at tension. Like applying the brakes of a car or a bicycle: as you press the brakes you gradually slow down, come to a stop and then are locked in position by the brakes. The reverse happens when the peg head is gently pulled outward as it is turned: the action of the peg is released, becomes softer and the string is able to unwind.

To get a feel for how the pegs work: for each peg, back the peg off a couple of turns to release the string tension and several times work the head backwards and forwards a half turn each way as you applay a gentle inward pressure to the head. Do the same thing while gently pulling outwards on the head. As you try this you quickly discover how to adjust the peg for ease of turning and optimal hold. In practice, you find a setting that works for you and tend to leave it at that point.

If at some stage you find that the string is not holding, gently apply more inward pressure as you turn and this will firm the action. Conversely, if the peg becomes difficult to turn, gently pull the peg head away from the peg box as you turn and you will feel the action become easier.

Measuring & selecting pegs

Perfection pegs are available in a range of shank diameters to suit different instruments and peg hole sizes.

Taking measurements

To ensure a good fit all instruments should be measured before you place an order.

Measurements should be made at the point where the peg enters the peg box on the peg head side (your luthier would make these measurements before ordering and fitting the pegs).

• Measure the diameter of all the peg holes
• To make an exact measurement of the pegholes, remove the pegs and measure the diameter of the holes.
• For a good approximate measurment leave the pegs in place, use a set of calipers to measure the diameter of the existing pegs.
• Select the Perfection peg that is just larger than the largest peg hole
• Newer instruments usually suit the smaller Perfection pegs.
• Older instruments will often have larger peg holes and will need the larger pegs.

Perfection peg types

Model names and dimensions

Model	Diameter (mm)	Description
P1VN44	7.8	set of 4	violin 4/4, viola 14" and larger
P1VN44 8.5	8.5	set of 4	violin 4/4, viola 14" and larger
P1VN44 9.0	9.0	set of 4	violin 4/4, viola 14" and larger
P1VA44 9.0	9.0	set of 4	viola 4/4, 14" and larger
P1VN34	7.8	set of 4	violin 3/4-1/2, viola 12"-13"
P1VC44	12.0	set of 4	cello 4/4
P1VC44 13	13.0	set of 4	cello 4/4
P1VC44 14	14.0	set of 4	cello 4/4
P1VC44 15	15.0	set of 4	cello 4/4
P1VC34	12.0	set of 4	cello 3/4-1/2
See these two dimensioned images of Perfection pegs for violin & viola and cello

Sales

Peg heads in ebony, rosewood or ABS

Swiss & Hill styles

• Swiss style, in ebony, rosewood or ABS synthetic
• Hill style, in ebony or rosewood

Understanding the model names

P1VN44 8.5 EH
The model name describes the peg, the instrument type it's suited for, the instrument size, peg hole diameter and the head type. This name describes a Perfection peg for a 4/4 (full size) violin with its largest peg hole less than 8.5mm. The peg has a head made of ebony carved in the Hill style.
P1	Perfection peg
VN	Instrument type	VN violin & viola, VA viola, VC cello
44	Instrument size	44 full size, 34 half to three-quarter size
8.5	Shank diameter	in mm, at top of the thread	No number indicates 7.8mm for violin or 12.0mm for cello
EH	Head style & material	E ebony, R rosewood, H Hill style, S Swiss style	No style designation indicates ABS synthetic in Swiss style

Background

The first pegs

In past centuries all stringed instruments used strings made from processed gut and had wooden friction pegs for tuning. Wooden tuning pegs pre-date all modern string instruments and their first use is lost in pre-history. Friction pegs have always had problems and have never been easy things to use: they require strength and skill to make them work properly and it can take years before a player feels competent in using them.

Held in place only by friction and pressure against the wood of the peg box, wooden pegs are designed to wear out, it's the way they work: each turn of a wooden peg creates a little more wear on itself and the pegbox. As they wear they go out of shape and become more and more difficult to use. Eventually the peg holes need to be reamed to a larger size and the pegs replaced, finally the peg holes get too large and must be rebushed, and the whole process starts again. The performance of wooden pegs is also adversely affected by the weather: the wood peg and the box expand and contract with changes in temperature and humidity and this can make them stick in place or let go unexpectedly. This effect gets worse the older and more worn a peg becomes.

Friction pegs are the single major cause of wear on an instrument and their operational characteristics change as their shape changes. But, for generations, they were the only technology available for the job.

New strings

Over the years, from around the end of the 19th century, alternatives to gut strings became readily available. Different materials were used to create strings with bigger and brighter sounds and better projection. Fashioned variously from steel, aluminium and synthetic fibres, the new strings needed higher tensions to bring them up to pitch, and this compounded the problems with friction pegs. To overcome the difficulties fine tuners were introduced. Attached to the tail piece, fine tuners compromise the sound and can cause damage, but they allowed more accurate tuning than unassisted friction pegs. In a real sense the pressure was on.

First gears

Geared tuners were developed to handle the higher string tensions and improve accuracy in tuning. They are easier to use and more stable than friction pegs. In response, the design and construction of the string bass, guitar, mandolin and several other string instruments, adopted the geared tuner. For violin, viola and cello, finding a suitable replacement for the traditional wooden peg proved far more difficult. For these instruments the weight of the pegs is crucial to the performance of the instrument and there are strong aesthetic requirements that had to be satisfied. The development of an acceptable alternative, a geared peg that performed properly and looked good on the instrument, had to wait. In fact, had to wait another 100 years, for the development of new metals, synthetics and computer aided manufacturing methods.

Finally, Perfection

Chuck Herin, a cellist with the South Carolina Symphony, is also an engineer. He became intrigued by string instruments' and their problematic tuning: others talked about it but Chuck worked on it, and around year 2000 after 20 years of research and development, he released the first PegHed planetary geared tuning peg. The PegHed technology was licenced and the Perfection planetary pegs for violin, viola and cello were developed. Perfection pegs provide the geared advantages of accuracy, strength and stability. They are so accurate that fine tuners can be dispensed with. And importantly, they fit the space of a traditional wooden peg and maintain the appearance and the character of the instrument, to the extent that the most noticable indication Perfection pegs are fitted is the absence of fine tuners on an instrument's tail piece.

Installing Perfection pegs does not harm an instrument, it is a fully reversible process. Trained luthiers already have the skills and tools: the reamer used to prepare the peg box is exactly that used to install traditional pegs. Fitting them is a straightforward task, no more complex than fitting traditional pegs. The right size Perfection peg for an instrument is fractionally larger than the existing peg holes and there are Perfection peg sizes to fit most violins, violas and cellos.

Perfection pegs are an easy thing to use for all string players, beginner to advanced, young and old. And with such a list of benefits you might expect there to be a down side - but we haven't found one.

See the Perfection peg Slide Show 
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Eliminating friction

In normal use, the friction of wood peg on wood pegbox is the only cause of pegbox damage and is the major cause of wear. Fitting a set of Perfection pegs totally eliminates tuning friction and wear. When Perfection pegs are fitted your tuning problems will vanish, along with the friction. They will never wear out and you will never again need to have your pegs maintained or repaired.

Efficiency & effectiveness

Learning to play a string instrument and teaching it: two joyous pinnacles of art and human achievement, and both difficult enough to do well. With strings, all teachers and students like the idea of efficient and effective teaching and learning. No teacher enjoys wasting their time in the senseless repetition of tuning an orchestra of young violins with difficult pegs, or tuning instruments that will lose tune again before a lesson's end. No young string student likes the feeling of having an instrument they are physically unable to tune, or waiting for a teacher or adult to tune their instrument for them. Perfection pegs can eradicate string tuning problems and boost the efficiency and effectiveness of string teachers and students.

When used in a classroom setting, particularly at elementary and middle schools levels, Perfection pegs will reduce the time required for tuning and increase the time available for teaching. For any string teacher or player, at any level, Perfection pegs will reduce the stress and effort of tuning.

When an orchestra of young string players have their instruments fitted with Perfection pegs, the time taken to tune the group is greatly reduced. Those instruments that do need to be tuned can be dealt with quickly and easily. Teachers using Perfection pegs in these situations report time savings of 30% and more.

Students with Perfection pegs on their instruments are able to tune on their own at a far earlier stage in their learning, often years earlier. Every lesson they have is more effective, because they no longer have to battle awkward pegs and their teacher has more time for teaching. At home, they practice on an instrument that is in tune, that they have tuned. When trained even young students are able to use Perfection pegs without assistance, and this gives them a greater sense of control and encourages the habit of regular practice.

An instrument fitted with Perfection pegs has a longer, more useful working life. Spending on instrument repairs associated with pegs and fine tuners is virtually eliminated, as are those 'incidents' with friction pegs that are the most common cause of broken strings.

Availability

Perfection Planetary Pegs for violin, viola and cello, to fit instruments 1/2, 3/4 and full-size, are available now by mailorder from the Sales page on this website, or through your luthier.

Not all models and sizes of peg may be in stock at the time of your order but they will be brought in to fulfill the order. Please contact us by email if you would like to check the availability of a particular type of peg.

Trade discounts are available for professional luthiers and school string programs