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What kind of fittings (pegs and tailpiece) do you have on your main instrument?
Written by The Weekend Vote
Published: August 15, 2014 at 9:02 PM [UTC]
For those who aren’t sure what that means, the fittings are the tailpiece, pegs, chin rest and bridge — those parts of the violin that can be interchanged. For the purposes of this vote, we’re just going to talk about the pegs and tailpiece, which often come as a matching set, as the chin rest is very often customized to the player and thus not always part of a “set.”
Here is a description of various materials used for fittings, based on Violinist.com discussions from the past about the topic:
Boxwood: The softest, lightest and considered by some to be the most hypoallergenic. Comes in a range of shades.
Rosewood: Softer than ebony but harder than boxwood. Most workable for peg-turning
Ebony: Considered the strongest, hardest and most durable
Composite: Carbon fiber or another synthetic material
Something else: Maybe yours is a combination, or another kind of wood not mentioned.
What do you have? Please feel free to post comments about it. Post pictures, too, if you like! Sometimes people even have beautifully carved fittings, or fittings with gold or ivory (which might be trouble, these days!)
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Posted on August 15, 2014 at 10:00 PM
About 2 years ago, the 1883 fiddle needed the end-piece button replaced. This part -- possibly original equipment, not sure -- had begun to split and could no longer safely hold the tailpiece in place. Once again, I had the luthier remove the ebony parts and substitute rosewood. The pegs on both these instruments look like the second from left in your photo -- about the same brown tone but not as shiny.
The 1921 fiddle already had rosewood when I acquired it about 9 years ago.
Posted on August 15, 2014 at 11:13 PM
Posted on August 16, 2014 at 1:27 AM
Posted on August 16, 2014 at 2:07 AM
Posted on August 16, 2014 at 2:25 AM
Posted on August 16, 2014 at 2:47 AM
Posted on August 16, 2014 at 4:16 AM
Posted on August 16, 2014 at 11:19 AM
Posted on August 16, 2014 at 6:43 PM
Posted on August 16, 2014 at 8:57 PM
at present I have a boxwood chinrest and rosewood tailpiece and pegs.
apparently most 'boxwood' chinrests out there are not 'real' boxwood, as a rule only the more expensive ones are probably boxwood, boxwood takes years and years to grow to a certain size to be ready to use (ie to get a decent piece to do anything with it).
This same person told me that the best set up is: boxwood chinrest, ebony tailpiece and rosewood pegs.....
Posted on August 17, 2014 at 2:40 AM
Posted on August 18, 2014 at 2:43 PM
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