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Fine tuners are important if you have many strings on your instrument and want to reduce tuning time. Some people might be conservative but I prefer playing rather than tuning and fine tuners is an obvious choice to me. There are three options
- Pegs with integrated fine tuners
- Fine tuners in the tailpiece in which the sympathetic strings are attached
- Fine tuners in the tailpiect that tunes the sympathetic strings by lifting it
Pegs with integrated fine tuners
These pegs have been developed during the last decade and I like them since it is convenient to have only one thing to adjust while tuning. They also eliminates the need for any extra screws on the tailpiece which makes the design of the tailpiece more flexible. There are a few different suppliers:
- Wittner
- Pegheds
- Knilling
Wittner
Wittner pegs are made of plastic and it is not possible to change the peg head since the mechanic parts are found inside the head. Most people are not too happy with plastic pegs but I am very satisified with the function. Lately there are also pegs in different colors which might make them slightly better looking. Some people have had problems with a not perfectly smooth function and I have experienced that to some extent. I believe the problem is when the string tension is to high. My instruments have shorter neck which reduces string tension. There are two sizes, one standard size and one smaller made for quarter or half size violins. The maximum size of the head of the smaller variant is 18 mm, for the standard size 22 mm. I have used the smaller variant for double-deckers, otherwise you have to make the pegbox quite large. The average price is 80$ per set. The Wittner pegs are made to be pushed in to the peg hole and the surface is made to generate enough friction. Some people use a small amount of glue also but I have not done that. It is important to make the peghole small so you have to use a lot of force to push the peg into the hole. It is also important that the movable part in the middle of the peg is very close to the nearest edge of the pegbox. Otherwise the string might get stuck in the small space between the fixed and movable part of the peg.
- Advantage: Function
- Disadvantage: Plastic look, only two dimensions to choose from
Pegheds
The mechanics of Pegheds pegs is placed in a way that enables flexibility when it comes to design of the peg "handle". This makes it possible to use different materials and you can even design your variant. The gear is 4:1 and the average price for 4 pegs is 150$. Pegheds are glued to the the violin which is a disadvantage for double-deckers where it might be difficult to mount sympathetic strings if the pegs for the playing strings are installed in the pegbox. There are three dimensions of the peg bar, 7.5 mm, 8.5 mm and 9 mm and the handles can be down to 16 or 17 mm. www.pegheds.com
- Advantage: Looks better
- Disadvantages: I have heard that these pegs are somewhat fragile and they have to be glued.
Knilling
Knilling is another option but they might be identical to pegheds, I actually don't know.www.knilling.com
Fine tuners in the tailpiece in which the sympathetic strings are attached
There are separate fine tuners for one string for sale on the market and they are suitable for sympathetic strings. Usually they have to be turned upside down and mounted on the downward facing side of the tailpiece. These fine tuners are usually not very small and is best suitable on instruments with not too many sympathetic strings and a large tailpiece, a viola d'amore with 5 playing strings and 4 sympathetic strings is perfect.
Fine tuners in the tailpiect that tunes the sympathetic strings by lifting it
Per Hardestam has invented this solution: the PDF is in swedish but many pictures are included and hopefully you'll be able to understand even if you don't speak swedish.
I have tried it myself and it works pretty well. It is a little bit tricky to have the same gear on all sympathetic strings since the fine tuners have to be placed on different distance from the extra bridge on the downward facing side of the tailpiece. The height of the bridges, the distance to the bridge and lenght of the tailpiece is very important. If the violin bridge is too high and the tailpiece is of standard length I have had problems with high tension of the sympathetic strings which resulted in a large force bending the bridge.