Geared violin pegs and nut and bridge slot widths

[brucevanhise]

Hi Brian.

I’m organizing my basement workshop and look forward to starting my 12″ Carver kit in a few weeks. Two initial questions:

What is the diameter of the holes for the tuning pegs? Do you have any experience with geared violin pegs? Do you think they would work with the 12″ kit design?

What are the slot widths for the bridge and nut?

Thanks!

Bruce

[Carver Banjos]

The tuning peg holes are 9/32”.
I have never used geared violin tuners. I’ve seen some customers used planetary banjo pegs and I’ve seen guitar geared pegs used too.
I always encourage customers to use the friction pegs provided because they really do work very well when set up correctly. I can not guarantee any other pegs will work except for the pegs I provide.
The bridge and nut slot widths, I’m not sure exactly. I file the grooves in most of my bridges to what I know will accept the nylon strings.
I have several nut types for different kits.
If you have a white plastic nut it’s handmade and I fit the slots to match the standard strings I include with the kit.
If you have a black 3d printed nut, the slots I believe are uniformly 2mm across and may need small adjustments to fit each string.
If you have a fretted kit, the slots will be deeper to allow the strings to seat on fret zero.
I don’t fully understand the point of this question because you have the kit and can measure these things. If you want to explain what you are thinking with the nut and bridge maybe I can offer some help or suggestions on that.
Thank you!

[brucevanhise]

Thanks Brian!

I’d like to setup my banjo for Aquila’a standard nylgut sets and will need to appropriately slot the bridge and nut. I’ll measure my kit.

I grew up playing the violin, so have some experience with friction pegs. I agree they can work well if set up correctly.

I notice a few makers of gourd and early style banjos (Jason Romero, Pete Ross, Jim Hartel) offer geared violin peg tuners, though I’ll have to ask them how they handle the fifth string peg.

There are at least three companies offering geared violin pegs: Wittner, Knilling, and Pegheds. Wittner offers a set for Flamenco guitars that I believe could work well for banjos.

Thanks again,

Bruce

[Author]

Posts