Where to get vintage wood tuner pegs?

Ukulele discussions
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Tim Pawl
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Joined: Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:44 am

Where to get vintage wood tuner pegs?

Post by Tim Pawl »

Looking for Ukulele wood tuner pegs. Please help! I have a Washburn (Lyons & Healy) Ukulele, from I believe the 1930's Mahagony body. Stamped on top end of tuner board 3994 (model Number?) , the letters UG stamped on back of tuner board and number 174 ink stamped inside (Serial number?) I have three of the four tuner pegs and would like to buy a complete set of four. I have looked online and with the normal sources for pegs but cannot find any this size. Length of shaft 1.5 inches, diameter just below knob 5/16 or .3125 inches, diameter at end 7/32 or .219 inches. The holes in the uke tuner are .250 diameter. Does anyone have these or know wheer to find. Please respond or call 248-709-9471. Also any knowledge information on this ukulele would be appreciated. Correct date of manufacture , value, etc. Thanks, Tim
Clay Schaeffer
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Re: Where to get vintage wood tuner pegs?

Post by Clay Schaeffer »

You might be able to fit a set of rosewood or boxwood violin pegs to the uke. If you know any wood turners you might be able to have a set turned.
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Tom Owen
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Location: Kauai, Hawaii USA

Re: Where to get vintage wood tuner pegs?

Post by Tom Owen »

Pictures of the ukulele and pegs would be helpfull
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Tom Owen
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Re: Where to get vintage wood tuner pegs?

Post by Tom Owen »

I reread your post and realized that you were looking for wood pegs. This brings up a couple of issues. If the ukulele is circa 30's wood pegs would not been used, virtually all manufacturers had switched to "patent" peg, still friction but made from metal. Number two, Washburn (named for George Washburn Lyon) was sold to S.S Stewart in 1928, as Lyon and Healy the parent company decided they want to make harps ony. By about 1930 S.S Stewart sold the name to the Tonk Bros., who basically shut the brand down. Anyway a long winded post to say if the ukulele is a Washburn and has wood pegs it is much older than you think possibly late teens. Having said all that you can substitute fractional violin pegs perhaps a 3/4 or 1/2 size. just make sure they are not drilled for the string and you can do that yourself to fit. I would still like to see photos.
Tim Pawl
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Re: Where to get vintage wood tuner pegs?

Post by Tim Pawl »

Thanks for the tips on the pegs. Still no luck. I am attaching photos of Uke. Please help identify actual year it may have been made. Washburn with Lyons & Healy mark, ink number inside 174, stamped in top of neck 3994. Thanks again Tim Pawl NOTE MY PHOTO FILES WERE TOO LARGE. PLease send me email at pawl@earthlink.net if you would like me to send you photos for identification. Thanks
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Barry Daniels
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Re: Where to get vintage wood tuner pegs?

Post by Barry Daniels »

You can use a photo processing app to reduce the size of your photos to a maximum of 150 KB.
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Tom Owen
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Location: Kauai, Hawaii USA

Re: Where to get vintage wood tuner pegs?

Post by Tom Owen »

I did a little more looking and even without seeing it, assuming the numbers you gave are accurate, it was made in 1925. The UG is the model, the 174 on the inside is a batch number, the 3994 is the serial number. From what I found this model was discontinued at serial number 4000. They were made from 1922-1925. I still want to see the pegs, they appear to have fitted wood pegs to that model, but many don't have the original ones. I still believe your best bet is fractional violin pegs. Or if you wanted to go a little modern while maintaining vintage looks you could go with PegHeds geared tuners, they look like ebony wood pegs but are planetary geared at 4-1 ratio.

Mahlo
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