Thoughts on ukulele/banjo friction pegs

[Keith Somerville]

Working on an old banjolele today. Customer's complaint is the usual about slipping pegs. It currently has washers on either side: one a black fibre or card, and the other leather. Wonder what folks' thoughts are about replacing them. I've used regular fibre washers in the past, and leather and rubber too, but wonder if I'm missing a trick...

[Greg Mirken]

Washers, or the headstock wood itself, get polished from the compression and lose their "grip". Try roughing the surfaces up with 320 or so grit sandpaper. Also make sure the tension screw isn't just bottoming out and not really doing any good.

[Frank Ford]

Don't forget to remove the screws and oil the threads so you're not fighting rust and corrosion when tightening them.

[Richard Bales]

I have often used violin rosin (the stuff you use on the bows) on mating surfaces of friction tuners.  Has worked a charm for me.

[Mike Kolb]

Good out-of-the-box thinking there, Richard!   I rehair violin bows and one of the "old timers" tricks is to dip each tied knot into powdered violin rosin before inserting them into the bow mortises. 

Gluing them in is a no-no, but the powdered rosin gives an extra bit of grab to help the ends from slipping-out.

[Keith Somerville]

I applied some rosin, replaced the washers and seems to be working fine. I've heard of people using rosin on banjo bridges to prevent them slipping?

[Richard Bales]

I also use rosin on the feet of bass bridges when the bass has a glossy finish.  Those bridges can skid on the glossy finish and when they do it's like a gun going off.  

[Mark McLean]

Yep, I put rosin on the floating bridge of my bouzouki (shown in my avitar) and it keeps it from skating around.