Shaheen - 8-6-2017 at 09:40 PM
Hi there,
I had an oud lying around that was gifted to me. Finally deciding on learning how to play it. I'm not even sure if it's that great a quality, I saw
the pegs where kind of old and decided to replace them. I ordered some from Amazon and these do not have any holes drilled into them. Any suggestions
on what to do? Im not that great of a craftsmen where I trust myself to accurately drill holes into these. I guess I could try. I was kind of
disappointed that they didnt come pre-drilled to be honest. They weren't that expensive but it was a disappointment to say the least. Is this
typically the case with oud pegs?
MattOud - 8-7-2017 at 05:49 AM
Dear Shaheen,
Almost exactly the same thing happened to me! I bought an Oud that ended up being a bit old and the pegs were nasty, so I bought new pegs from india.
Indian Rosewood.
They were beautiful when they arrived, but to my surprise, they were undrilled and unmodified in any way. This is completely normal!
This is how Luthiers buy them. Problem is if you are not a Luthier 
What i ended up doing is bringing the oud and new pegs to a local luthier who 'reemed' the pegs to fit each hole appropriately. They have a special
tool for this...Reeming is kinda like pencil sharpening where they 'reem' it into a proper taper that fits the Ouds holes. Then they can drill the
hole in the proper place for the string.
The peg wood and the wood of the pegboard must work well together. If both are too hard, they will slip and be hard to tune. I lucked out with
matching my woods so the tuning stays perfect luckily!
One thing i can say is that once the repair was done, the OUD is WAY better and much more fun when one can tune it properly!
Good luck!
Matt