Jonathan
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Cracked peg box
I have an older oud (1961) that has a cracked peg box. Actually, it is just one of the side pieces of wood that is cracked. The rest of the peg box
looks good. It looks as though it had been repaired many years ago, but not that well. I scraped out the old glue, re-glued it and clamped it
overnight, but, unfortunately, it is starting to crack again at the glue line.
I would take it to a luthier, but I just got the oud, and I am loving it, and I know it would take a long long time before I got the oud back from a
luthier. Maybe it is my bad luck, but I swear it seems like it takes a year (sometimes more) to get an oud back from a respected repairer. Worth it,
I know, but I just don't want to part with this for that long.
So, here is my thought--tell me if I am wrong.
I am thinking of using a 1/4 inch piece of plywood, and shaping it exactly like the cracked side wood on the peg box. Then, glueing it to the inside
surface, clamping it, drilling holes. and seeing what happens. Might not be terribly attractive, but I really don't think it will be that noticable.
I can stain the wood, smooth out the surfaces. Any thoughts? I am thinking that, as some of the plywood grain will be running perpendicular to the
grain of the original wood, that this will strengthen it quite a bit.
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Jameel
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That would work ok, I think, maybe Doc O can help you too. A better way would be to rout down the side walls of the peg box, plug the peg holes, glue
on some new wood, and fit new pegs. Since this isn't a sound producing element of the oud, and fairly simple repair, a decent guitar repair shop could
do it, or even a violin repair shop. I'd be glad to help if I wasn't 2000 miles away!
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Jonathan
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Thanks Jameel. The problem is that one piece of wood is so weak, I think if I tried to rout it down, the whole piece would fall apart. I know
eventually I am going to have to have the whole piece of wood replaced.
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Dr. Oud
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| Quote: | | Originally posted by Jameel... maybe Doc O can help you too... |
This failure is due to a unfortunate selection of grain direction in the original piece of wood for the peg box wall. No amount of glue will correct
the weakness in the original wood. Gluing on a piece of plywood would not provide the peg with a smooth hole to fit in, and I would imagine the pegs
wouldn't work very well. Jameel's repair is effective, but I think installing new peg box walls would be less work. Making a new peg box with the
original end cap would be the best, but fitting it in the neck notch is critical and could be a bigger problem if not fitted snugly. If I knew where
you're located I might be able to recomend someone in your area to fix it, and repairing just the peg box shouldn't take more than a month. The delay
is usually due to work already in process, so your instrument has to wait it's turn on the bench. I would choose a violin shop for their expertise
with pegs, most guitar shops don't do pegs. Your oud is worth the extra cost for a quality repair, after all.
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Jonathan
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Thanks a lot. I live in the Los Angeles area. I know Viken does great work, but he is pretty backed up. I don't mind mailing it out somewhere, but
everybody is pretty backed up. I know Kyvelos does superb repair work, but I think that would take quite a while, as well. Any suggestions are
appreciated.
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Jonathan
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Dr. Oud, isn't that the usual direction for the wood grain on a peg box?
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Dr. Oud
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The grain should be perpendicular to the peg, or flat to the wall. I can't really see the grain in your picture, but I bet it's not flat, or it could
be just a weak piece. This could have happened in some blunt force trauma incident to have split so far across the peg box. As for repair, there are a
lot of qualified repair techs in LA who could do this, and anybody any good will have a waiting list of customers. Pick someone with peg fitting
experience, take a deep breath and let it get go get fixed. My advice is don't call the guy every week to see if it's done yet, just be patient and
you'll get better work done. If you try to get it rushed you won't get the best job.
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Jonathan
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I talked to the original owner. He said he had stored it for many many years, but that he did not take the strings out of tension, which I am
guessing contributed to the problem.
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oudmaker
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Jonathan
The reason of the cracking is not to have tension on the strings but having pegs tightly in place fo a long time. I am sure you have experienced that
some times the pegs suddenly get loose. That is because of the change of humidity. The get dry and become loose. Same thing happens when they expose
to humidity and they crack the side walls of the peg box. Very common problem espacialy for vintage instruments. Here is what we do:
On violins; since the peg box is smaller and the regular grain of the maple is usualy does not cross two pegs next to each other and because of the
curveture of upper edge of side wall the crack happens usually on one peg hole a time. First we glue the crack and fill the hole then chisel inside of
the wall half way of the thickness at cract location, with a matched wood but slightly cross grain maple piece we glue a patch. Then restore the
hole.
On ouds the crack usually goes through two or three hole in your case even more. I will glue the crack than I will drill vertical holes of say 1/8 of
an inch and introduce vertical dowels between the holes. I tried It worked.
In you case since the crack is all along the side wall I would put a patch INSIDE. By the way it is not very hard to match a new peg box to an
existing neck cavity. You can do it.
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Jonathan
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That dowel idea seems like a great idea. I think I am going to give that a try. I have nothing to lose, at this point. If it does not turn out, I
could simply have that portion of the pegbox replaced. Again, Dincer, I am grateful.
Thanks!
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