Some people love friction pegs. Others…hate them. Especially, if those pegs were ill fitted to begin with. Those struggling with pegs either sell their peghead guitars, or end-up converting to planetary-geared mechanical pegs, or to machine tuners.

Here is an example of the friction pegs-to-machine tuners conversion:

If you are interested in converting your peghead guitar to mechanical tuners, I am well acquainted with this surgery, and will be glad to help.

On a rare occasion, there is an urge to go the opposite direction, from machine tuners, to pegs. It is a much more laborious process, and not one I’d recommend lightly, but it can be done. Pegs feel just right for some musicians. Here is one of such conversions:

The guitar was built in Spain in the late 60’s, and had a generic music store label inside. Even though the label was not signed, nor had I found any hidden builder’s signature or initials inside, the quality of construction was reasonably high. Despite being over 40-years old, and of very light construction, the guitar held up very well. It had no structural issues, played well, and had that “muy flamenco” sound.

Finding a piece of Spanish cedar of reasonably similar grain/texture, I tapered it with a matching scarf joint, and glued it to the neck.

Even though I now had a smooth foundation for the back, and the face was to receive a new veneer, I was not out of the woods yet with the sides of the headstock. Gaping holes from the high and low E tuner barrels were still fully visible, and I needed to graft additional thin slices of Spanish cedar to cover those openings.

The neck has been sanded, and the headstock detailed. Now is the tricky part of color-matching, to allow the old and new wood flow together,

Under a wash coat of shellac, there was quite a bit of contrast between the old and the new wood. Judicious use of burnt umber and raw sienna pigments allowed me to match colors quite closely.