Gently tug/pull the peg outward while twisting it back and forth. If you have any canned air, give the offending peg hole a few spritzes in the meantime in a bid to clean it out. Don't use lubricants like WD40, though, as things can quickly become slippery as heck and you'll have to get a cloth/paper towel in there to clean it up. In any event, yeah, I've had my share of recalcitrant pegs over the years. It's all part of what I refer to as Fiddle Fun!

Hmm.. If it is tight because of humidity, I'd put it in a low humidity environment for a while.. IF if has been jammed in tightly, maybe tap the narrow end with a 5 pound sledge.. (ok, maybe just use something lighter)  After you eventually get the peg loose, check the pegbox for cracks...Swollen pegs can crack a pegbox.. I could be wrong about this in every manner..

This is a three or four hand job. Have someone hold the violin pegbox solidly and tap the small end of the peg..... using a drift pin and machinists hammer or a rubber mallet if a good bit is sticking out the "off" end. Compressed air may be enough. Good luck. R/

Lowering humidity can be helpful sometimes if the fit has gotten tighter because of balmy weather.

It’s a very delicate job, so whatever you do, use extreme caution. With the tapered shape of the peg shaft, quite a lot of pressure can be built up on the pegbox, and cracks can happen in a split second. The A peg is the most dangerous because it’s where the pegbox is at its narrowest.

Don’t use liquids, as they can cause even more swelling in the peg holes and they can contaminate the wood. Unless the pegs are made of “boxwood,” the wood in them will be hard and will be much less susceptible to humidity, so the peg holes will be the culprit.

The late Kyle Reedy, fiddler and fiddle maker, used a spring loaded center punch ground down flat to pop the pegs on fiddles out. It came in real handy with the student violins with ebonite pegs.

That's a little unusual. Pegs usually stick in the summer and slip in the winter, but maybe you've had high humidity. If an attempt to gently twist the peg while pulling on it doesn't work, then I'd try a gentle tap with a light hammer as others have described. You may also be able to use temperature differential to help - I've heard of people laying a bag of frozen peas on the peg end to try and shrink it slightly. I've never tried that myself. Be careful of the finish.
If you're not using it already, regular use of peg treatment from Hill or Hidersine may keep this from happening.
Good luck.

BTW - Here's a discussion about this problem at Maestronet: maestronet.com/forum/index.php...uck-pegs/

I do the same as Brad Dorsey and tap the small end of the peg using an old soundpost to protect the pegbox and peg and I make sure the pegbox is supported. I hesitated to describe this method because I didn't want to encourage everyone to try it--there's significant risk of damage. 

I prefer this method because I can control the amount of force much better. As I’ve said, it’s an extremely delicate matter, especially if it’s a very old violin with a petite pegbox.

I don’t believe the pegs are usually the parts that change size. I think the holes themselves absorb moisture. This is why a peg will go farther into the hole in winter but will need to be retracted in the summer. I also think one of the keys to prevent premature wear of peg holes is to regularly pull the peg outward until it’s loose when tuning once a day to make sure it’s not widening the hole. Some people will come back with a set of pegs after just a few months and the pegs will be already protruding by several millimeters while others will have pegs that still fit perfectly. If you pull the pegs out and put them in the peg shaver, they’ll still be the same diameter, which suggests to me that they’re not changing.

What recently worked for me with a very tight peg was to use a pliers with a few layers of tape over the jaw area of the pliers, to prevent scuffing up the wooden peg. It was surprisingly easy to loosen it using the pliers. That worked very well for me, and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

I forgot to mention in my post above to twist the tuning peg once you grab it with the taped pliers in the direction that would loosen it; not that you grab it with the pliers and pull straight out. It should loosen quite easily without any damage to anything.

Pliers and something to protect the peg can work, although I would caution that it’s very easy to break a peg or the pegbox. Exercise extreme caution.

I also use the gentle tapping method if needed to unstick a peg. Besides the problem of stuck pegs I've found old fiddles frequently have the opposite problem of worn pegs and holes that constantly slip requiring peg dope and wiggling pegs into position with force to get them to hold. That's frustrating and risks peg box cracking.To prevent that problem I'll tune a fiddle once and then use the fine tuners thereafter. Years of cranking on the tuning pegs wears both the pegs and the holes out causing glazing and distortion. Once or twice a year it's a good idea to move the pegs to ensure their freedom. Otherwise, fine tuners.

Brian - Why haven't you taken your old fiddles to someone and have the pegs and holes shaped so they work properly (or have new pegs installed)? Its not really that expensive, and good for the instrument.
I use fine tuners too, but I think the pegs on all my fiddles work pretty well, including one where I had a new set of rosewood pegs installed after struggling for years with a mysteriously skinny G string peg.

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Originally posted by DougD

Brian - Why haven't you taken your old fiddles to someone and have the pegs and holes shaped so they work properly (or have new pegs installed)? Its not really that expensive, and good for the instrument.
I use fine tuners too, but I think the pegs on all my fiddles work pretty well, including one where I had a new set of rosewood pegs installed after struggling for years with a mysteriously skinny G string peg.

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I do it myself, Doug. People bring me instruments. I agree, good for the instrument and once it's done there should be years of good service.

I see. I thought you were describing your own experience, but you were referring to the history of instruments that have come your way.
I have some ideas about the actual causes of peg problems, but that discussion will have to wait. I do use fine tuners, but I try to exercise the pegs regularly.

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Originally posted by DougD

I see. I thought you were describing your own experience, but you were referring to the history of instruments that have come your way.
I have some ideas about the actual causes of peg problems, but that discussion will have to wait. I do use fine tuners, but I try to exercise the pegs regularly.

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I expect there might be differing opinions about using the pegs regularly versus avoiding using them very much. I'd be interested in what you and others say about that. Some of the old pegs I see are worn narrower where they turn in the holes. I suspect some are softer wood than ebony, though most are dark like ebony. I believe some rosewood varieties are softer than ebony.

Using a strobe tuner, I can't see how a peg could possibly zero in on the perfect pitch for each string. Even using fine tuners, the amount of adjustment is so tiny! But thats a different discussion.

I busted a peg trying to muscle one out by hand, and I've also cracked the peg box on one old auction fiddle. Gorilla strength is not the answer with wood!

Brian - You work with wood. Have you ever visited this website? wood-database.com/ There's a physical book available for purchase, but if you scroll down, near the bottom you can browse woods by common or scientific name. There's lots of information, including hardness, density, and environmental stability, and lots more. Its a great site.

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Originally posted by DougD

Brian - You work with wood. Have you ever visited this website? wood-database.com/ There's a physical book available for purchase, but if you scroll down, near the bottom you can browse woods by common or scientific name. There's lots of information, including hardness, density, and environmental stability, and lots more. Its a great site.

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Thanks!

Rosewood is generally softer than Ebony, but not by a great deal. Real boxwood can be harder than Ebony, but unless you’re looking at high end or very old fittings, the “boxwood” is almost certainly a different wood that’s softer and takes a stain more easily.

Pegs will work for decades—if they’re maintained well. Regular use is not a problem if they aren’t pushed in too hard in tuning. I think one of the biggest contributing factors to pegs wearing into the pegbox and widening the holes is neglect when the seasons change. A peg hole will tighten around the peg in the humid months and it will loosen in drier months. Maple is softer than ebony and rosewood. I always recommend pulling each peg out to the point that it’s loose before playing to make sure the pegs aren’t in too tightly. Leaving the violin alone is likely to cause damage to it.

A lot of old pegs and peg holes don’t work well together because a long time ago few luthiers had peg shavers and matching reamers. Pegs were often fitted with a file, so the shafts could be all kinds of shapes. When peg shapers first came into use, the taper was also more severe than what’s used now, and it loaded a lot more pressure onto the thumb piece. Repairmen and restorers started using a different taper eventually to be gentler on the pegbox.

Peg compound can be a blessing and a curse. It does get pegs moving when they’re stuck, but it can make them too slippery, and too much of it will make the peg fit poorly in the hole. If a peg is a little too small sometimes people will load it with a mass of compound to “make up for” the poor fit. It will work for a while and then the peg will wear through faster because it’s so heavily lubricated. As the Hill compound states on its label: “To be applied sparingly.”

Have you ever heard of putting a fiddle for a short time in a freezer to loosen stuck pegs?

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Originally posted by Brian Wood

Have you ever heard of putting a fiddle for a short time in a freezer to loosen stuck pegs?

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I sat a fiddle on a cold concrete basement floor. The shoulder rest held most of it aloft. But the second contact point was the scroll. Once the scroll got cooled off, about a hour, three of four pegs came popping out. The fourth didn't jump out like the upper three, but had loosened.  Lesson learned.

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Originally posted by Brian Wood

Have you ever heard of putting a fiddle for a short time in a freezer to loosen stuck pegs?

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When I worked at Potter's, the repair staff did an experiment with a violin that had pegs that were dangerously tight. We tried putting it in a freezer several times, from five minutes up to fifteen or so. Even at fifteen minutes, the pegs weren't any looser, and we were concerned about the effects that the freezer might have on the violin overall with prolonged exposure (e.g. plate shrinkage, projection change, potential saddle cracks, brittleness of the wood, and varnish damage). If we were nervous about it with a cheap violin, it definitely wasn't worth it to try it on anything that was valuable or belonged to a customer.

I recall an experiment using ice packs around the scroll of another violin as well. It didn't solve the issue either.

Pegs do become looser in winter, but I think this is more related to low humidity than the temperature. As you lower the temperature in a room, the relative humidity also decreases, but then you have the added effects of temperature on the violin. If it's warm and the humidity drops the pegs will become looser as well. I don't like to subject violins to extremes if they can be avoided.