Two of the pegs on my violin (approx 200 years old) seem to be going too far through the holes of the peg box. There are just a very few millimetres to go before they will literally not go any further. I assume it would mean something needs to be done with the hole size before long. Can anyone say if this kind of repair is expensive?

I fear the answer.....

It could be the pegs wearing down as opposed to the holes Peg fitting will be around ?100... as a very general number... (depends on the place and the pegs)

A few mm's to the collar is too deep. Given that Pegs are usually made from a harder wood than the Pegbox, it is probably the holes that have enlarged. It's very common on old fiddles and requires a rebushing - usually means plugging the existing holes with fresh wood and redrilling, although you can get paper bushings. There is always the very remote chance that someone has used thinner pegs.
Have a repairer look at it and obtain a quote, prices can vary enormously dependent on the level of expertise.

This website shows the process:

http://www.rocheviolins.com/html/peg_bushing_repair.html

whether or not your peg-holes will need re-bushing depends partly on how thick your existing pegs are and partly on which pegs are the problem. It's perfectly possible that all you will need is slightly thicker pegs.
How many mm is "a very few" by the way?

Thanks for this information. Do you know if paper bushings are as effective as wood, or would they wear more quickly? Also, would I need new pegs if the work is carried out, or could the existing ones be refitted? It's strange that one side of the peg box seems to be worse than the other - it's the D and G strings that are especially deep; the other two are deeper than I like, but not so bad. It also seems to be worse since I re-strung it at Christmas.

Hope it lasts until Easter as I can't get to the mainland again before then.....

Spiral bushings (paper or wood shaving) are not widely used in the UK, end grain wood bushings are more straightforward to do. It's not a big job, really, but as I say above, you may only need slightly thicker pegs.

I'd never even heard of spiral bushings before, and on Googling, am slightly horrified by the idea. An end grain bushing can be made virtually invisible (depending on skill and also on the original varnish), and more importantly will function exactly as the original wood, including the refitting of replacement pegs in the future.

What can I say. Spiral bushings work and at least they are reversible. Having said that I have never done them, largely because I was taught to use the end grain Boxwood method.
Misterioso. Whether you will be able to use your original Pegs depends on the dimensions of the shaft. On old instruments it's not uncommon to have four different Pegs, each of a different size! Sometimes any Peg to hand gets pressed into service, just to get the Violin up and running again,
I'm fairly certain that it will last through to Easter but without very accurate caliper measurements it's impossible to say whether you will need new Pegs, rebushing or both.

I'm fairly certain I could tell by eye if the OP would like to post a photo.

Thanks for the help and information, it's much appreciated. I plan to try to take it with me when I go away at Easter and ask the Violin Shop in Glasgow to look at it.


Sorry, I missed this post when I replied before. "A very few" in the worst case is about 2-3mm.


As most people know, I'm a complete technophobe and quite incapable of doing this on my own. But will see if I can coerce OH into doing it for me.

Many thanks again.

Update:
Took violin to a local luthier today. He said that there has already been work done on the pegbox, and that would make rebushing a bad idea. He added that he hadn't done any rebushing before in any case, and didn't want to practise on my fiddle! However, he also said that new pegs would solve the problem....and be SO much cheaper. Rather relieved actually, as I can't really afford expensive repairs. And since said luthier is a friend, he isn't going to charge me for the work, only the peg blanks.

Good result!