Sitars, surbahars, sarods, tanpuras and esraj all hold their tuning with friction pegs: a tapered wooden peg wedged into a tapered hole. There is no gear and no screw, so the whole system depends on the two tapers matching each other exactly. When a peg slips, jumps or refuses to turn, the cause is almost always the fit, and the cure is to shape the peg properly rather than to force it.
Why a peg misbehaves
A peg that slips is riding on a high spot instead of gripping along its whole length. A peg that squeaks or jumps in steps is dry, or the hole has gone slightly oval with years of turning. A peg that has been pushed in too hard can split the peg box, which is a much more expensive repair than the peg it was trying to fix. If you find yourself shoving a peg in to make it hold, stop: that is the moment to reshape it.
Shaping a new peg
The video below shows the whole job on an Indian stringed instrument, from a rough peg blank to a peg that turns smoothly and holds.
The points that matter
Match the taper, not the diameter
The peg and the hole must share the same taper. A peg cut to a slightly different angle will touch only at one end, and no amount of pressure will make that grip. Cut the peg oversize, then take it down gradually, testing the fit constantly.
Take material off slowly
Work with a shaver or a fine file and check the fit after every few passes. Wood removed cannot be replaced, and a peg that has gone too small has to be started again.
Season the wood first
Pegs are usually rosewood or ebony. Unseasoned wood will shrink in the hole within a few months and the peg will start slipping again. This is the commonest reason a cheap replacement peg fails.
Use peg compound, not chalk alone
A little peg compound gives the grip and smoothness that a correctly shaped peg needs to be pleasant to use. Soap, candle wax and other improvisations either make the peg slip or glue it in place.
When to let a workshop do it
Fitting a peg is genuinely skilled work, and the cost of getting it wrong is a cracked peg box. If your instrument is valuable, or if more than one peg has started to slip, it is worth handing over. We fit and shape pegs in our Mumbai workshop, and we check and adjust every peg on every instrument we sell before it is despatched, so a sitar or tanpura that arrives from us should hold its tuning from the first day.
See also sitar maintenance for changing strings and chalking pegs, tying sitar frets, and our sitar FAQs. For parts and strings, look in string instrument accessories.