Guitar String Pegs

Fixed to the headstock of your guitar, you'll find that your strings pass upwards towards the machineheads, which are guitar string pegs that hold the string at a certain tension. Machineheads are important to the performance of your guitar because if they aren't tight enough to hold your string perfectly taut at a pitch, you'll slip out of tune quickly after playing. Another common part of the guitar that are associated as string pegs is the bridge nut as it feeds the strings from the neck of the guitar up to the headstock and into the machineheads. Depending on what kind of guitar string pegs you're looking for, you'll be inclined to pick up either machineheads or a bridge nut.

Guitar Machineheads

Machineheads are among the most highly customizable pieces on your guitar whether it's a standard electric, a bass or an acoustic. The advantages of getting new or upgraded machineheads for your guitar include the following but certainly aren't limited:

  • More consistent tone
  • Less pitch change after hard playing
  • Easier to tune
  • Less chance of snags; some machineheads are inline and streamlined to prevent accidental mistuning.

Styles and performance of machineheads vary by brand but all manufacturers make a comparable product to guitar companies' stock heads.

Getting Performance Over Style

Performance means long periods of playing while strumming harder and being more animated on stage with less of a pitch change in your tuning throughout the entire performance. Machineheads are capable of holding a string to its tune despite hard playing so long as it's a great machinehead. Cheaper string pegs won't hold the string tight at its desired pitch if the string is picked at hard: more expensive heads will yield a more consistent sound even in light of playing hard metal or fast punk.

Some machineheads are as much about style as they are about performance. For instance, the classical-looking machineheads that resemble machineheads found on orchestral instruments are large and easy to tune but also resilient to a great deal of pressure on the string. Not all instrumentalists like the classic look though, so there are a variety of custom-made heads that you can purchase and install on your guitar for added resilience to tone loss during hard or long playing.

Heads For Your Guitar Online

Finding places online to get heads is simple: you can look for the manufacturer of your guitar online or you can find a third party manufacturer of basic guitar parts. When you go through the guitar company that made your guitar, you're committing your investment to a time trusted guitar manufacturer. You'll know that the part you're getting is exactly the same in quality and manufacturing as the one that came on the guitar. When opting for a third party manufacturer, you risk quality because you won't necessary be buying a brand name. Still, there are incredible deals through third party manufacturers online so seriously consider your options when selecting a new machinehead to replace or upgrade your previous ones!

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