Jeri -

The problem with most regular cheapie string winders is that they're made for guitars. The "socket" that goes on the button is often too large to get a secure hold on the smaller knobes on something like a mandolin, and I would assume on a fiddle, so it wobbles around too much to give much control.

Most guitars have the buttons all in a row, but on some mandos some of the buttons stick out further than the ones next to them. In the case of the fiddle, the shafts are at an odd angle. Most guitar winders put the "crank" right on top of the button you're cranking; so on a mando with different shaft lengths, or on the fiddle where they point antigoggly, the crank is continually colliding with the button next door.

It looks like the fiddle in question has a fair amount of space between knobs, to allow some clearance; but most guitar winders have too big a socket to fit between the knobs on a mando, so if the crank doesn't crash, the socket still knocks up on the adjacent buttons.

In other words, what works on one instrument may need more "adjustments" than it's easy to make to work with an even slightly different instrument. Sometimes it's good to start with something that "almost works" and tweak that design. Often it's easier just to start from scratch.

The "Dunlop" that Clinton found probably would work, but it looks like a smaller button has to go deeper into the socket to get the right grip; there appears to be only 3 "button sizes" built in (based on SWAG method). If one of them fits close enough, and for the smaller buttons if the shaft is long enough to get the button far enough into the socket, then you'd be pretty well set up with that one.

With the Dunlop, the socket alone is probably big enough that one could just pitch the crank and the shaft and use the socket as a "knob gripper." It looks like it would be about the equal of having one inch diameter knobs on your instrument, and unless you've got something really out of alignment that should make it really easy to turn (unless you're talking standup string bass, where you really need a 10 inch stilson wrench).

I dug out an old "Gator Grip" socket that was in the bottom of the junkbox, (they're $9.95 when I looked at Walmart tonight) and it works like a charm on my mando pegs. Just having the inch diameter for your fingers to work on makes it smooth and easy turning the pegs on one mando that's always been difficult to tune. If needed, you can get an adapter to mate the 3/8" square hole in the Gator to the 1/4" hex socket on any "interchangeable bit" screwdriver - electric or not ($2.85 at Ace Hardware yesterday for an adapter). The one inch OD is a close fit between pegs on the mando, but there's no interference if you're reasonably careful. The biggest disadvantage is that the socket is right at 5 ounces, which seems like a lot of weight to carry around in your kit.

A short wooden dowel about an inch in diameter, with a straight slot cut across one end to fit the knobs in question, quite probably would have been the simplest solution. Of course if you did it that simply, you'd need to do a little whittlin' and engraving and finishing to make it look exotically "artsy," - to keep people from swiping your tool to hold up the leg on the crooked table you bent while you were dancin on it - or somethin'.

John