Plek your guitar?

protocosm

protocosm

Inspired
PLEK / A+D Gitarrentechnologie GmbH - Welcome to plek

Hi did anybody have their guitar(s) 'plekked'?
What was your experience?

"Welcome to plek
It's a situation any guitarist can relate to: the instrument is well-balanced, looks great and sounds excellent, but somehow it's hard to play. But it's a problem that can be solved.




Next to the tone, the playability is one of the most important characteristics that determines the quality of a musical instrument. The plek process guarantees the best possible string action for each instrument, matching the individual style of the musician. A guitar with optimised playability just sounds better: the strings do not strike the frets during playing and any intonation problems that may occur due to too low a string action are eliminated." (from the site)



Greetz,
JB

Poolguitarblog
 
If you just want to know what it feels like - Gibson uses it on a bunch of their guitars. If you check out a Les Paul Standard or better, you'll see if it makes a difference for you. They come with a plek sticker on them & I've seen the machine at the factory in Memphis.

In my case it would be tough to do it as I'd have to ship it out of country & pay customs. So for now I just rely on the skilled hands, eyes & ears of my luthier :)
 
It's another, albeit expensive, tool for the skilled luthier and/or manufacturer.

I've had one of mine done and was pleased by the results, although I've also been
equally pleased by the results of a setup done by a skilled person without the Plek...

Either case would be far better than I can do myself... :roll :lol
 
I've learned to do full set-ups myself, for about $40 in tools it works fantastic, and i can get mine to play exactly like i want them to play.

But i think it's cool for the manufacturers to use it if it works better for them. It has to make the guitars all a little closer to a spec going out the door than all hand done leveling and crowning.
 
I had had my old G303 plekked and it played like a new guitar after that process, perfect action and playability. It wasn't too expensive, something about 200,- Euros - definitely worth it.
 
Depends on the operator, I bought a new Gibson with a stuck truss rod nut and it was unplayable, I assume due to the neck not being adjustable. Nut and bridge saddles cut to deep, uneven frets, high frets when the neck met the body. Everything was cut to the curve of an un-adjusted neck.

Brought the guitar to a really good luthier and after he stopped laughing he said "glad to see I'm not being replaced by a machine anytime soon". The luthier did his usual fret leveling and the guitar is outstanding.

I have a couple Gibson R8/R9's that are also plek'd, the luthier's work beats the plek on these other Gibby's. I've heard stories of good luthiers getting great results from a plek, but if the operator is a bone head (or Gibson employee) then plek is just another gimmick.
 
This looks great. But I have to wonder if a guitar's inherent instability will cause this fine adjustment to be lost over time.
 
I have a plek'd guitar and it plays really nice with low action but I also have some that play just as nice that wasn't plek'd. I remember reading that Surh does this to their guitars before they leave the factory.
 
had mike lull plek my esp eclipse and put glue under the frets. All i can say is its worth it next time you refret your instrument.
 
Plek is a tool, the final results still depend on the operator.
My Gibson came Pleked from the factory and it was OK.... but my tech did a better job on it manually.
Of course if he would have used a Plek it might have been even more amazing.

He explained to me that the Plek job was good but the board wasn't leveled before they put the frets on.
Yes, the Plek corrected this but you can only go so far with an uneven board.

To the OP:
If you would like to go with lower action, Pleking will help.
If you want to keep the current action and the guitar is perfect (no fret buzz, no fretting out on bends)
then Pleking won't offer you anything.

;)
 
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best idea is to get some free time and a cheap tele/strat...screw around with it and dont be afraid to take everything apart and put it back...then change the action and intonate it perfectly. stretch the strings constantly, pull back and forward on the whammy bar (if applicable) stretch the string, re-intonate...you CAN make it very close to perfect. Then file the fret bite down and you're good to go. cheap guitar teaching you how to not screw up your expensive ones. better than a class.
 
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