What the Plek Can Do with Ian Weston - IanHatesGuitars

If you've been in the business for a while, you've probably been told plenty of things about the Plek. Well, Ian Weston came by to show us exactly how useful the Plek Station can be. If you're into extreme precision, repeatability, and collecting data on your customers' guitars, then the Plek is really the only tool in the game. I don't know if there's a machine in my future, but I do know that my opinion on the Plek has changed for the better.

[@MrUltraworld]

I have a G&L Legacy that came Plek'd from the factory, and for some reason, it played real stiff. I did a fret dress by hand and all was good with the world again. I worked on some Gibson's that were "Plek'd" at the factory, and they still played terribly, I re-dressed the frets and they were good to go. I think that like most things, it comes down to the operator understanding the equipment. I had heard that Gibson had some convoluted way of using the Plek, but that's rumor.
I've been doing about a dozen refrets and about that many re-dress a week since 1978, I'm pretty good at it.

[@walterw2]

yeah, i'd not use gibson as an example of a properly plek'd guitar; as i understand it they have a jig that _imitates_ string tension, they throw the new guitar on that and run it through the machine before it has ever once had actual strings on it
(new gibsons are usually fine, just saying it's not really the complete process)

[@stevedimebag]

Great insight into the system and gives a nice visualisation of the fret dressing process.
I’m not sure if the PLEK system necessarily is a huge improvement over manual dressing by a skilled luthier.
However, in a situation where you need to do high volume of work, this may provide the repeatable and reliable results that make it worthwhile.

[@boydjohnson5081]

I’m not opposed to new technology but I’m not on the plek bandwagon. Factory pleked guitars are constantly coming into my shop brand new in need of fretwork. I also had a regular customer send a guitar to be pleked. I had previously leveled and dressed the guitar and it was in great shape. When he got it back it was only a tiny bit lower in action than what I was able to do by hand. My customer and I both concluded it was not worth the cost (especially when he had to pay to ship it back and forth). I can’t see the investment in cash, floorspace, and training to warrant a plek.
I’m sure there are times plek jobs come out beautifully but just like doing it by hand you have to know what you are doing and be able to use the tools to there max potential.

[@Bag-Of-Toys]

The Plek software could use some serious User Interface help.

[@eddiejr540]

I used to think my guitars played good...now I’m not so sure!!!!

[@ThomasHope73]

Not a great teacher is he.