Plek

[ItAcHi]

hi guys, i have recently researching on PLEK, and like to know any of u guys have had ur guitars plek before? or own a plek guitar? such as 2008 gibson les paul standard, suhr guitars, heritage guitar.

how do you guys actually feel about it? comparing it to a non plek guitar? as im very keen in giving it a try when i head over to Japan to actually see whats the big hoo-ha about it.

in case you guys wondering what is plek, u can do a read up here
http://www.plek.com/en_US/home/

thanks

 

[Jumpin'Jellybean]

Nothing like a good ol' luthier setting the guitar up.

 

[ItAcHi]

Jumpin'Jellybean:

i understand the point view of the intimacy of a luthier and guitar, but maybe u care to explain in what aspect u r actually concern abt in regard to luthier vs plek machine?

cos to my knowledge.. plek is not a process tt rely entirely on the plek machine, it will still require a skilled luthier to read the scan report then do the truss rod adjustment and final set up.. but as compared to a full luthier work, precision will not be compromise due to human factors like tiredness and such.

 

[seekz]

cos to my knowledge.. plek is not a process tt rely entirely on the plek machine, it will still require a skilled luthier to read the scan report then do the truss rod adjustment and final set up.. but as compared to a full luthier work, precision will not be compromise due to human factors like tiredness and such.

Exactly! Then the same human factors will apply to the same luthier operating the plek machine isnt it ?

From a luthier point of view, its just a different set of tools but the same job, and quite a bit of hype.

 

[seekz]

Ultimately, I doubt factory plek'd guitars are set-up to the best they can.
in a mass production senario, the plek machine is just an automated solution to a factory set-up

 

[ItAcHi]

seekz:

yes..but its different process aint it? comparing a luthier sitting down and doing full fretwork job for like maybe 2 to 3hrs compare to a scanning and final set up job tt takes less than maybe 1hr. the work ratio is different. tts my point.

and yes u r right, a pre set up plek during production are useless unless its properly set up after the plek...but what abt a after purchase plek set up? i have read on other forums and there r ppl who swear by it after trying it, even they have experience a top notch first class luthier set up before.

hence i created this thread so that owners of such guitars could actually A/B their guitars and see is there really tt much of a diff?

 

[Jumpin'Jellybean]

Hmm, few can actually tell the difference. I mean with guitars, pedals, amps, i understand. Maybe even strings. But imo, unless the previous job was so horrible, then, the difference would be almost minimal. PLEKing creates that slight bit more accuracy, but if you're a skilled luthier, you're likely to have that accuracy. It's more of the time saving. But that's just me.

 

[bf0502tr]

there will be ppl who will embrace technology and ppl like some of us who will just take up any guitar and still will play and not complain. for those who embrace technology, this is for them, for those like me who rather just let the luthier do his thing, i dun really think its gonna help me much, if at all.

 

[seekz]

Ultimately its still a set-up, the "best" set-up is one that you can directly communicate to/with the luthier/tech.
and one that is most suited to the individual. Plek'd or not.

The nearest plek machine to us is in Japan and Australia. I would be interested to hear responses from people
who did send their guitars overseas for an overseas plek, if there are any.


But just out of curiousity, would you pay like $300 to get your guitars plek'd ?

 

[bluelime]

No i wont since i have not seen its powers.
But i might in the future if i'm own an expensive guitar which has bad setup.

 

[seekz]

Can see it in action here, and other related videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbbOAvB00nE&feature=related

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

haha just came across this by chance, actually, $300 for a plek job is quite reasonable, considering the best refret jobs + setup available here locally costs around $400.

i've always thought of such machine when i first did some minor setup to my guitars, not knowing that it was already built. i heard it costs over $100,000. needa do at least 333 guitars at $300 each to cover the cost!

 

[AaronSoFat]

better order now and get cracking then

 

[theunknown]

i thought setting up a guitar is personal preference. never thought everyone has the same taste. although there's a general bad and good.

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

i think personal preference plays a big part, but these options can be broken down to high, medium and low action. from the videos, i gather what the plek does is it ensures that frets are perfectly levelled, which is the basic requirement for a good setup, whether high, mid or low action.

good high and medium action is easy to achieve on most reasonably built guitars. however, a guitar with perfectly levelled frets opens the option of a super low action, heard it's something like 1mm and below at the 12th fret, without buzzing.

i'm sure there are some luthiers here like malcom or kai chin who can do it without this machine. haha but the idea of getting computer measured perfectly levelled frets!! =D