What is Plek service?

[Billy Low]

The video shows that the measurement phase lightly touches the string. During grinding, the strings are pulled off to the side. I don't think strings are damaged during the process. The height of the fret is determined by it's distance from the string. The frets are ground down as necessary to make the distance from the top of the fret to the bottom of the string to be the same.

Seeing as how I have seen the process repeated approx. 15 times a day 5 days a week since October of 08, I can assure you that bass strings are not affected. If the strings were affected this would surely affect the marketability of the device. Now it's a possibility that lighter gauge guitar strings (think .07) could be affected when the instrument is tuned to pitch. I am not certain seeing as how I have only seen 1 strat plek'ed.

 

[JmJ]

The guy who took in my bass was not the technician and his choice of words was unfortunate. The person who gave me back my bass was more detailed in her description saying "they need a consistent tension for the Plek machine to be accurate. occassionally the Plek machine will change the tension of the strings." Any way it was a moot point as I got my second set of strings back.

 

[Stu L.]

How do I know if I need to have my bass Plek'd, or just set up?

 

[2minkey]

well, if you want it perfect, then plek is the answer.

i just got my 2nd pleked bass back from mike lull's shop and i'm freaked out by how nice the instruments are. and they were pretty nice to begin with (e.g. benavente).

 

[Billy Low]

How do I know if I need to have my bass Plek'd, or just set up?

Plecking is an automated way of assuring that the fret height is level across the length of the neck and falls within a certain preset perameter. This is often done by hand in many shops around the world, however the Plek machine performs the task in a much quicker, somewhat more acurrate fashion. This is totally different from a set up. In basic terms, a set up is the adjustment of the relief in the neck and saddles of the bridge to achieve desired playability for the player by achieving a certain string height that allows full motion of the string without creating fretbuzz.

It has been my experience that the setup is totally dependant on the style of the player. I am a player who desires EXTREMELY low action. This is because I have an extremely light touch. Most of the other players I know find the setups of my personal instruments too low because when they play my instruments they have alot of buzzing; whereas I have none! I recall setting up a couple of instruments for Tim Commerford of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave fame last year and he had me set the action sky high because of the aggressiveness in his style of playing.

My suggestion would be have the setup done first. If you have had a setup performed and you still have fret buzz across selected frets, generally addressing the frets will take care of this. IMO it would be best to sit with a tech and have them check it out while you are there so you can have them make adjustments based on your particular needs.

 

[Rocky McDougall]

If the shop doing the pleck service adjusts the truss rod to get the neck as stright as possible, and then dresses the frets with the pleck maching. What happens if you decided to change the bow in the neck?