What the Plek?

With a handful of systems available to the public worldwide you would be forgiven for not knowing the ins and outs of the Plek’d process. ‘Plek is many things to many different people. We like to think of it as a question – What makes for the best possible playability in a guitar? – which we have turned into a machine.’ Say the German creators.

The Plek’d machine uses ground-breaking technology to assess and scan your guitar, with the info received it can then carry out precise fret dressing, nut slotting/shaping, bridge slotting and engraving. Many guitar companies use this unit as a quality control tool, ensuring guitars leave exactly as they should.

Plek Station features include:

• Fret dressing and crowning in accordance with luthier instructions
• Nut slotting/shaping at precise angles and depths to achieve optimal string action
• Fret slot cutting
• Nut pocket cutting
• Saddle/Saddle slot cutting
• Fingerboard engraving
• “Virtual Fret Dress” technology enables work effects to be previewed before implementation

In addition to all of this, the software embedded in the Plek Station can:

• Scan instruments to analyze fingerboard and fret-plane relief under each string
• Identify and view problem areas
• Preview the effects of intended work using “Virtual Fret Dress” technology
• Compare current neck and fret-plane relief with an optimum relief curve calculated from current and target instrument specs
• Indicate how much fret material needs to be removed to eliminate the risk of buzzing and maximize playability for the given specs
• Plane optimum relief and fall-off into a fingerboard
• Interpolate fret dress requirements to achieve a smooth compound radius transition along the neck
• Calculate and combine optimal fret-plane relief contours below individual strings

The Plek’d machine still needs a skilled guitar technician during operation and to make the right decisions behind the wheel. The machine does not replace the human element in setting up a guitar but instead makes the process more precise and efficient.

Guitarists & bassists in Australia can contact Port Mac Guitars to try out this amazing technology for themselves.