What's the deal with PLEKing???

[Brent Hutto]

Originally Posted by Bruce Sexauer

I don't really have a dog in this potential fight . . . but it is not that hard to simulate the 160 lb of tension the guitar strings represent. Depending on set up and string gauge, the pressure at the nut perpendicular to the direction of the strings is actually only between 6 and 8 lbs. I have a simple system for applying that pressure both when I true the fingerboard surface and when I mill the frets, as well as when I adjust the truss rod.

Bruce,

I'm sure it's been said before but your contributions to the forum are uniquely valuable. Thank you for taking the time.

[mirwa]

Plek is the product of a good sales pitch.

A bridge cnc manufactured with a human at the controls will cost around 2 dollars to be made

A bridge hand manufactured with a human will cost you around $90 dollars to be made

Typically the cnc made bridge will be a quality product but far cheaper than the hand made product

In the plek world the costs are reversed, a plek (cnc) setup will cost you a couple of hundred dollars, the human setup typically the 74 dollar range, this is marketing at its best

[redir]

I don't see the necessity of leveling frets under string tension. Fret #1 needs to be at the EXACT same height as fret #2 and then the factorial there of down to the last fret. If that is the case then when you add string tension that's not going to change. This is why we set up nuts so that the nut slot is EXACTLY the same height as the fret in front of it. So think of every fret as a nut and set it up so that it is the same height as the fret in front of it and that's all there is to it.

If when you string it up you get some funky twist or a neck body joint hump then you have other problems to deal with first.

IDK that's the way I look at it and I would measure any one of my fret jobs up to a plek machined one any day and I imagine that is the case for most luthiers and good techs out there today too.