peerless Posted January 25, 2011 Posted January 25, 2011 Forgive me if this has been done to death but has Heritage stopped using Plek? When did they stop? Are 2009 models recieving PLEK service? Anyone know why they stopped? Seems like this was a wonderful thing that Heritage had going on with all their models. Other major manufactures only introduced Plek much later and only on more expensive models. Heritage ubiquitous use of PLEK on their guitars really set them apart. Not to mention I noticed a big difference in their fret boards after they started using PLEK. Please give me some info here. Jason www.peerlesstone.com
tulk1 Posted January 25, 2011 Posted January 25, 2011 We saw the PLEK during the PSPI tour. It was being used as a coat rack. Same situ last Aug during PSPIII. Don't think they're using it. Altho' it's been rumored they'd send it out for plek'ing if requested.
kbp810 Posted January 25, 2011 Posted January 25, 2011 Why did they stop using PLEK? I am not the end all expert so hopefully others can chime in to confirm... I believe that the reason has to do with being handmade necks - slight variations from neck to neck meant that the PLEK machine had to be re-calibrated and re-setup for each and every neck to be pleked. Eventually it was deemed better to just go back to doing it by hand.
Kuz Posted January 25, 2011 Posted January 25, 2011 The reason is two fold. 1. Plek promised $80k in free software upgrades and according to some sources I know, but won't mention, Plek never gave Heritage. Last I heard, there might have been some lawsuit involve. Basically both sides holding there breathe playing chicken. 2. I heard from a source it takes just as long, if not longer to use the Plek vs hand-filed. Heritage feel they have done it for 40 years by hand and feel they know what they are doing. I locally have had many of my guitars Plek'd. Not just Heritages but my Kirn and Fender. -what the luthier who opperates the Plek told me makes a lot of sense. He said it is essentially useless to do a factory Plek. Plek'ing a guitar should be done after the guitar is set up for your personal string gauge, action, relief, nut height, ect. If a guitar is Plek'd at the factory and you straighten the neck, lower, the action, change string gauge.... Your guitar will be out of whack and the Pleking is useless. All my Plek'd guitars play incredible, but I would not want to pay extra for a factory Plek'd guitar because I am going to chang the set up of the guitar to my specs.
Kuz Posted January 27, 2011 Posted January 27, 2011 The reason is two fold. 1. Plek promised $80k in free software upgrades and according to some sources I know, but won't mention, Plek never gave Heritage. Last I heard, there might have been some lawsuit involve. Basically both sides holding there breathe playing chicken. 2. I heard from a source it takes just as long, if not longer to use the Plek vs hand-filed. Heritage feel they have done it for 40 years by hand and feel they know what they are doing. I locally have had many of my guitars Plek'd. Not just Heritages but my Kirn and Fender. -what the luthier who opperates the Plek told me makes a lot of sense. He said it is essentially useless to do a factory Plek. Plek'ing a guitar should be done after the guitar is set up for your personal string gauge, action, relief, nut height, ect. If a guitar is Plek'd at the factory and you straighten the neck, lower, the action, change string gauge.... Your guitar will be out of whack and the Pleking is useless. All my Plek'd guitars play incredible, but I would not want to pay extra for a factory Plek'd guitar because I am going to chang the set up of the guitar to my specs.
Patrick Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 The reason is two fold. 1. Plek promised $80k in free software upgrades and according to some sources I know, but won't mention, Plek never gave Heritage. Last I heard, there might have been some lawsuit involve. Basically both sides holding there breathe playing chicken. 2. I heard from a source it takes just as long, if not longer to use the Plek vs hand-filed. Heritage feel they have done it for 40 years by hand and feel they know what they are doing. I locally have had many of my guitars Plek'd. Not just Heritages but my Kirn and Fender. -what the luthier who opperates the Plek told me makes a lot of sense. He said it is essentially useless to do a factory Plek. Plek'ing a guitar should be done after the guitar is set up for your personal string gauge, action, relief, nut height, ect. If a guitar is Plek'd at the factory and you straighten the neck, lower, the action, change string gauge.... Your guitar will be out of whack and the Pleking is useless. All my Plek'd guitars play incredible, but I would not want to pay extra for a factory Plek'd guitar because I am going to chang the set up of the guitar to my specs. John; No disrespect intended towards your luthier .. . but, either he is very ill informed, or just blowing smoke up your skirt by saying it is useless to have a guitar Plek'd at the factory. While I agree that because the Pleking process will be performed to the factory set up specs . . . and what ever gauge strings the guitar comes out of the factory with, might make it seem like all of the work done by the Pleking machine was for naught . . .that just isn't the case. When the guitar goes into the machine, it first goes through a "STS" process . . . acronym for string tension simulator. That will obviously vary. The STS may be set up for .010s and you change to .011s. However, that has nothing to do with the accuracy with which the Plek machine reads the neck contour, then shapes the nut to conform to that contour. . . and slots the nut at a perfect depth every time . . . or, how it reads fret irregularities and correctly levels them. The final fret crowning and polishing is better, more exact and closer to perfect than ANY human eye could ever get. To your point, it is not the final set up for everyone. It might be for some . . but not for everyone. Your own personal guitar tech will do the final "tweaking". But, he will NEVER have to re-shape or re-file the nut, and he will NEVER have to file the frets. That's just the facts of the matter.
Patrick Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 John; No disrespect intended towards your luthier .. . but, either he is very ill informed, or just blowing smoke up your skirt by saying it is useless to have a guitar Plek'd at the factory. While I agree that because the Pleking process will be performed to the factory set up specs . . . and what ever gauge strings the guitar comes out of the factory with, might make it seem like all of the work done by the Pleking machine was for naught . . .that just isn't the case. When the guitar goes into the machine, it first goes through a "STS" process . . . acronym for string tension simulator. That will obviously vary. The STS may be set up for .010s and you change to .011s. However, that has nothing to do with the accuracy with which the Plek machine reads the neck contour, then shapes the nut to conform to that contour. . . and slots the nut at a perfect depth every time . . . or, how it reads fret irregularities and correctly levels them. The final fret crowning and polishing is better, more exact and closer to perfect than ANY human eye could ever get. To your point, it is not the final set up for everyone. It might be for some . . but not for everyone. Your own personal guitar tech will do the final "tweaking". But, he will NEVER have to re-shape or re-file the nut, and he will NEVER have to file the frets. That's just the facts of the matter. OOPS!!! I just re-read my post. I mis-spoke on the final fret polish. .. that's done by human hands.
Kuz Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 John; No disrespect intended towards your luthier .. . but, either he is very ill informed, or just blowing smoke up your skirt by saying it is useless to have a guitar Plek'd at the factory. While I agree that because the Pleking process will be performed to the factory set up specs . . . and what ever gauge strings the guitar comes out of the factory with, might make it seem like all of the work done by the Pleking machine was for naught . . .that just isn't the case. When the guitar goes into the machine, it first goes through a "STS" process . . . acronym for string tension simulator. That will obviously vary. The STS may be set up for .010s and you change to .011s. However, that has nothing to do with the accuracy with which the Plek machine reads the neck contour, then shapes the nut to conform to that contour. . . and slots the nut at a perfect depth every time . . . or, how it reads fret irregularities and correctly levels them. The final fret crowning and polishing is better, more exact and closer to perfect than ANY human eye could ever get. To your point, it is not the final set up for everyone. It might be for some . . but not for everyone. Your own personal guitar tech will do the final "tweaking". But, he will NEVER have to re-shape or re-file the nut, and he will NEVER have to file the frets. That's just the facts of the matter. Sorry, I disagree. If the neck relief is greater at the factory (PLEK has a rating of 0, 1, 2, ect) and YOU change that relief at home, then the PLEK didn't cut the frets to the action you wanted. If the PLEK cuts a nut that is based on a nut where the strings are too high for the action you want, the nut will need re-cut. I could go on, but I will just have to say that the PLEK has many options from neck relief, to height of action (low, medium, high), to string gauge, ect... I respectfully disagree that a guitar Plek'd with high action and then the relief & action is lowered, is the same as a guitar set-up first then Plek'd to those custom playing specs.
Patrick Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 Sorry, I disagree. If the neck relief is greater at the factory (PLEK has a rating of 0, 1, 2, ect) and YOU change that relief at home, then the PLEK didn't cut the frets to the action you wanted. If the PLEK cuts a nut that is based on a nut where the strings are too high for the action you want, the nut will need re-cut. I could go on, but I will just have to say that the PLEK has many options from neck relief, to height of action (low, medium, high), to string gauge, ect... I respectfully disagree that a guitar Plek'd with high action and then the relief & action is lowered, is the same as a guitar set-up first then Plek'd to those custom playing specs. The Plek precess does not set the action . . . the bridge adjustment does. A proper fret dress (leveling) allows the action to be as low as possible without sporadic un-leveled frets causing buzz. Example;; If human hands level the frets, there is always a possibility of just 1 note buzzing on one fret. Just a little high spot in the middle of the 11th fret will cause the G and possibly the D string to buzz when fretted at the 10 position . . even if the rest of the neck is fine. That's imperfection is virtually impossible if the guitar neck was Pleked properly. Of course, without the Pleking, one could raise the action and eliminate the fret buzz when fretting at the 10th position, but then the action would not be as low as someone might want it. Pleking allows for the lowest action possible without sporadic fret buzz. If you research it . . it's a scientific fact . . .it's not just something I'm making up. Pleking is supposed to take off as little of the fret as possible . . and only at the high spots. It is not supposed to set the action . . only level the frets. The tech sets the action. But, if there are high spots here and there . . he can't possibly do it effectively.
GuitArtMan Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 PLEK SCHMECK!!! I've owned a bunch of guitars now that were all PLEK'd up. Thank God I found Michael Tuttle and he could get the frets right. Sorry, but I just haven't played a PLEK'd guitar that I felt played as good as an Tuttle, or Anderson, or Grosh or PRS (early ones). Besides it aint the PLEK anyway, it's the guy running it. Just like it aint the radiusing blocks or the neck jig or the fret files, it's the guy using them. Some real fret porn for you courtesy of Michael Tuttle (and no they weren't PLEK'd): My '88 Les Paul Flame Top RI - frets courtesy of Michael Tuttle 3/64" at the 12th fret - no buzzes. My H-535 fretwork by Micahel Tuttle Hmmm... 3/64" at the 12th fret again and not buzzes. A close up of the frets on my Tutlle Classis S-model The slight green cast is a reflection of the Surf Green body. PLEK SCHMECK!!!
FredZepp Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 Besides it aint the PLEK anyway, it's the guy running it. Just like it aint the radiusing blocks or the neck jig or the fret files, it's the guy using them. Yeah, I've heard of people with plek'ed guitars that were bad from the start. It's a tool. Some may choose to use it, others may not.. the result is all that matters. ( >>> really cool fret porn, GuitArtMan...)
Steiner Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 PLEK SCHMECK!!! Wow! That wavy grain makes the neck appear to have the "Big Bob" scallop! That is some beautiful work! If the devil's in the details, that's one devilish guitar! I additionally agree with you GuitArtMan and Kuz on this one. Your luthier should be the one that adjusts the fine details of the guitar. No machine can do it better. The PLEK concept is fabulous. I seriously considered buying one. Alas, No CMM or CNC is worth it's weight in salt without a good fixture to hold the work. Heritage's handmade necks vary too much to fixture accurately. That's a good thing; my handcrafted neck fits like a glove. That, and my luthier knows how to make it work
Patrick Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 Yeah, I've heard of people with plek'ed guitars that were bad from the start. It's a tool. Some may choose to use it, others may not.. the result is all that matters. ( >>> really cool fret porn, GuitArtMan...) Agreed! With or without the Plek, in the end, it's all about the skills and talents of the people.
NoNameBand Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 At the last PSP, I spoke with Ren about this and he said that they stopped due to a software issue/upgrade as Kuz stated. Ren also said the problem that Heritage had with the version of software provided by Plek was that it need to have the neck slightly curved and could not do a straight plek on a straight neck. This is why they stopped and will not continue until this is resolved. Kuz and Patrick are both right on some issues. The bottom line is, the plek machine does a perfect job based on the specs desired and or entered in the the system. So if your desire is to have a different set-up than was originally pleked, you would need another one.
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.