Heritage Plek Process Questions

[reviresco]

Hi everyone. 

Does anyone know if the new Heritage Guitar’s are Plek’d the way Gibson pleks or are they done on a Plek Pro machine?

As I understand, Gibson only uses simulated tension and does not account for neck relief. I also understand they do the Plek before the guitar is finished and stung up. It is done under simulated tension. 
 

Wondering if Heritage uses the Pro process and how good the Plek work is. 
 

Thanks for the help!

[reviresco]

Anyone? ?

[mars_hall]

They are strung

[tulk1]

3 hours ago, mars_hall said:

They are strung

Mark, how can they be strung and then plek'd? Doesn't the pleking take metal off the frets? Would seem counterintuitive to string them up first. Then again, maybe I don't fully understand the pleking process. 

[Steiner]

Guitars are strung, fixtured then measured.  If necessary the trussrod is adjusted and the process begins anew.

Then the guitar is unstrung, refixtured and measured.  From that point the computer program makes inferences on how to alter the frets and machining begins.

If done correctly, the guitar is restrung, refixtured and remeasured - That takes time and effort.  It additionally indicates the errors in fixturing and the machining process...

[reviresco]

Here is the response I got today from Heritage. 

“Thanks for writing in. For our Standard H-150s, we PLEK in whitewood (before paint). This helps us in a couple of ways. One major benefit is quality control for the necks/neck pitch/frets. The PLEK catches flaws and we can act quickly if something is found, which helps us not waste time or lumber. There are always exceptions. 

After PLEK and during paint we do more work on the frets and then again in final setup. A PLEK is never enough since the frets still need to be polished and looked over to make sure the machine didn't make an error. 

Finally, we don't batch PLEK. We do them individually. That may be a difference but I'm not sure what others do.”

 

[DetroitBlues]

Either way, I have a couple guitars that were Pleked either by Gibson or aftermarket.  Its a good baseline process for fretwork as indicated above.  But there still is a human element required to make sure its right.

[Steiner]

1 hour ago, DetroitBlues said:

Either way, I have a couple guitars that were Pleked either by Gibson or aftermarket.  Its a good baseline process for fretwork as indicated above.  But there still is a human element required to make sure its right.

+1

Wait, your button has been erased...

[Spectrum13]

1 hour ago, Steiner said:

+1

Wait, your button has been erased...

Just like when the mileage  on an odometer  exceeded  available digits .

[stormymonday]

my ES-335 Studio came plek'd from Gibson.  Still had to do some setup.

[Millennium Maestro]

Plek is a tool, A guitar is made of wood... Take that instrument into a different climate and it adjusts. I believe a guitar should be used and worked with in its own environment for a few years... I have seen many Gibson Pleked guitars that have frets that need attention.  My first preventative maintenance is to give a really good mineral oil to the fingerboards upon taking possession,  I see a lot of dry fingerboards leaving manufacturing warehouses.