Rick Beato Invited Me To Berlin and we visited the Inventor of the Plek Machine
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- Опубликовано: 28 май 2024
- Massive thanks to @RickBeato for taking me to plek.com/
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00:00 - Berlin with Rick Beato
00:25 - The Plek Machine
02:08 - A Problem He Needed To Solve
04:10 - How the Plek Works
09:02 - Calibration
09:37 - A Luthier's Best Friend
10:41 - Outro 
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I Love how German he is. The attention to every detail in the big picture and dedicated work. His reaction when being called a genious is also very charming.
Absolutely, thought the same thing.
Yes, he seemed a little embarrassed and pleased at the same time. 😂
I worked for a German company for 12 years. His reaction to Mary telling him he's a genius was classic. A typical German engineer will be thinking... "Genius? Anyone should be able to see this obvious solution to such an old problem." - lol
@@JaleelJohanson62 I read that in his very German accent. 😂
As a German, thx for these lovely comments, everyone 🙂 And yeah, I had the same thought.
Rick has the good sense to let the interviewee talk without interruption.
Yes! Such a rare quality in an interviewer, but crucial.
Massive thanks to Rick Beato www.youtube.com/@RickBeato what a fascinating time at Plek HQ
Hey Mary,
Any chance you could point Rick in the direction of Ren??
Rick is always bemoaning the lack of talent, variety and interest in today’s music. I’m assuming that he hasn’t seen any of Ren’s work so far and would be really interested to see what his thoughts are.
Hope you can see the merit in this 👍😊👍
I was really hoping to see the final result where both of you play the instrument and give your impressions.
Having worked for 12 years in a factory with machines built by German engineers, I can attest that everything in that machine and its structure (and even the computer) are typical German industrial manufacturing. For a minute I thought I was back in the production line.
I have 2 Plek'd guitars. They play awesome. It's an amazing invention.
Makes me proud to see how you present him here. I live in Berlin and once went to the shop while my daughter went to her danceclass in another shop nearby. He s really a nice guy beside being a genius 😉
Plek is indeed fantastic. There's a shop here in Northern California with one, I've had them plek both my Strat and my 335 (and my new Taylor acoustic will go in soon). The results were very good, and the specific thing that I did not expect was how much my Gibson was improved by the way the plek re-crowned the frets - made a huge difference in the quality of the tone of notes.
Love this. The Plek is an incredibly sophisticated CNC machine, and like all CNCs, the quality and accuracy of the finished product depends entirely on the skill of the operator. It's a perfect mix of human and machine, the same as playing is the mix of the player and the instrument.
What is a CNC machine?
To quote another commenter: "I will never play at the level I'd benefit from this" but I admire the thought and care that have gone into the machine's development, and have read nothing but good things about the results.
I call bs on the quote! I classify myself as an advanced intermediate beginner, and i have two guitars that have been plekked and compared to my other guitars, they play and sound amazing! And make me sound alot better too 😁
I would think if guitar manufacturers were using this for all of their guitars, even the low end models would play wonderfully
The cost of the machine is over $100,000, the personnel working it need training and not every guitar company can plek every guitar they produce with only one machine, the production line would be too slow= the prices will rise. If you have more than one= the prices will rise.
@@gkol69once technology scales up the price per unit goes way down. I doubt this exact system will become the standard, but a cheaper version of a system like this could be helpful.
just a matter of time, though @@gkol69
From what Gibson says, the plek machine is orders of magnitude faster than the equivalent dollar amount of workers. It is far less of a bottleneck than having to do all of the fret work by hand. Probably takes a lot less time to train someone to use the machine than it does to make them great at fretwork.
I heard that Martin had been using this for their guitars for a while now.
I love the fact he has programmed the machine to constantly be trying to improve the process , he made the machine to be like himself a perfectionist , he made the machine in his own image -Biblical 😎
Too cool!!! Two of my favorite people on RUclips, now if only Leland Sklar and Tim Pierce had shown up, this would be perfect. 🕊💖🎸
Without Ringo or Gregg it would feel like something's missing. :-)
YES! BAND! If not why not!
Ha so cool.
Rick told that story during his show and my wife asked me "what's a Plek machine"....and I had no idea. Thx for that video, now we know! Very impressive!
I do love that Rick picks out different talented people to look at these things with.
he's a really cool guy, knows a lot and you know if he's working with, talking to someone they have skills.
You really do have excellent, first class, diction and beautiful articulation of words and phrases. It's lovely to hear the English language spoken so well. This is increasingly unusual.
wow.. i love you both Mary and Rick .. and i love this video you showed to us incredible machine and inventor thank you
The “daddy-daughter-day” duo that all guitarists needed. 😊
My Duesenberg was plek'd at the factory. And it is the most playable guitar that I've got. I would gladly have any guitar that I loved plek'd.
I agree my Dessie was also plek’d and plays like no other guitar I own.
Incredibly interesting and what engineering. Amazing how musicians think and then implement what they desire. So, COOL. Thank you for making this amazing and informative video.
I had my Cole Clark FL2 serviced and put through their Plek machine. It cost a bit, but boy, was it worth it! The guitar is - not only like new, it's better! Thanks Mary for letting us meet the originator of this wonderful tool for setting up a guitar.
Love the machine, and as a techie myself.. I find the Plek machine rather interesting. But as you said, the luthier is still needed. And on that, I hope that you and Crimson Guitars can colab. 🙂
This was a total delight to watch. It is amazing to me what humans can achieve when presented with a unique problem. Mr. Anke is quite a revolutionary with his very practical, yet very complex method of guitar repair (or I guess recalibration would be more accurate). Also, I love it when you and Mr. Beato are in a video together, as I am an admirer of both your works. Thanks Mary!
Incredible piece of engineering. Thanks for the tour.
Best information I've seen on the Plek so far, in part because of the explanation of the graphs, in part because of detailed filming of various processes. Mary and Rick have done a really good job here, with Rick before the camera asking the questions, and Mary doing a bangup job as narrator and cinematographer. It's another one of her great little mini documentaries.
Rhett did a good Plek video as well a few years ago, about the benefits to a specific guitar. Taken together, the two videos really inform one about the Plek.
I'm lucky. My LGS (Local Guitar Store), only 5 minutes from me, has a Plek machine. I have at least one guitar that's a candidate. Now all I have to do is fit it into the annual guitar budget somehow. :)
I agree. I heard about this tool quite a while back but have never heard any more about it.
What do they charge for that service?
Mary, you and Rick always do wonderful collaborations( I really like the one you did about Jim Croce) this is a great example of practical math in machine work hopefully this will inspire some young people
I had a 63 Hofner 173 Plek'd and it plays fantastically
Very cool, didn't know that was coming from Berlin.
That is just ingenious. Wow, every guitar can now truly be perfect.
Wow I never would have imagined a plek can compensate for a twisted neck.
Hey Mary and Rick, if you are still in Germany, we would like to invite you to Freiburg. By far the most beautiful city in Germany :) We‘d love to show the black forrest and the Freiburger Münster where a lot of great classical music is performed (and has been recorded in reference quality from us :))
As always a very nice video. Thank you to both of you… :)
I’m subscribed to both yours and Rick’s channels, but the videos with both of you are really fun. I especially liked the video with the two of you analyzing Jim Croce’s song Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels).
Wow, I would never have known this amazing technology existed before now. Thanks for the video Mary!
Mary + Rick = extra great video!
Thanks for a very interesting video - and I'm a keyboardist. Also now I am a subscriber to your channel. Thanks Mary Spender!
Really enjoyed!! Thanks! Cheers!;-)!
The one of the local music stores where I lived had a Plek machine and offered Pleking guitars as one of their services. I never got it done because it was $$$ plus I had a luthier that had been working on my guitars for years and maintained them perfectly for me. I did play a number of Plek'd guitars and later when Gibson was Pleking their higher model guitar played a number of those, I was never impressed with the job a Plek did. Talking to other guitarists who had guitars Plek'd seems like it was about 50/50 if they would have a guitar Plek'd again.
I was blessed to see a Plek machine in action when I visited Collins Guitars. Amazing!
I had one of my guitars Pleked several years ago. It was a Johny Marr edition, Fender Jaguar. Pretty amazed with the results. There is room for the human luthier and this machine.
This is insane. Would love to see this up close. The engineering behind this is fascinating!
i've had several guitars plek'd and they play beautifully.
I had a vintage Telecaster pleked. Now, even with the vintage 7.25" neck radius, I can set the action at 1mm relief at the 12th fret and still do m3 bends on it. What a wonderful machine.
I recently had my EBMM Majesty plekked at Twin Town Guitars in Minneapolis, MN. It was truly transformational. Not only for playability, but also for the intonation. Unexpected side-effect... and I'm not sure how this is even possible, but the guitar's unamplified acoustic resonance came alive. It just sings! Highly recommend plekking your guitars.
Thanks, Mary. Thanks, Rick. I'm glad you all could make the trip for us :)
thnx again Mary ... your advices are so precious .. ... 👍
You do such a fantastic job on these types of videos. I love to see them and always want more.
I love she is a geek for what she loves
lol, Gerd being the german engineer stereotype par excellence. Love the man and the machine.
i got my first guitar pleked about 20 years ago (and all guitars since then). Since it was in the very beginning Gerd had some time time to spend explaining. The really astonishing thing ha accomplished is that he did a tremendous amount of research on string vibration to come up with what he calls the "target". IMO this is the real secret of PLEK
I could easily have watched this all day, even though I admit I haven’t got as much knowledge on the guitar as you do, Rick’s fascination to Gerd Anke and his colleagues’ work is so satisfying to watch and of course your own passion as always shines out,I hope you do more videos like this whenever it’s possible.
That is amazing. Very interesting.
I would loved to see you play a guitar before and after the fret dressing, and hear your thoughts on any improvement.
I have three Plek'ed guitars. It really works.
amazing! thanks y'all!
Wunderbar! Danke!
Great video on how the Plek system works and the brilliance behind it's design..... including meeting it's inventor..... Bravo 👏
great vid, thanks so much!
Guitars are my favorite example of the perfect/imperfect string instrument. Pleck is the answer for that imperfection
Martin has been using this. When I bought mine a several years ago, I read about it when shopping for the guitar.
This was awesome, thank you!
I will never play at the level I'd benefit from this, but I've played bass for more than one guitarist who could probably feel the difference. It's a genius machine for superior players, not a daily driver for garage bands.
I disagree; I learned quickly what was good, and what was bad.
There is no relation between musicality and this technology, Hendrix, SRV, EVH not needed it, then who does? But its nice that this machine can actually provide such efficient fretwork 24/7, while a good luthier actually needs sleep/eat/rest while performing nowhere near to this level of accuracy all the time. This is made for guitar manufactures not for induviduals to walk in to get a squire plekd.
yeah, don't underestimate yourself :) I own one plek'ed bass and it's by far the one I pick up the most, because the playability is just the most rounded. Don't get me wrong, the other basses are setup fine, and I don't consider plek'ing to be life-changing or an epiphany. It's subtle, but it just feels more comfy and I enjoy playing that one bass much more.
That is such a cool invention!😃 Thank you for making this video! It is a sort of documentary indeed... and you are great at it Mary!🙂
Wow. That trip to Berlin was indeed productive. I met the plek machine first in Germany, at the Framus and Warwick HQ. Also, it is one of the secret sauces of every Lakland.
Great video and very interesting insights in the technology/machinery.
Very happy with the stock PLEK job on my Les Paul. Faultless.
Unreal, Great Machine!!!
Love this!!
This is amazing!
That is very cool!
Love this video. It is as with all of your videos. It's so very educational and enlightening.
I had an old Fender Stratocaster "pleked" at Joe Glaser's shop in Nashville. The results were amazing. It fixed a problem that nobody had ever been able to correct.
I was in the show when Rick told that he went there but he never said it was with you!!! Really loved to see you up there in the show!You star strucked me the moment I saw you going down the stairs on your way to the south transept seats. :)
Great to see the two of you discussing the engineering of the Plek machine with its creator!
Great video. I have to watch Rick every day.
Awesome video Mary that was really interesting, I was curious how it worked myself.
What an excellent video, well done Mary. 😊
Mary, you have the best job in the world
Our local shop here in Kansas has one and a few times a year they give free PLEK demonstrtions... it is the coolest.
Brilliant engineering. But "taking away some of the more time-consuming work" of a luthier, we will end up with fewer luthiers, there's no way around it, like it or not.
Always fun to see Mary and Rick together. Here, they both play their strengths: Mary as a documentary videographer and Rick asking the right questions.
I don't think you really have to worry about that - the machines aren't cheap, pleking runs in the neighborhood of $300, and there are only around 30 machines in the US.
OTOH, setups are probably the least fun thing for a luthier to do.
What the plek does is beyond the capability of a human luthier. So while it may be true that instead of having a human luthier spend hours dressing frets etc, the plek takes that work away from the human, but it does a far superior job. Technological advances can render certain types of work obsolete or greatly reduce the need for it (there aren't that many people working as blacksmiths or farriers after automobiles replaces horses as the main mode of transportation).
Maybe. Then again after having my long lasting love guitar in the local luthier and getting 75% of the issue done, I havent been in haste to give it an another go in their shop. The machine could diagnose the problem.
There's a micro sound problem in a certain string with my unorthodox playstyle and open tuning but these small things can be huge for the player even without anyone else noticing =]
The best luthiers work with the new technology and use it to produce even better guitars.
Emerald Guitars out of Ireland is using that method during guitar production as well. There is a nice factory tour video around that shows the process.
Stainless frets too. So once it's done the frets probably won't need to be messed with again for a long time, if ever.
Berlin, what an incredible City, I hope you and Rick had lots of fun
Really good job with your last video Mary.😊 It made me rewatch your frog leap studios videos. Great covers there.
Talk about a early Christmas gift! Thank you for sharing this. I know this technology is starting to pop up here and there. Novo, Gibson and Sweetwater here in the states are using this machine. There may be more guitar builders using it as well.
Amazing!
I'm glad I watched this.
WOW! Incredibel!🤙
I have known about the Plek machine however not the inventer that's just awesome thanks Mary and to Rick also cheers
I think it’s genius. I have two Plek’d guitars and they are my two best players.
i saw you beer drinking in the audience at Rick´s Event in Berlin ;) It was an awesome night, best greetings
Nice work , very interesting !
Well presented Mary. A coordinate measurement machine to tune guitar necks. Brilliant.
Amazing
The Daniel Düsentrieb of fretting guitars....👍🤘🎸
I had never heard of this before - and then it turns out to be 10 mins down the road from me. Nice vid Mary.
Amazing piece of machinery.
I had my 2003 Martin re-fretted and pleked at Sweetwater a couple of years ago and when I got it back, it played better than when it was new. I was thrilled at the quality of work by both the Sweetwater people and the Plek machine.
Thanks, very interesting
Damn, that was a sophisticated piece of machinery! 9
A very intelligent man. He couldn't be more German, if he was wearing Lederhosen, while waving a bratwurst around and listening to a David Hasselhoff album. His reaction to the praise he was given, had me in stitches.
That’s Bavarian culture, you’re describing. Not German in general..
super cool, I want one