How Does A PLEK Machine Work? || Righteous Guitars PLEK Demo
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- The PLEK Machine is an amazing tool that when used properly can give you great results for you guitar's setup. But how does it work?
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The level of nerdery in that video was outstanding!
Totally agree, but I dug the heck out of it.
I’m a gear tech nerd, right up my alley
Well-played. I once got away with expanding an opponent’s “nerd” first into “ nerdulence” and then into “hypernerdulence” without being challenged. Many ill-gotten points.
That's who I want tuning my gitfiddles!
It was over 9000 lol I don't even play guitar but this was awesome
I've been a luthiery hobbyist for 30 years and a machinist for 25. This is impressive and very cool!
Do you know anything else "like" this? As in, 'non-machine-tool' machine tool, things that are basically just some software programming away from being an actual machine.
I expect the key-cutting world has such. Anything else?
I wish the Plek was holding the video camera.
lol
Lol
Lmaooo
Haha!!! No kidding.
My thought exactly!
The cameraman needs to switch to decaf! 😂
Kudos to the incredibly talented engineers who designed this amazing machine, and to the highly talented operator-musicians who operate it. This is awesome. Great vid.
Righteous Guitars is what a guitar shop should be. Ben is a pro. When you take down a classical guitar and the damned thing is in tune, you know they tend to the guitars on the wall. This is about as far as you can get from Guitar Center guitars and service.
It’s almost as if Guitar Center has become the K-Mart of guitar stores.
Guitar center sucks!
@@johntucker4705 Lol I call them the fast food of guitar stores
Thanks Rhett. That's the first PLEK explanation that's made complete sense to me.
Ditto!
That's PLEXsplanation....
Probably the coolest tool ever. What it could do for the buyer to know their guitar is as good as it possibly can be. It sets up a great buying experience. I would love to see what a custom shop strat looks like out of the box to a PLEK machine. Thanks guys.
This is what a guitar shop is supposed to be. This level of service and attention to detail is really worth paying for and even worth traveling for.
This definitely convinced me to get my guitars plek’d as soon as we get over the pandemic. This level of precision is worth every penny.
They have to do around 2,000 guitars or more depending on maintenance costs just to pay for the machine, they run between 2 and 3 hundred thousand to buy, operator not included.
You can plek your friends and you can plek your nose, but you can't plek your friends nose. Thanks for another great video bro.
🤣
Yes, the PLEK is a combination of a CMM ( coordinate measuring machine ) and a CNC mill. These type of machines are great as long as the guy doing the setup is competent in the workings of the machine. I was a CNC programmer for 20+ years. The old saying, crap input, crap output. This cat seems very well schooled on this machine.
Myself too. I programmed everything from 1957 Cincinnati mills running paper tape to OKK, Matsuura, Fadal, you name it?
@@markham4041 congrats
As a machinist, I was trying to think of a way to hold the guitar better for the probing and milling.
Righteous Guitars has PLEKed 3 of my guitars. They do excellent work! I highly recommend them!!!
@@markham4041 Mitsubishi, Hatchi Seiki, Fanuc, Haas...... I hated Haas controllers more than any other. The 1993 Hitachi Seiki lathe I programmed had better features than a 2010 Haas lathe we had.
Just needed to tell you how much I have enjoyed watching your channel evolve. I'm really liking the variety of things you have going on in the channel.
I was secretly hoping that he’d say the PLEK removes human error from the equation. Unfortunately, I’ve had bad experience so far when bringing in my guitar. So, at the moment, I trust guitar shops about as much as car mechanics. I need a go to guy that I can trust because I’ve put way too many hours into refinishing to have things get ruined at setup. I can setup my guitars myself but I don’t have all the specific tools and experience for the finer details like crowning frets. Maybe I should invest and become other people’s go to guy!
I know the feeling.
Bought the Texas Tea Ultra Tele and had Sweetwater Plek it at an xtra $200 and it was worth it. Setup with my desired strings is totally awesome. 👍🔥🎸🦅
I feel that. Lots of hacks out there, and I am not good at doing my own.
It’s the “nerds” that keep your house warm and your car running.. I want to get a guitar from here one day
Leo Fender was a "nerd". Thank God for nerds.
Maybe the guys that design and engineer the cars are nerds. The group that builds them, fixes them, races them and maintains them are a pretty burly group of people. 😆
It’s the roughnecks that help produce petroleum based products for anybody in the world (including nerds) to work on. Without petroleum based products there wouldn’t be any of this. It’s the roughnecks.
@@capncrunch4497 everybody does something to help the world i guess
Thanks for the PLEKsplanation.
Lol
Oof!
That was fascinating. I've never even heard of this machine before.
I heard about it but no one knew who had one other than Nashville guys like Marty Stuart..
That’s the best description of what the Plek is. Steadiest hands and best set of eyes. Just being able to see what your neck looks like on that level could help any guitarist set up his guitar for optimal performance.
Dude I wish I had this kind of guitar shop and customer service around here. Really amazing
Best explanation I've seen on the PLEK process yet ! Thanks Righteous Guitars and Rhett !:-)
He put his NOVO in there ? How do you fit a car in there ?
I would love to get my guitar in this machine and let these guys work their magic.outstanding work.the smallest issue fixed wow
It's great to know we have such a world class guitar shop right here in Atlanta.
I was really disappointed that they didn't play the guitar after they finished "tweaking" or should I say "Pleking" it!
I had one of the guitars I built pleked here in Nashville and watched the process it really worked out and played even better
Well this makes my local store look like crap
Don't worry. 99.9999999% of guitars will never see a plek in their lives and they'll be just fine.
Yeah like what the fuck i have to drive 50 km to a normal store and if I want to go to Thomann I have to drive 200km
My local store has one of these. It's really expensive to get your guitar fixed at that store so I had to come here and see why. I think I get it.
@@timolsen4242 I think just the machine is hella expensive.
wow totally awesome. i almost wanna get on a plane, train, bus or whatever it takes to get there and have my guitars pleked and setup. so cool
@Rhett Shull
I cannot believe this video is 3 years old already. I remember stumbling into this when you only had about 10k subscribers.
Great video and your video courses are amazing. Just purchased the rhythm and chords course and it is really good. Recommend it many ppl already.
Read a comment on the Atlanta subreddit that said Righteous was the only shop in Georgia with a Plek machine. I didn’t know what a Plek machine was, so I came to RUclips, and here we are. The actual Plek machine at Righteous!
The guy who invented the plek machine has got his office and manufacture in my street. All my guitars are pleked. I am playing with his nephew, who is a brilliant and well known pianist and keyboardist here in Berlin/Germany. And I can tell it's worth to do it.
Where can I go in the Los Angeles area to PLEK and what can I expect to pay?
I want to get my beloved Frankenstrat pleked. I just found righteous a couple of weeks ago. So happy they're not that far, thank you for the great and informative video man
I understand this is an old video but I wanted to mention the process does a great job on bass guitars. I’ve had several of mine done by George at The Music Gallery in Illinois. The most significant impact I experienced was on a Rickenbacker 4003s/5. As you may know, Ric quality control is not great. It needed a lot of work. A PLEK job with lots of truss adjustment and a bone nut transformed the bass. If you are at all on the fence, get it done!
12:00 - fall away frets! YES! A lot of luthiers don’t even know about that concept. You generally want to do it around the 19th fret, although some folks will go as far back as the 17th. And you just make them like a staircase, but just a TAD BIT lower, in step, until the end. Can help solve a lot of buzzing issues provided that the neck is as good as it’s going to get already.
Hey do you know why the neck appears to be leveled like a 'U' shape? Why doesn't it appear leveled completely straight?
Die Rekt This is correct at the nut but what happens when you fret a note in the middle of the neck?
The Vinage PLEKS sound so much better than the re issues
lol, in all seriousness though, it does worry me a little that another human skill set is being usurped by a computerised machine, a bit like john henry's hammer, and maybe somewhere in there there's inspiration for another song.
lol, should have watched the whole video before commenting, doh!
Shhh, lets keep that on the down low. The more people that get wind of that will result in the price increase of vintage PLEKS. We all know, older is always better, and that goes for everything, a stubborn man once said. Vintage is king, end of convo.
crabbtrixexp its not being replaced, its being enhanced and expanded!
Lmao 😂 love it.
I want my life PLEK’d.
Impossible.
Just get a new neck! 😜
Best comment.
Can I get my knees PLEKed. I’m kinda bow-legged. Straighter legs might make me taller.
Can I get my "Pleker" Plek'd? Maybe if they could Plek the kinks, bends, and rust out of it...nah, who am I kidding?
So I had an $800 Les Paul Special setup by Ben and team at Righteous Guitars while getting some help with a very poorly soldered wiring harness corrected after swapping in some Lindy Fralin P90s. I also had them replace the nylon nut with a bone nut especially cut from data in the analysis from the machine. I also went from 10's ro 11's as part of the process as well.
I can honestly say that it was worth every penny to have this work done and the guitar plays and sounds 80% after all the new components for corrected, the new nut installed and the setup completed. It went from my least favorite guitar in the collection to the second favorite after a Suhr Classic Antique "S" (which gets a Plek job on the way out the door from the factory) that I purchased from them a few months ago. As part of the purchase deal at Righteous, you can get a free Plek job within the first 30 days after taking the guitar home. I took this up as we had some significant temperature changes in the weeks after I got the Suhr and had some buzzing due to some neck movement. They adjusted the neck and it was perfect again.
They've definitely become my favorite guitar shop in the Atlanta area bar none. It is definitely worth it in my mind to invest in the service and to have a pro setup done, even if you think you know what you're doing at home.
I had my squier strat pleked a week ago and also having made a new bone nut. The guitar is a completely new feeling instrument now. It plays like butter and also has a substantially increased sustain! Not cheap, but for a guitar you really care about the best upgrade you can get!
The PLEK can actually measure how much I geeked out on this down to a thousandth of a mm.
Just had a guitar (LTD) PLEK'd so was awesome to see this detailed breakdown of what all was going on behind the scenes!
I never heard of this type a machine...until I watched this video! That is so cool!
I’ve always been curious, now I know. Also, as someone that’s followed the channel for a while, I’m sure like so many others, I’m just taking a moment to say thank you. Thank you for keeping us entertained through lockdowns. I personally have learned so much from you. So thank you, your hard work is appreciated and I wish you every success.
Wow this is really interesting, this guy could have his own show! Never even knew these machines existed.
Crazy cool!
If Ted and Leo had one of these back in the 50's, they'd have been able to build some really classic guitars, huh?
Right? It's cool but I really don't feel like I need to put my guitars in there. People have been making great instruments without it for decades.
I wanted to say thank you for posting this video! I discovered your channel and Righteous Guitars. I took a new custom shop Maton guitar down yesterday to be Plek’d and Ben gave me the grand tour. It’s the guitar store that I have always dreamed of. All high end special guitars with the best personal service I have ever experienced and it’s only 30 minutes away. Now I am binge watching your channel. Great stuff!
Best Best Best explanation and informative demonstration of the Plek technology the internet. So good. I can’t wait to visit this shop. Thank you !!! I have two guitars that’s been Pleked.
This is a great video, man I wish I was still in GA to get my guitar done there. These guys are spot on with service awesome 😎
Truly fascinating vid Rhett and the guys at righteous. I make wing parts for airbus using cnc machinery and can confirm that although the machinery involved is very sophisticated it does rely on operator training and know how in order to produce great results. Thanks for all your great vids Rhett and I’m looking forward to watching this channels popularity explode 👌👍
I lived in Roswell Ga where they are located. Been in Scott and the guys have done several guitars for me. Im retired and living in lower Alabama.And I just made the trip to bring them my Gibson, J 45 for plek.
That's my tele in the video! Plek machines are wonderful when used right and Righteous Guitars does that.
They have Pleked 2 of my guitars and I have another one at Rightous now to be pleked. Ben and Jeff are fantastic! Hands down the best customer service experience. This is a high end guitar shop that knows how to do business! I love this place. 😊
How much did it cost? This video is 5 years old and it was $225 then. Thinking of bringing my 85 Japanese Strat in that I know need fretwork.
I loved this vid! Thank you - really fascinating, my first exposure to the process.
It’s a “Pack a Punch” for guitars.
I take my basses to Righteous Guitars for PLEK jobs quite often. They do excellent work at that place!
Get this man a mouse pad! lol
Thanks for this video. 5 years later it's still serving it's purpose and I appreciate it, Rhett.
I seriously love this guitar store!!! Thanks for the video
Excellent explanation. I recently came across @Righteous Guitars shop on Reverb and after seeing the level of knowledge this men has I will consider them for my next guitar purchase.
Excellent service. I wish I had something as close in my area.
Thanks so much for this video. I've wondered for years what a Plek is. Everyday is school day :)
ah so plek is just cad/cam for finishing guitars and tweeking used and worn guitars. very kewl to see in action - thx for showing us and ‘splainin.
Absolutely love Righteous Guitars. Fortunately I live in the Atlanta area and can visit them
Great video! My Duesenberg came PLEKed from the factory and it's always in perfect tune, but I never knew exactly how it was done. Although I have great faith in expert luthiers working on guitars by hand, I think this machine achieves an unprecedented level of accuracy. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Rhett, good stuff. I need to find a place that is competent like Righteous Guitars, but in or near Illinois. Roswell’s is a little out of the way.
Duesenbergs are awesome. Which one do you own?
@@philhellmuth2771 Starplayer TV+ in Vintage White :-) It truly is an awesome guitar. Very well made, looks & sounds beautiful and stays in tune no matter what!
@@marmelaki very nice. I have a starplayer tv gold top and a garn majesto in red. Both are absolutely fantastic to play and stay in tune very well, even though sometimes the g string on the starplayer makes some issues but not often
Other than high school never held a guitar again, this was damn interesting thanks for sharing oh and high school was 35ish years ago.
Been playing guitar since right before high-school, that was 35 years ago for me as well.
My Gibson Les Paul Standard 2008 has a Plek made fretboard….i alway thought it was the most perfect fretboard i ever tried when i played that guitar for the first time! And i definetely love it!!
Beautiful video and explanation, this machine makes perfect stuff for musicians!! 🤟🏼
Thanks so much for this! I have just had the guys at Cole Clark do a Plek scan on my Angel, and this helped me interpret the scan they gave me. I too was misinformed about how automated this process was and it's really reassuring to know how much operator input there is. Great video, thanks Rhett. Also, kudos to you for knowing when to shut up and let this guy talk. He explained it really well.
Thanks Rhett & Righteous Ben - that is really useful info, appreciated...
Nice clip and nice of the dealer to share for your viewers. Say Hi to Rick for me.
my rrsr was Plek'd during a resto before being given (!) back to me after over 20 years. Rules but a business card shim under the 6th string at the nut. still in love.
Great video!! Just the info I was looking for. Thank you for posting.
Started half a dozen annoying videos explaining Plek before I found this one. Well done
Great video and vlog on how the plek works. Abates my fears of the plek now.
You achieve the same level of perfection with an "Erlewine neck jig" which basically replicates the pull of a set of strings on a guitar after the strings have been removed, but the "Erlewine neck jig" is more time consuming and requires the skills of a great luthier, because you can only work with "straight tools", and in the end, when the guitar is on that neck jig, you then still need to evaluate the "perfect bow" ... with the Plek machine, you don't evaluate the bow anymore, you calculate it, as it is clearly demonstrated in that video.
That machine is absolutely fantastic, simply because woods don't react homogeneously to string tension, woods are "living material" and are far from being perfectly stable material, and that machine takes that in count.
You can get the same results for $20. Just set the truss rod straight in standard tuning, slacken strings, raise nut and saddles, retune to pitch, and I'll shove underneath the strings a $15 aluminium rafter's square with it's top ground off and bottom sanded smooth on a granite counter top, make sure the guitar neck is supported well, level it like that.
Homer Simpson
What the shit 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Martin Custom Shop has a Pleck machine. They'll set up your guitar to like 80 thousandths across the entire fretboard, then run the machine, and no string buzz. Your Martin will have an action like a fantastic Strat setup!
I just had a guitar plekked, now I want all my guitars plekked. The shit is incredible and worth every penny.
"Fall away frets". Yes! They know what they're talking about. Sending my premium ibanez there asap
I'm definitely watching these out of order. Thanks for demystifying the PLEK.
Thanks for the upload. Very interesting 👍
Ok after a lot of thought I'm convinced that the plek machine is awesome . Bloody love righteous guitars .
This looks like the think Urkel would walk into and come out as Stefan
Got any cheeeeeese Carl?
@@fugginrambo 🤣🤣🤣
I expect this to be a very popular vid. Lots of Great Info on PLEK. awesome again Rhett
As a nerdy engineer that plays guitar - this is an awesome video! :-)
A very good machine, but the heart of the luthier is the most important :)
Well done! I'm convinced! It seems like a good neck adjustment can remedy a lot of problems!
You are sort of correct, trust rod adjustment can resolve the problem caused by it being incorrectly adjusted. But there are many, many, many more issues that it wouldn't rectify!
Richie H No one is denying that there can be a myriad of issues! I’ve done my own re frets and dressings for nearly 40 years! Truss rod adjustments are the first option you try to eliminate string buzz issues if you understand relief and fall away! Even in this video demo the guy said it really didn’t need fret dressing one the truss was adjusted. The best thing about the Plek machine is it does it far quicker when you need to level and dress!
Hi Mick, obviously I couldn't gauge from your post the amount of experience you have, but kudos to you and I guess there isn't any need to teach you to suck eggs! Totally agree that it will resolve a buzzing issue, i.e changing string guages to get it playing again!
Richie H We're definitely cool! : ) I really the Plek system because it cuts out years of learning!
I'm in the other camp, after years of learning my trade I see the Plek as a rival. Although it is damn expensive and there is much more to being a Guitar tech/Luthier than a fret level. Glad we're cool by the way!
This guy is worth the plek by himself! In my city, filled with students with a guitar, we've only got one luthier (so called) that charges you a top price to do crappy and unfinished jobs. Past that, his only answer is "can't be done". He makes a living building fender copies, can't be bothered to assist us.
That seems like an awesome guitar shop. The plea combined with this luthier is amazing.
Never heard of pleking...this reminds me the process of making the plumbus...
Fascinating. Didn’t know about any of this till today. Useful info. Thanks
Wish there was one of these in my area. Amazing.
Making sense of magic... I love it!
The Sam Ash down the street from me has one that’s been collecting dust for years.
I would have liked to see someone play the guitar after the Plek job to see if it was a noticeable difference, or at least played really well across the whole fretboard.
Hi, I've had two of my guitars Pleked. When I had my 335 done, even though I thought it was playing well before it made a considerable improvement. The other guitar I had done improved but it was not so noticable. IMHO I think it is worth it for some of my guitars but not others. My go to guitar is a stock MIM Telecaster and I think it's too expensive to get that done.
Howdy, I was lucky enough to see the difference with a properly done Plek'd guitar compared to a few of the same guitar without being Plek'd. Stumbled across a Supro Hampton Sunburst that was a demo from last years NAMM show. Most of the guitars there are Plek'd as the manufacturers want to have the very best representation of their guitars on display. Since NAMM is where Guitar shops are going to find new product they want to carry for the next year. Was in a shop that had this Supro, liked the way it looked, picked it up and Loved the way it played and sounded. Wasn't really sure if I wanted a "Demo" model as there were a few scufffs and scratches so checked out the new ones. Sharp fret edges, buzzing, well every new one I tried played like crap. Went back the the Plek'd demo, truly felt like a different guitar. Can't express to you how big of a difference it was. Ended up purchasing the Plek'd NAMM Demo model and LOVE it!! Plays just amazing!
Later I had taken my Gretsch 5420 into a very reputable shop in Long Beach to get the pick-ups changed and a real Bigsby (come with Lic fake one) on it. While there was talking to the owner and he was saying you can take a "Good Guitar" and with a properly done Plek job make it play as good or better than most expensive American Made Guitars. I had my inexpensive Gretsch checked on the machine, had it Plek'd and now it too plays terrific! Better than my Gretsch 6120 Nashville which is over 3 times the price. I am a true fan of the Plek machine, IF you get it done at a reputable place that knows what they are doing. Know someone who took their American Fender Strat into a "Big Box" store that offers it. Unfortunately they screwed it up real bad!! As stated in the above video, It's a tool. A tool that can truly get great results IF the operator knows how to do it.
Cheers!
I have had 2 of my guitars pleked at Sweetwater they play Amazing
Who knew you could get a set up that good. Thanks Rhett.
People who use good guitar techs/luthiers for half the price!
With all the rage on vintage guitars and how good they are, it'b be great to put a '54 Strat or '59' LP into one of these machines and see the results.
they where a horror show. frets, pickups, magnets, winds. everything was random and inconsisten enough to the point you could either get gold or shit
Incredible little machine there!
That sound of his fingers running across the metal strings makes my hair stand on end and my teeth feel like they are tingling.
Rhett thanks for sharing this; too cool ... totally loved your explanation of how the PLEK works "using science" ... :). And yea your mad playing skills too!
I’ve never ever had a better setup
The first Plek machine I ever saw was Baltimore luthier, Phil Jacoby's machine in 2001. It cost him a fortune, but I've had him Plek every guitar I've ever owned. When I bought my 2018 60s Tele from Sweetwater, I requested it Pleked.
Had my Epi SG plex fro Sweetwater. And put on a Tusq nut. Plays real nice. And stays in tune great.
This was so interesting! Never even heard of PLEKING. Good job!👌🏾
Yeah. Awesome Tool. First time i heard of was last year. Now i saw it in action. Incredible. So thanks for this. Greetz. Carsten
I just ordered a guitar from a place online and I paid to have this done. First time ordering a guitar online and getting one pleked.
Great stuff ... I worked in a heavy manufacturing environment for 40 years (mechanical engineer). It actually looks like a DEA. A machine designed for super high precision data acquisition. Just load up the drawing, put the part (up to 4 tons) onto the granite table and wait for it to spit out data. However, the DEA does not have the ability at alter the part in anyway. shape, or form. So if the PLEK alters any part in any way it would be hybrid with a DEA or similar. Very cool.
It's a CNC machine that probes the part before it cuts.