Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Anyone have experience with dressing the frets of a Rickenbacker 4001/4003 in a Plek Machine?

I just wonder if the Plek would adjust the fret height to accomodate a relief in the neck thus making a sub optimal set up for a Rick.

My 1977 4001 has a fret that is a tad lower than the other ones that prevent it to have an ''uber low'' action. As of now I can get the ''classic 2 mm at the 12 fret'' but it is not as low as the rest of my Ricks.

Here's a quote by Paul W. (Jingle Jangle) about using the PLEK machine. This quote is from another thread :

IMO the PLEK is the answer to the question nobody asked. No question it can produce the mathematically perfect neck, but the idea of a $50K+ machine being used to make an organic structure "perfect", when the human touch and experience is what's really needed, is ironic in the extreme. But, both Brawer and SFGW promote these heavily, and if their business is mostly guitars with much less sensitive necks than those found on Rickenbacker instruments, perhaps the human touch is not needed so much, and there's no doubt that these machines much be in frequent, if not constant, use in order to pay for themselves.

In my opinion (where have I heard that phrase before), the PLEKing process' advantages (if there really are any) goes out the window once anything has been changed on the instrument, such as action, neck relief, different strings, etc.

.......and here I thought this was a thread by a member who did not know how to spell plectrum.

Same theme in the Martin forum...

My personal opinion is that it is one too much. Not every explainable invention makes sense in daily use.

I gave my guitar to a good luthier (much cheaper!), the space between the low e string and the 12th fret now is 1,7mm. No buzz.
Somebody needs less?

What about fret wear? - After playing the instrument a month the effect is gone with the wind.

BTW the vid of the company who builds these expensive machines tells that a neck bow is needed for the string to swing off freely. As we know, no guitar needs a neck bow when it is a really good one with an untwisted neck.
My Martin does not need that, so far, too. It is like a Rickenbacker a well built instrument. You can adjust it very close to the tolerances. The neck is dead straight, too. And yes, no buzz.

Ricks have traditionally had varnished fretboards and uncrowned frets; this is a part of the Rick DNA and goes back to Rossmeisl's days. It's a brilliant way to make a terrifically-playable, finger-friendly fretboard without a huge investment in time in detailing the fretting. It also wears very well and is simple to level and polish anytime.

PLEK supports traditional crowned fretting. The machine can be set up to work on Rick varnished fretboards,but, again, unless you must have the latest technology used in order to take an off-chance on possibly improving your Rickenbacker (and possibly not; Ricks are set up at the factory by pros who do it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week), there's no need for this sort of approach.

Of course, if you need bragging rights, then spend the $$$.

Hotzenplotz wrote:As we know, no guitar needs a neck bow when it is a really good one with an untwisted neck.

This is just splitting hairs about how close to flat something can be before you stop acknowledging that it has any bow at all. Due to string excursion the argument that some bow--even if microscopic--is necessary for a proper setup makes more sense to me than the idea that anyone can magically set an organic, wooden neck to a truly straight line without a little error toward back bow or forward bow. And we know how it sounds if you go even a little bit towards the back bow... so I think in reality most of us with "straight necks" actually still have the tiniest bit of relief. That doesn't take away from how great the instrument is or how happy one can be with the setup.

In one of the dutch musical instrument magazines there was a story on dutch luthier, who mainly builds Teles... in the story they wanted to plek another type of instrument, and the luthier had to spend several hours on the phone with plek to get the initial settings for the model right - if I am not mistaking he even got a file emailed to him with settings to start with! But it now does also engrave, though

Set it up in the wrong way and you might need to replace the entire fingerboard!

I think the gerund form should be spelled "Plekking", anyway...otherwise pronounciation should be "pleeking" with a single K.

Ref: The gerund form of "trek" (journey) is, of course, "trekking" for pronunciation's sake.

Takes me back to "relicking" again.

Ref: The gerund form of "mimic" is "mimicking", for pronunciation's sake. Otherwise it'd be pronounced as "mim mice-ing". Get it?

This has been your Spelling Nazi speaking...

Oh, snap!

jingle_jangle wrote:Oh, snap!

Just imagine the world'd ended on Friday! We would have missed this spelling class

Factory investment for production finish perhaps, but then again I have a Geddy Jazz and it has a neck that moves like a Thermometer, sorry edit, the neck is '' a Thermometer''.

Standyby.
I'll have a report likely by the end of the week.

I had my Spector Euro 4 LX PLEKed by Phil Jacoby at Philtone Guitar Co. in Baltimore yesterday.
Awesome results.

My 2012 4003 Jetglow going to him, hopefully, on Fridayfor a PLEK.

jingle_jangle wrote:Ricks have traditionally had varnished fretboards and uncrowned frets; this is a part of the Rick DNA and goes back to Rossmeisl's days. It's a brilliant way to make a terrifically-playable, finger-friendly fretboard without a huge investment in time in detailing the fretting. It also wears very well and is simple to level and polish anytime.

PLEK supports traditional crowned fretting. The machine can be set up to work on Rick varnished fretboards,but, again, unless you must have the latest technology used in order to take an off-chance on possibly improving your Rickenbacker (and possibly not; Ricks are set up at the factory by pros who do it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week), there's no need for this sort of approach.

Of course, if you need bragging rights, then spend the $$$.

Those particularities of Rickenbacker basses is what makes me wonder if a Plek also can work as well on a Rick.

The engineer in me likes the concept of the Plek system though the cost effectiveness for a business to invest in such a machine is something I cannot understand. Anyway, I am tempted to give it a chance. But I want to understand the risks first.

The cost is not an issue. Living in Perth, Western Australia, the cost of a fret dressing is the same price than shipping my bass to Sydney to have it plecked and shipped back to me. So around here the bragging rights belong to those who are rich enough to afford paying premium prices charged by local businesses (which businesses often deliver very poor results...).

Hotzenplotz wrote: I gave my guitar to a good luthier (much cheaper!), the space between the low e string and the 12th fret now is 1,7mm. No buzz.
Somebody needs less?

1.7 mm is good. But you have access to a good luthier. I have access to a sorry bunch of overpriced and under-experienced luthiers. The good ones quickly leave for greener pastures.

So in these conditions, replacing a dud by a machine is something I can live with. But can the machine set up a Rick properly is what I want to know. The typical local guys can't and they want $300-$350 for a ****** job. The few that pretend being good expect $600 for a dressing. A Plek in Sydney is $350 including shipping both ways from my place.

In this case clearly a better choice!!!

I am sure this plek-thing causes no damage, so far. I also think that it is able to do a very good job for equal frets.
My luthier here just took 40€ for improving the frets. Unbeatable, right?

BTW Martin is using such machines, as far as I read. That does make sense for the very first setup done by a big factory, IMHO.

All in all there are certainly different ways to achieve satisfaction.


Reading Your lines I should become a luthier - and then good bye to ol' Europe! (Why not? I am already doing setups and repairs for friends.)
I really can imagine to live in down under. BTW I started to inform a lot about Australia. - Fascinating!