Plek: Timeline
| around 1986 | Gerd Anke begins to setup guitars by hand |
| Around 1988 | First attempt to automate the setup and fretdress process , at first purely mechanically |
| 1990 | First computer program to control the mechanical devices |
| May 90 | Gerd Anke and Michael Dubach founded the first company named PLEKTRON in with residence in Anke's apartment in Berlin-Kreuzberg, one employee |
| 1993 | Company renamed plek, the first shop in Berlin-Neukölln servicing customer instruments with a functioning trial machine |
| 1997 | Registration as patented design |
| Jan 98 | Founding of plek Gitarrentechnologie GmbH, 3 employees |
| 1998/1999 | International patent registration and development of a ready to go into production plek basic prototype |
| 2000 | First presentation of the plek basic at the Frankfurt Music Fair |
| 2000/2001 | The first plek basic is taken into service outside of Berlin at Art of Sound, Cologne ; more shops follow (among others in Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Bavaria, Saarland, Berlin) |
| 2001 | The first plek basic is taken into action outside of Germany at Chandler Guitars, London, UK |
| 2001 | Presentation of the plek basic at the Summer NAMM in Nashville/TN, USA |
| 2001 | First plek basic sold (Glaser Instruments, Nashville/TN, USA) |
| 2002 | Founding of A+D Gitarrentechnologie GmbH, eight employees |
| 2002/2003 | Further work is done on the development from plek basic to plek pro |
| Dez 03 | First use of the plek basic in guitar production (Heritage, Kalamazoo/MI, USA) |
| Jan 04 | Introduction of the plek pro at the Winter NAMM in Anaheim/CA, USA |
| Feb 04 | First plek pro sold (Glaser Instruments, Nashville/TN, USA) |
| 2004/05 | Development of the sts, a String Tension Simulator, for the plek pro |
| 2005 | First use of the plek pro/sts in guitar production (Gibson Custom Shop, Nashville/TN, USA) |
| 2006 | First plek pro/sts sold to the Asian market (Takamine, Japan) |
News
01.12.2008
Winter NAMM 2009
Plek / A+D Gitarrentechnologie will exhibit in Hall E, booth # 1361(more information will be available here soon!).
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23.10.2008
All Laklands are now plek'd
Another plek station has recently been setup at the famous bass manufacturer Lakland in Chicago.
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22.09.2008
Les Paul Standard plek'd
The plek process is explained and visualized in a pretty good video, recently published at the Gibson USA website.
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