My C-5 GT isn’t supposed to have a binding, but where the frets sprouted there are some fine cracks along the edge of the fingerboard, and it looks like smooth plastic vs wood. It does list binding for the body, who knows.
Naturally, it only happened on the topside where I have to look at it 
I’m just going to file the frets back and smooth over the whole side of it, I guess XD
Ok! I drove up and had my guitar Plek Done! Its pretty incredible. I have to soften my touch because the action is much lower than I have ever achieved before. apparently the previous owner put in shielding that was causing my pots to short and the people @ Mike Lull guitars fixed it. overall super happy, but yeah it was $300… so if I didn’t love the sound of this thing and didn’t have weird buzzing I might of not undertook this endeavor.
That’s great! Plek’ing definitely makes a massive difference if a bass needs fret work. One of my basses was Plek’ed when it was made, and it plays like melted butter. Congrats!
My Peavy T-40 has quite low frets and I dig the light touch thing (after adjusting) quite a bit.
My paranoia and tendency to catastrophize has me worrying that I take a bass to a place and it doesn’t actually need plek’ing, and they just charge me the $200-$300 and I’m none the wiser 
Probably not the first time, though, that something like that has happened, and I can then espouse the virtues of having a plek done
(and always wonder if it was ever needed 
)
I totally understand. I looked up mike lull guitars before I went and they only sell $4k bass guitars. So I figured they could make my MIM fender play ok lol.
Before committing to the time, trouble and expense of a Plek job, it’s best to have your instrument diagnosed by a reputable tech or luthier as actually needing fret work. If you need only relatively minor fret dressing, that can be handled manually by a good tech/luthier, or by yourself, if you’re properly equipped and knowledgeable of the process.
But in this and all bass endeavors, it’s wise to follow the Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm.
… ask yourself this…
Is there a problem you can actually discern that you would want to investigate?
…if not, don’t do it.
IMHO
Absolutely right. If ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Especially with something like a PLEK, which is potentially going to shave life off of a lot of the frets.
I think I would consider a PLEK as a last resort on an older bass, or as something to consider as an immediate step after a new fret job. If your frets are mostly good but you strongly suspect you have a high fret, I would take it to a luthier and ask them what they thought and maybe level just that fret.
PLEK is a cool machine and I think they really make sense for manufacturers of new instruments, and good for large scale levelling after a new set of frets, but they sound to me like overkill for older basses that are starting to wear. YMMV.
A Plek won’t necessarily shave off a lot of life from many frets unless a substantial amount of frets are way screwed up. What it will do in most cases is level all frets to a median degree of the frets on the neck. Big difference.
…and if you have (say) a few low frets in the money notes (a common pattern due to more usage down there), it has to achieve that median level by filing the remaining 20 or so frets down to meet them.
I think the worst case here is when you have a few low frets.
Maybe. Each case is unique.
Right. Which is why it makes much more sense to me to have a luthier look at it, unless you just had the frets done (or it’s a new guitar).
Might be much less overall wear for a luthier to just replace a couple frets and level overall.
PLEK seems like a last resort to me unless you’re looking at a brand new set of frets.
Thinking about this makes me realize there’s a lot of merit to PRS’s approach of using super hard fretwire.
When I brought my guitar in they had to glue the frets on so they didn’t move when it went into the plek.
I think frets are always glued in?
Luthiers can still remove them.
StewMac recommends gluing them in if they are not already, and talks about removing them here:
Ouch. Yeah, they should be secured from the get-go. If anyone has to secure them before a Plek job, not the greatest.
the video u posted he said a lot of companies don’t do it. 3:40 time stamp.
Ahh. Yes, I meant when luthiers do a fret job. I’m sure not all original manufacturers do it. Sorry! 