PLEKing half-built guitars

[clayville]

Gibson recently put up a really nice site for their ES line with lots of good stuff (factory tour, history, performance videos... one of the nicest things I've seen them do). Anyway, in the introductory text on the front page they mention that the ES's are now PLEKed. News to me... but that's not my point. They describe doing this before the guitars are sanded, painted, and have gone through final assembly. :hmm

Just curious really... does that sequence seem a little odd to anyone else? I realize the frets and fretboards are taped before the sanding/painting, etc. This might keep metal shavings out of the pickup magnets. But I always assumed that it would make more sense to Plek an assembled guitar for some reason...
http://www.gibson.com/_microsite/electricspanish/customMemphis.html

 

[timinator]

I thought PLEK took into account neck bow when strung. That does sound strange.

 

[bund]

They use a string tension simulator on the production models of the Plek machine . It simulates string tension so as to not have to string each guitar individually for the machine to "see " the correct relief prior to dressing the frets.