I believe the jackpot amount carries over to whatever the next song you select. Strategy is a BIG part of this pin, and I'm still learning. I want to wait before firing that cannon and let it build up, but NOTHING is worse than having 20 plus and then draining the ball and having to start over!

Song jackpot only resets if you collect it from the cannon or your ball ends. Changing songs awards points, but I don't think those points are added to the song jackpot.

After watching others better than me play, I've changed my basic strategy. Now I try to collect song jackpots during multiball, so they don't reset. I play songs later in the cheat sheet linked below first, then switch to TNT or some other early song when I'm about to start Tour or Album multiball. The earlier songs require less shots to collect the song jackpot during multiball.

http://www.pinballreviews.com/acdc_songbonus.htm

Personally, I play a lot of "Whole Lotta Rosie", "You Shook Me All Night Long" or "Hells Bells".

My good games seem to come where I build / collect the song jack pot during a multiball, then collect it a 2nd time after multiball ends, but before the last ball drains.

I'd be interested in hearing about other strategies.

Best strategy is to not lose your ball. Lose it, and you lose everything you worked for. My best games are done on one ball.

I like going for the trifecta multiball and stack it with hells bells with some VIP passes to keep 2X score rolling.

Did you mean to say the earlier songs require less shots to collect the "song bonus?"

This can get very confusing.

What he's trying to say is that songs released earlier in their discology give you the song bonus jackpot earlier then songs released more recently like Rock n Roll train & War Machine.

No. I don't have one nearby, but to me, the song bonus would be the points you collect when you change songs.

During Tour and Album multiball, you can collect song jackpots without resetting them AND relight the jukebox, but you can't switch songs or collect the song bonus.

Stacking the three MBs doesn't seem to be the best strategy in terms of scoring the big points in my experience. The amount of extra points awarded during the stacking doesn't seem to justify the risk in stacking all three which normally results in a drained ball (or two!) before getting the 3x stack. I get better scores by just doing the different MBs as they come to me.

Oh, I didn't realize the song jackpots didn't reset if collected during Tour or Album MB. Good to know, although I always try and score it whenever I can.

I understood the song bonus to be as smassa stated.

The song bonus awards extra value to a jackpot shot if the current song in play happens to be part of the tour or album MB jackpot shot being scored during the MB (unrelated to the big song jackpot). These bonus points are scored during the MB, not when switching songs. I think the display actually says "song bonus" as the points are scored.

No this isn't correct. The song bonus is only collected during Album or Tour MB when you have the current song playing that coincides with the jackpot collected.

Yeah, I'm sure you guys are right. Not owning one, I probably should've stayed out of this discussion. Glad to see a discussion about gameplay here though.

One I've been playing on location lately had the song requests needed to light the jukebox reduced to 5. So I've been going for Encore a lot. I think they should reduce the number of song requests needed to change songs to 6. 8 is too many. Puts Encore out of reach for most everyone. On 5 requests, I've only made it there once. Had it lit on another game, but couldn't start it.

On the other hand, many wiz modes have been easy to get to lately. I can see how Lyman might not want to follow that trend.

I agree with Rob. One multiball at a time seems to work best.

What songs seem to be the most lucrative?

Do you guys collect early song jackpots of a few million, or let them go to build and collect twice during multiball?

I dont collect the S.J. unless its over 25mil and I have 2x or 3x running. Hells Bells is great for scoring cause you can use the VIP to keep 2x running or advance closer to 3x (personal best Song Jackpot collect is 315 mil using this strategy) . Its especially valuable when you are in Tour or Album MB and you know the Song Jackpot bonus is close (just be sure you dont collect it from the cannon before you get the extra collect or it will be a wasted bonus collect). I also like H2H and will try n shoot the Jukebox when I drain out of multiball with 3x running from hells bells. You can run up the S.J. value really fast with about 2mil per stand up hit on the Mini PF.

Some light reading :

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/song-jackpot-during-multiball

I have also used the VIP during Hells Bells to keep/advance 2x/3x.

Do you guys use VIP passes for anything other than:

- What's noted above about the playfield multiplier
- To spot a shot for add a ball during multiball
- After draining your 3rd ball before the end of ball bonus calculates

Also, I still have some thinking (and play testing) to do before figuring out if I should stack multiballs, or play them one at a time. I originally thought that one at a time is better, but if I was a better player, I would consider stacking them to get the song jackpot twice within a stacked album/tour multiball.

Less frequently than above, but I also use it to:
- get into Hell during Hells Bells. Trap the ball on right flip, take a shot at the bell, immediately hit the VIP button to get the bell moving for an easy entry to Hell.
- if running TNT, get multiball ready, drop the three TNT targets, trap ball. Hit VIP to trigger the countdown timers, then collect the right ramp and start multiball to easily collect others.

I guess the benefit of this is that you have gotten 2 song jackpots instead of one, if your ball then drains after MB.

Pros of playing one multiball at a time:

- Add a ball or VIP pass can only be used once per multiball, stacked or not
- There is additional risk in trying to stack the multiballs before starting them
- Even though you can collect the song jackpot twice in a stacked album/tour multiball, you are shooting for different shots

I think this one vs. stacked multiball might come down to how good of a player you are...

I forgot about TNT, but I have also used a VIP pass for that. Your use during Hells Bells to kick the ball back to play the lower playfield is very creative - thanks for sharing!

I like war machine for building the song jackpot -- the spinner rotations add to the song jackpot, as does the shot itself (it also adds to your score, not just the song jackpot). Plus it advances towards lighting tour mb on the right ramp. Also, it's an easy and safe cannon shot for v1.6 and up (pre 1.6 just let the cannon auto-fire up the right ramp).

Hells Bells,Whole lot of rosie, you shook me all night long, and each of the ramp songs (H2H,RNRT) are also good.

TNT is just a tool to cash in the big song jackpot without resetting it after the cash in, since it is the first jackpot completion during album multiball and the 3rd jackpot completion/orbit shot during tour multiball. So file it under lucrative for that reason.

The latter.

lol Jeff.... read through the thread again... You will find it

Jeff,

The short of it is that you have to complete a certain number of target banks while in album multiball, or hit a certain number of loops in tour multiball.

How many is dependent on which song is playing during multiball.

You can use the following cheat sheet to determine the specific number needed:
http://www.pinballreviews.com/acdc_songbonus.htm