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All have good and bad points. Gottliebs have those ridiculous latch trip relays and reset banks, all of which are a bitch to service. Those tiny relay stepper things suck too.
Ballys have terrible light sockets and jones connectors, along with schematics that often make no sense.
Williams match units are awful, and their steppers aren't so hot.
Quoted from EMsInKC:I've never found Gottliebs any better built than either Williams or Bally. I've generally found Bally and Williams easier to maintain, especially the later EMs when Gottlieb went to some of their follies (Ax relays replacing trip banks, AS steppers, etc). That's not to say Williams did it all right, their match units later in the game are no fun either, but in general Bally and Williams are easier to dial in and keep dialed in. Gottliebs, with the short throw relays, can be a bit fussy at times. And there's simply no comparison when we're talking 70s Bally/Williams score reels vs the farce known as the decagon. The best comparison I can come up with there is German vs. Japanese cars. Japanese, simple and reliable. German, wonderful piece of engineering, overly complex in design, more prone to issues.
The wedgehead design is wonderful to look at, but in some ways the Bally/Williams lift out backglasses made working on the head easier than the tilt back design of the wedgeheads.
Bottom line, though, is they all made some fun games, all made a few duds. In general, Gottlieb made fewer duds, while especially in the mid 70s, Bally/Williams lost their way for a bit.
Pretty good summation of the whole situation.
Another thing I HATE about Gottliebs are those relay banks. They are impossible to service installed because when they are in the service position, the switches all move position dramatically. So kinda defeats the purpose. And they are always very important to startup and scoring sequences.
I FINALLY figured out how to deal with these - I now remove all the screws holding them to the bottom of the cabinet. Then I flip them over. This way I can adjust and clean the switches without moving the bank into the service position. It's a little bit of a pain but it certainly works, and it's really the only thing that does.
Gottlieb score motors also suck. Why is it always, 100 percent of the time, switches in the 3rd or 4th level that need servicing, and not the ones on top?!
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New York, NY