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.

I'm not sure about Gottlieb cabs being the best made, especially late. ACD has the wonderful particle board back on it...

Really, I've never felt any particular cab was any better made than any other.

I do kind of laugh about Bally's "notorious" lamp sockets. I'll just say this. I've owned two Bally games. I never replaced a single lamp socket on either. I still own one, which I've had for 45 years, and I've never touched the sockets. I have never had a flickering lamp on it either. But I've replaced a bunch of lamp sockets on Gottliebs. I've never really replaced many on Williams games either.

The final decagons were a bit better, but still not as simple to service and adjust as a Bally or Williams. I would just say I'm mystified by any statement that a Gottlieb motor is better than the other two. Levi's statement about them is the absolute truth. A total bear to see the switches to adjust them. Bally and Williams, especially if you take the motor board out of the game, are a breeze. You can see them perfectly.

I do love Gottlieb 60s games and the brass plated fittings. You get those shined up and the game looks so good. I guess that's why I only own one 60s Gottlieb now and have 4 70s long flipper games, even though I really like 2 inch games better. It's just that the particular ones I own are just such good games, and there's only so much space.

Well, I've never worked on a bingo. Hell, I've never even played one. So that explains part of that.

I too have never had an issue with a Bally Jones plug, but I'll admit that I haven't continually taken the plugs in and out so my experience is limited there. I have dealt with Gottlieb plugs where the male plug breaks in half. I figured a way to repair those though and it works great.

The fuse blocks never bothered me much. Fuse blocks are an easy replacement.