I saw a nicked shooter lane. No ghosting. Not enough to say the domestic run of Premiums is still having issues.

I think they've used a mix of maple and birch for some time.

The GB lane pictured looks like very, very young wood to me, though IMO it looks better than 2 GB Pros I've seen which had crazily soft, rough looking sapwood in the shooter lane (both losing clear).

sorry but I don't think thats fair; there is a theory and the pictures above seem to support that. When I look at my other tables there is definitely a newness and softness to the wood compared to my other tables...

Neil.

He has no inside information. He is speculating out his ass.

He is also a Heighway acolyte. He comes in Stern threads and spread FUD.

He has zero credibility.

It is more than fair to call into question his statements.

you saw something on a table thats not a year old that I don't see on tables that are decades old with thousands of plays. Early days I agree and it could be a one off - I hope it is!

He's as much anti-Stern as you are pro-Stern. His theory has validity. Younger wood is softer wood. Younger wood is cheaper wood.

He has zero inside information about Stern and what wood they are using, or even if that has been the cause of the issue.

And yet he posts in here as though it was a fact.

this whole freaking thread is speculation; have you been in the batman66 thread?

nobody here as any inside information? and your point?

i look at my premium and the wood is definitely different to the other 10 tables I have.

But do you know that as a fact is causing the ghosting and chipping issues?

If you're speculating.....say it's your guess.

Don't post it as fact.

It's common knowledge that younger wood is softer. The theory makes sense to me. I'd love to hear Kruzman's or Kruger's take on this theory.

don't read it as fact

That's not what I'm arguing.

It's posting that this switch has in fact occurred....AND it's causing the ghosting and chipping problem.

If we're speculating, I'd say a switch to a new water-based clear-coat is the culprit, as it has completely different drying requirements.

But that's just speculation on my part. I wonder never go around stating it as fact.

I agree it should not be stated as fact.

It's not just that it's softer, per se (i.e. lower index of hardness), but it's way more prone to movement and warping.

Absolutely.

Also we wood* not have to speculate if fucking Stern would tell us what is up.

*get it?

I was also told that nothing was going to happen until after January 1.

i am a believer. playing gb le is alot of fun. waiting for jan for my playfield box to come.

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For what it is worth, I have followed this thread and looked at all the pictures and I do not believe it is the clear coat at all. Look at the pictures where there are pieces of the top layer. The print is also gone in all cases.

For me that says that the printed layer is not adhering to the wood. In the shooterlane there is no print so therefore the clearcoat is not adhering to the wood. For me that says more about the wood than it does about the clearcoat, because if it would be the clearcoat then that should chip away, not the print underneath.

Just my opinion, do not read it as fact

You cracked the case!

that timeframe has been mentioned by another buyer.

if thats the case, i mean... why do they need to wait another 3+ months to make things right?

Good point, makes sense. When I spoke to a distributor about the issue a while back they mentioned that Stern was having issues with the wood used for playfields.

I bought my GB in August when there was supposed to be a free tshirt offer. But, my game didn't come with the coupon though. I asked politely a few times on Facebook if I can get my free shirt and was ignored. So Stern (Jared) posts a new shirt special for their party and I asked if I can get one since I didn't get my free shirt with my game (Since I have been ignored so far). Their response is to delete my comment and still ignore me.

I'm not losing sleep over a shirt, but hey it would have been nice to have nevertheless. This is how Stern operates.

Rob

Just call their 1-800-kickers and I am sure they will send you a shirt.

I never redeemed my shirt coupon. I really don't feel like being a mobile ad for them until they sort out the issues with my playfield.

Wish the tech support would match the free shirt department. Got my free shirt in two days. It's been three weeks without a response from Patrick.

E-mail or call ?
I've found e-mails to be hit and miss but when I rang them the service I received was excellent.

Maybe this way they don't have to take the loss in this fiscal year?

I see what ya did there

My guess was that the lead up to xmas is a busy time and they want to be pumping out machines and that January is a quieter period.

When I look at the videos of the stern factory the build of the play field seems to be the hardest,longest and most expensive part of the process, and in effect subject to how many people claim, and assuming lots of operators and non-pinheads dont bother, stern could have a hell of a lot of work to do in January, as a business it looks ugly for them, what i cant get is why its taken so long to address this. Can you imagine if apple release a phone that bits of the screen or buttons fell off and they took almost a year to address it - there would be riots in the street!

BMW had a problem with the rear diff on all M cars this year, they stopped all production for 4 weeks so they could address it (a car i had on order was delayed a month because of it). Just seems nuts that stern are still sending faulty stuff out across the world that just the shipping is going to cost an arm and a leg let alone the work to build the replacement play fields. It just seem insane to me.

Neil.

I DO NOT KNOW the cause of the problems. YOU are the one that says that you KNOW that Stern is using cheap wood, so please tell us all how you know this. You act like you have some kind of inside info but you wont reveal your source or your proof. You dont know anymore than the rest of us know. We dont know what's causing the problems, we dont know if its even a big problem. For all we know 5 percent of the playfields could be bad or it could be 100 percent, which I doubt that is the case. If they're using cheap wood as you suggest, then all of the playfields should be bad and that is not the case.

I have a new GOT Pro with a june playfield date and so far there are no issues and it looks fantastic. I'm definitely concerned about it but so for so good, time will tell I guess. There is a GB Pro at the local barcade with a ton of plays on it and the playfield looks fine, so obviously ALL of the playfields using this "cheap wood" arent going bad.

The evidence is in plain sight as I've already stated. Why do you choose to ignore it?

Just thought I'd pop in to get caught up. Lots of back and forth, but no new issues reported by anyone.
No news is good news!

This thread should be moved to the basement

So after 90 pages and 10 months I have come to the conclusion that Stern is indeed serious.

I think you just won the internet.

That's what she said.

Maybe January is their self projected safe time to figure out if they have all these issues worked out. If Stern addresses the problem before they know if the problem with these playfields is fixed then they just might have to swap playfields more then once. Someone reported a playfield with issues of a Sept. 9th production date. I don't think they have the issue 100% corrected yet but they could have...just don't know. Unlike Cars where a problem with the M series could kill lives if not addressed, pinball machines will not and it is a problem that I believe Stern feels they can go on as normal and attend to later down the road to make consumers whole.

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But the thread is only 3 months old.

It sure FEELS like it's been 10 months of this though...

The thread is 3 months. The issues go back about 10.

Another chipped playfield with ghosting inserts from 8 Sep. -Titan Pinball just got it too.

You're getting dangerously close to losing $50.

Let me ask you this. If Stern fixed the issue as of "mid-September" why in the world would they be using PF's dated Sept 8th that were potential issues if they new the issues would be resolved in a week +/-?

I got mine second week of september with a playfield of July 16th.

Which is crap. If what Chambahz is saying is true (highly unlikely) and Stern fixed the issue "mid-September" why continue using playfields that were known to be potentially effected? Why not just wait until you sorted it out and scrap the potential bad eggs?

There are a few potentials answers, most of which don't bode well for Stern.

Say what?! My experience is that "younger wood" is much harder. Maybe that's just me. The older my wood gets its def NOT harder!

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Go look at the "premium share your info" thread

I will hazard a guess...September 8th is the date of the newest playfields Stern has on hand. The issues are not fixed yet.

But Chambahz has assured us they are!

Keep it up fellas. Sept 22nd is the most recent playfield date we've seen. And no complaints from those so far. I wonder how few of them there are though. Tough to really say "no more issues" if like, they only made 4 that day and luckily they're all ok. Then again, I would have expected at least ONE of them to show up with ghosting or cracking. ESPECIALLY since Titanpinball's issues developed within about a day of them getting theirs. The Sep 22nd play fields were received about a week and a half (?) ago now.

Hey MinusWorlds: serious question for you. You're apparently getting yours within the next day or two I believe. Are you buying now, thinking that issues are not resolved, because you have faith in Sterns return policy?

I have one on order, arriving anytime -but I firmly believe that the issues have been resolved.