I have a green set on my CFTBL. My pin doesn't get a lot of play but I'll be watching for chunks now...

Same here. To me they actually feel closer to standard black rubber than standard red rubber feels to standard black. If you want colors but want a more original bounce than with colored standards, superbands are the way to go.
The grip is quite different, but that also changes if you don't clean them to often. New standards have massive grip too, but dirt sticks to them much faster so grip is heavily reduced after just a handful of games. With superbands it takes much longer until grip is reduced by dirt buildup.

Got them on all my games for quite some time now and not a single blemish so far. Since some have bubbles in them i'm guessing those are the ones that break? I sorted those out before installing them. Rate of bubbled ones was about 1 out of 10.

You make a good point that suggests a lot of "purists" may just enjoy playing with dirty rubbers. And scratched up balls no doubt. Something I've long suspected!

Have green on my FT that I play quite a bit. Fine so far.

Actually i hated them when i first put them on. My Monster Bash has always had massive rubber wear after very short time - i originally just wanted a solution were i don't need to change the MB rubbers every second week, so i tried superbands. Coming from red rubbers the SBs felt completely wrong at first. Did a bit of testing, especially with standard black on one flipper bat and purple SB on the other.

After a few weeks of play they felt pretty much the same, so i stuck with SBs. But this made my other pins with red standards feel completely wrong, so after more testing with black standards and colored SBs i finally switched them all over and will never go back.

I think it could be possible that worn balls could be causing some of the premature ware on the SB. I only through this out there because I've seen people that have way more experience in the hobby then I that have had some pretty worn balls in there HUO games. I've also caught my nail on brand new supposed extra polished balls.

We have both Super-Bands and Saturn Rings installed on machines at the PinCrossing.

The issues I've seen with the Super-Bands were when they were not installed all the way down on the bat which caused wear on the lower edges. I spoke to the person who manufactures them and he suggested moving the bands lower to ensure the ball contact did not happen on that lower edge. Since I've done that, I have had very limited wear, if any. Most of these machines have 1-2k plays on them by now with the bands.

Our initial Saturn Rings were from the first batch. I ordered them within a few days of them being offered by Planetary. We did have issues with them splitting starting the first day they were installed (during a tournament). They were all #3s and the splitting seemed to happen regardless of color. Since that first batch, I've tried more of all the hardness types and had no problems. The soft ones are installed on my Fathom, Centaur and TX-Sector and they play great, IMO.

-Jay

That's hilarious. Some purists like the machine to play the way it was designed to play.

Just out of pure interest - do you ever change black factory rubber for colored ones on your machine? If yes, you couldn't be further away from "the way it was designed to play".

And what is "the way it was designed" anyway? Was it designed with new rubber on it? Or with used ones to get a more real feel? Because you know yourself that a few months old rubber will play different than a new one. Or do you change the rubbers every week to keep the machine playing "exactly as it was designed"?

I get where you are coming from and respect that, but i just don't think the designer cares at all which rubbers are on his pins. It's not like they think about playability when deciding to ship a game with black or red rubbers, they use the ones they think look best. And with your collection you know that red rubbers play completely different than black ones.

I have SBs on all my pins at home and I love them. No signs of wear. I have a T2 on location and after only a couple hundred games the red rubber (not SBs) is starting to come apart. I will put SBs on T2 in the next week or so when they arrive. I will be very curious to see how they do. New balls so no wear from them.

I use black rubbers if it came with them. If it came with white, I use white. I have found that by using what the game came with originally, it will play at it's optimal. The designers of these machines knew what they were doing when they put it together in the first place. I change out flipper rubbers whenever they start to show wear, or at least try to.

Changing colors does not seem to have as much effect as changing material. I just don't like the way the ball travels off urethane as it does rubber. Urethane seems to deaden the rebound reducing the velocity of the ball as it travels to the upper part of the playfield. Where as rubber does not absorb the energy, it gives it back. Others have said it's the complete opposite, and that's fine. But not on the ones I've played.

That's ridiculous. Steve Ritchie has posted numerous times on RGP on how he decides which color rubbers to use. Google is your friend. And if you think all urethane rubbers are like factory black rubbers, you obviously haven't tried the Saturn rubbers. (hint: 4 different hardness)

I use conventional rubbers on virtually all of my location games (Ripley's has IFPA Saturns). I clean and rotate the flipper rubbers regularly. I usually replace them due to staining, long before any pieces are missing. My customers like this. As a regular location player, I won't play at a location that has switched completely to urethane rubbers. A pair here and there are fine, but if the whole place has blinged up rubbers, I'm not spending any money there. All the urethane rubbers play too differently. Nothing like conventional rubbers.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

I guess that means purists don't play on route? Meaning that routed games are usually in FAR worse condition than when they left the factory. It's just a matter of time IMO before new games start shipping with these (probably when the manufacturers run out of their stock). Then we can say they were designed that way.

If you say so.

Purist, shmurist......play pinball!

I'm with you guys a 100%. This urethane stuff is just wrong. Their response is *not* directly proportional to ball speed.

Assuming no spin on the ball, a slow travelling pinball will rebound a certain amount off of conventional rubber. Speed the ball up a bit, the bounce is a little higher; a bit faster a bit higher etc., until it only rebounds so much. With urethane (Superbands), slow travelling balls die, or skid and roll- there's no bounce. A little faster and they barely bounce (where rubber would be bouncing more by now) ..., but speed the ball up enough and you unleash the stored energy in the urethane and the ball travels faster than ever before.

Superbands introduce more grip, and players with average ball control skills find they can catch/grab/tip/hold onto balls like never before. That is appealing to many. Makes you a 'better' player, so it seems. They create more ball spin (is this good?). SB also cause the ball to go faster when hit on the fly - and you can make ramp shots now that used to require more precision with factory coils.

Superbands also don't need to be cleaned as often. True. (But dirt on your flipper rubber means you have dirt in your game, ball trails you should remove and ramps to clean - and so you clean the conventional flipper rubber while you are at it.) I can definitely see the appeal of using these on a route. But in a home environment?

Don't think of me as old fashioned. The new urethane bands look phenomenal. The colours really pop, and they have depth. I love how they look. Really stunning. And I'm all for mods, bling... it's part of the hobby now, but when these mods or 'innovations' adversely impact gameplay - like strobing leds do for example, then it doesn't belong if you truly care about playing pinball like it was meant to be played.

_{Post edited by superJackpot: typo}

This pic shows you have placed them way too high on the bat, its even curling over the top. Any rubber would chunk off with such a poor placement. This is the common theme with the complaints here.....all chunks seem to come off the bottom at the tip of the bat. I know they are a bear to put on but I am sure this is the root of the complaints.

Let this be a lesson to all.......make sure, when placing a rubber on your bat, you have properly slid it all the way down

That rubber is exactly where it should be. There is no part of it 'curling over the top'.

Let this be a lesson to all...... don't let shiny objects make you blind to reality!

The bottom line is that urethane will always be softer than steel (balls). They will never be invincible to damage. Even a lighter (but still harder) power ball will eventually damage urethane rubbers. If you want them to last forever, replace your pinballs with ping pong balls.

The tip of the flipper where the chunks are appearing is the part of the rubber that is under the most strain, if they weren't such a tight fit they would probably last longer.

And no, that rubber is not "curling over the top". Wish I'd cleaned the playfield before I took that pic though!

after about a year my purple ones look perfect, and believe me i have played the hell out of them

image.jpg

How's that Picard menuevure workin' for ya?