I have a Metallica from 2014. It has more plays on it than any other game in my arcade over the past 3 years. Dimples aren't something that I notice, if they're there at all.

No. All playfields dimples.

Stern dimpling threads are the new "Is the market about to collapse?" threads.

Seriously! Aren't there at least 2 other current dimpling threads where people are even busting out hardness tests? I was hoping for a 3rd place to discuss the same issue.

I get off on these types of threads......

MY PLAYFIELD IS SO HARD RIGHT NOW!

My Metallica is a little over a year old now and it is FULL of dimples. It looks like surface of the moon... I don't think it affects game play but def dimpled.

Curious since yours is a bit older if there was a change over the years that the newer play fields are dimpling now...

Will dimples cause the market to collapse and is JJP better than Stern and also did you see that crazy ad on Craigslist and eBay and also are prices too high for all the pinball machines I want to buy?!

You forgot to ask about CODE!

Games that have lots of air balls dimple more than games that don't have a lot of air balls, but in the end they all dimple.

What I said is, I don't notice them. They might be there. I'm too busy playing to be looking at the playfield.

dup

When I am playing I tend to look a the playfield a lot! Like, almost all the time

100% Fact...my location has gotten every NIB since Metallica...so I've got to play them all day one and everyday after...MET,IMVE,TWD...these titles 100% did not have dimples like the recent ones do...SW and BM66 just look terrible...I'm not saying they all won't....but somewhere around GB...the wood just had to change...I'm nowhere near as pinball smart as most of you...but my eyes work..............Joey

I'll have to try that. Thanks for the tip!

If stern would ever release a goddamn code update then they could fix the dimpling issue... So tired of them raising prices but not improving the quality of the code! Come on now. We have been dealing with the dimpling for sooooo long and there have been many code updates for their games and none have addressed the dimpling... Ridiculous!

Source am software dev so I know this.

I have seen you play, like watching Tommy!

The only thing collapsing are the opponents of the newly-reborn Washington Redskins!

Comin' to get ya KC!!!

I have to say .. .
My Dialed In LE seems to have NO playfield dimples after ~300 plays. And I do get the occasional airball.

Not all wood had the same hardness and I wouldn't put it past Stern to have switched to a lesser wood if it means saving a few bucks. They are all about cost cutting so wouldn't be surprised if they switch to balsa wood in the future.

If your referring to recent Sterns versus all JJP games then the answer is YES....several tests have been done to confirm hardness of the Stern play fields are inferior

Dimples are the new code.

poll: what machine should i buy next?

edit: i should note, i have 9 kids who have never been outside before, a wife that hates anything fun, and a dog that barks aggressively at any images of zombies or elvira. please keep that in mind with your recommendations.

You are ripe for a pinball startup pre-order!

Send money now, but never endure the hassle of actually receiving and setting up the game!

I heard the new Tron VEs wont have the dimpling issue.

Here's been my experience in the past year- had a GB premium built Sept 2016, playfield dimpled deep and quickly, got an Aerosmith Premium about 2.5 months ago, there are dimples, but nowhere near as bad, deep or as many as my GB, bought a Dialed In 3 months ago, has dimples, but are taking a lot longer to show up, not very noticeable and not as many as GB or AS. From my experience it seems as Stern may have starting using more dense wood lately, but I might have just gotten lucky on AS and got one of the better ones, not sure, but those are my first hand observations on those 3 machines in the past year.

Turn on any clearcoated game and take off the translite/backglass and you will be able to see the dimples if the backglass light is on.
Playfield wood is soft compared to the hardness of the ball.

If a game has been played a bunch the dimples will start to look like the texture of an orange peel.

but a fix is on the way

jpst2 (resized).png

Hold on for a shocker:

My advice is play every game, and then buy what YOU like. I capitalized YOU for no apparent reason but it should make sense.

My WOZ dimpled but not as bad... and then the ink started chipping off.

I have a Twilight Zone. Classic Bally, not Stern, right? Anyway, I improved the lighting significantly and dimples appeared from out of nowhere.

My question is : Has anyone measured the impact more photons have on a playfield? I suppose additional lighting pounded the clearcoat and caused the problem since it is well known all WMS clearcoats were flawless back in the 1990s. I know we are told that photons do not have mass, but that's all PhD nonsense and more than likely a conspiracy since something obviously caused more dimples on my playfield when I swapped in LEDs and improved the lighting of the playfield significantly.

Maybe Stern is using those cheap LEDs that emit heavier-mass photons thus causing more pronounced dimpling ... especially on lighter color / less detailed regions of a playfield. Incandescent bulbs emit zero-mass photons, but they cause forest fires and only I can prevent forest fires.

Thank you.

Any machine from any of the manufacturers will have some type of flaws.
My advice is to figure out what you can live with and just purchase accordingly.

Ghostbusters was the fastest and deepest dimpling game I've ever had, but it also generated more airballs than anything I've ever owned until I got the airball protector. It's tough to compare that against other Sterns or the two JJP's I have, because the ball action is so vastly different. I'll pull the glass on Dialed In, which has had A LOT of play since I got it and see how it's holding up compared to how my Spider-Man, Iron Man, or AC/DC wore over a similar time period.

Damn.

This is the closest I could find for Dimples and Pinball...

dimple (resized).jpg

Haaaaaaaaa!

I swear, if some newb ever comes over to buy one of my pins and starts nit-picking the dimples I'm going to dimple his head.

The steps to figure out what to deduct for dimples are as follows:

1)Count the number of dimples in one square inch
2)divide the square footage of the playfield by 12, multiply that answer by step one.
3)multiply the answer from step 2 by $0.05
4)deduct answer in step 3 from sale price
5)run as fast as you can cause seller is red faced pissed!
6)create new Pinside account so you can do business again.

"Can you get a pic of the shooter lane?"

Cause wanting to see a picture of the area that typically gets the most wear is so out of line.

Word is that Stern is using multiple playfield manufacturers. These different companies are clearly using different wood...that's why we're seeing some runs of games looking fantastic, and some that get cratered. For those of us that have seen the difference between "normal" dimples and craters, you know the cratered games aren't going to smooth out. So, the answer to this question is that it's sometimes true. Sometimes Sterns dimple more than JJP...depends which company they sourced the playfield from.

It gets pretty ridiculous. You have these flawless games aside from a tiny dimple in the shooter lane and it's a hard pass for the buyer. I mean, c'mon.

Yep. For some people, these things aren't games. They're furniture.

I guess. It always surprises me how many games, like an original run Spider-Man, still show up for sale with "less than 300 plays." I mean...what?!

Explain the wear of JJP games compared to Sterns.
Dialed IN's with wear at the scoop- over with a JJP 'cliffy'
WOZ with wear - they send out decals to cover it up

Don't tell me JJP is superior

Have you owned one? I have all of them and they clearly are from a manufacturing/quality perspective...so are CGC games

Different problems, but Dialed In dimples WAY less than any recent stern. We have one on location side by side with a Ghostbusters Premium and a Batman SLE and they are a mess of dimples while Dialed In has very few.

It's a pretty recent Stern problem. The hardness tests pretty much lines up with the recent playfields that dimple a lot.

none of my JJP or CGC games have many dimples...especially compared to Stern. Now that being said my LOTR LE had none....

Not talking about scoop wear. That's inevitable on any game without a Mantis or Cliffy. It's a design flaw if the game doesn't come with protection there. Talking about wood softness and the type of dimpling that happens because of it.

I have 7 Sterns and a Hobbit. I'm happy with all my Stern playfields - they were all made with good wood, and look the same as Hobbit....although I'd say Hobbit has better clearcoat - it's definitely shinier/glassier....but dimple-wise, they're all about the same.

That being said, I've seen some Stern games that have playfields that look like mushy clay...you can "feel" the texture of the lumpy playfield as the ball rolls. Again - not saying this is happening on every game...when I had a STLE, the playfield was nice and smooth...but my friend's STLE looked like complete garbage. I got a good playfield, he didn't. I've seen a TWDLE with a lumpy playfield...but I've also seen a ton of TWD's with perfectly fine playfields.

I'm not commenting to "pick sides". I'm commenting based on facts and experience. Stern is using multiple sources for playfields. Someone's making good ones. Someone's making shit ones.