FYI for those that may be interested. My METLE got a lot of streaming love over the weekend at TPF. Played nearly every round in the finals as well.

Here is a link to the finals - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/239897849

Skip to the end to see Karl D blow it up. If you watch this please ignore my game (I'm Brad). After Karl's blow up and needing a first place to have a chance I tried a couple new ideas which obviously blew up in my face so I had a really bad game

To answer some questions I saw in the chat window.
- CIU was set to 8+2 and Sparky was starting at 13.
- Yes, we kept ball save on but reduced to 4 seconds. This was because it was a limited entry tournament and not a herb event. With limited we wanted people to have a chance to feel the game at least.
- Slings were stupid tight and outlanes were wide open. Had mini post installed in place of the standard post (3/8 OD rubber)
- No, I didn't LED barf on the game. The GI is stock with one exception. I replaced the blue lights with Ice blue. I did this because I just don't like the dark blue and wanted a more lighter blue light in the game.
- The flipper bats aren't black. They are actually Candy purple. Didn't show in the stream well.

does anyone know the rhyme or reason behind which band member is selected at the start of a game (that you collect by shooting the picks)? or is it random?

I could have sworn that at one point in time it was always 'james' (leftmost) and then worked it's way up to 'robert', as you collected them one band member at a time.

it appears to a random band member, but most of the time on my machine it's either kirk (3rd) or robert (4th)

I believe a lane won't flash for full collection while holding the left flipper button on plunge unless it at least hits the right orbit switch. A soft plunge is still possible, but it needs to go further than just a soft plunge and not far enough to go into the lanes. It might even need to hit both orbit switches before they flash, as Flex_in_Aus mentioned.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Edit: tested this at home, and I'm correcting myself. The indicated lane starts flashing as soon as the ball leaves the plunger switch, so a soft plunge will work.

what is the preferred flipper color (not taste wise but gameplay wise) - I've been using black....

I prefer black on Modern Stern games.

black seems to go well with just about every flipper bat color. purple might work with MET as well due to the color scheme, but not too many colors compliment the yellow bats

I’m real happy with translucent blue. Matches real nicely

Mine with purple super bands, and purple logos. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/metallica-owners-thread/page/183#post-3555098

I wasn't in tournament play yet it seems to be locked into left orbit. Factory settings, latest code, hmmmm?

On mine you dont have to hit the right orbit switch to get things happening.

I just got home to test this, and you are correct. The indicated lane starts flashing as soon as it leaves the plunger switch.

Mine has purple super bands right now, but I've also used orange and black. All look great!

What type of bulb is the green snake bulb and where can you get it? Mine just blew

Pinball life

Ive put quite a few plays on my game now and i think im thru the honeymoon stage for the most part, and i gotta say that this game is just as great right now as it was the first day that i got it! Pinball just doesn't get much better than MET.

Im a first run owner and it was also my first new in the box purchase. Ive been on the fence several times about selling. However after I kick myself in the nuts my common sense sets in and says hey dipshit this is the best pinball machine of all time. Needless to say its not going anywhere.

Thank you!

As someone that has gone through many games trying to find the "ones".....MET is one of those keepers. Amazing game.

Mine has been kicking my ass lately. I think someone put industrial strength magnets in my outlanes.

>90% of the players will fail at that >90% of the time

Truth. I fail 90% of the time, but this is my go-to method. Feels great when I do hit it

Don't buy the same bulb that Stern uses. They made a poor choice and it's not always easy to see, especially when other lights and flashers are going during multiball and stuff. Buy this one in green: http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/2smdfd.htm

So much more visible without being any brighter. I recommend anyone change out the factory one for that one. You'll love the difference.

Its jist a normal 555? I put a different one in and it still didnt work. Ill have to check the socket

Yes, both the one I recommended and the factory one are 555. Some LEDs don't work because the metal contacts on the bulb get moved over. Push them a bit towards the outer edge and should work fine. If not, it's a dead bulb.

Ok cool, thanks for the help!

So my Met Pre is still having hammer magnet issues (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/metallica-hammer-magnet-troubleshooting-question-multimeter). Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it stops sensing the ball at all. I emailed Chas at Stern a few times and he thinks it's the magnet board - even though I bought a new one and it has the same issue - and said he's sending me a new one to try. Not sure when that's supposed to get here, but we'll see.

I have some people coming over this weekend for Easter, and while I want to show them the hammer (and will), if it gets too bad, I might want to just disable the whole thing and make it act like a Pro as it relates to Coffin Multiball. I looked through the manual yesterday and couldn't figure out exactly what settings to change to make it act like the Pro and figured someone here probably already knows. Thanks in advance.

Got my light working again. It was the splice going to the snake mouth light. The wire must have been a little loose

Looking for an alternative to the stickered panel on my PRO. I would like something metal or silver. Any options? Also - still on the hunt for that PREM translite. Thanks!

Is yours wooden or metal speaker panel?

Metal (black)

I was looking at my Metallica the other day wondering why no one has come up with a sticker for the piston lane target/stop. That blue target looks boring.

Would be cheap and I'm sure a lot of people would buy it...

I did the same thing. There are probably pics of it in this thread, but there are over 2K pics in the image gallery right now.

IMHO - This is a major issue with the MET Premium I hope the engineers at Stern can figure out why this board has such a high failure rate and make a REV E board that is more stable.

My one suggestion to stern regarding this board is to disconnect the magnet, and simulate a drive transistor failure by shorting the transistor...if the board burns, it needs to be properly engineered to fix it. I know from the Spike system that Stern doesn't like fuses and obviously their engineers forgot EE 101 that you do not substitute fuses for current limiting circuits since circuits can fail ... if they didn't you wouldn't need either.

Here you go:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/metallica-owners-thread/page/81#post-2560841

There you go! I like this better than a decal.

Finally broke down and added the BEST mod you can for Metallica. In the color DMD club finally. I knew I would get it eventually so anyone sitting on the fence just get it and be done with it. Yeah $400 sucks but it looks bad ass.

5BB754A3-8001-449B-B2C5-45E67E212A32 (resized).jpeg

That looks great. Can you post a link for it?

Sorry if this has been asked before

What is the better display for Metallica
LCD or LED ?

Colordmd is a must for MET. Just is. LCD or LED has been discussed many times on pinside for different games. It's all personal preference. LED fits right in where LCD has to be mounted back some. LCD has more viewing options but LED is brighter. I prefer LCD because I think it looks better. LED is good for games where LCD does not fit like CV.

Im confused on this as well. I want the one that has the brightest colors and if im not mistaken that is the LCD i think?

Is the LCD display easy to install?

Highest brightest colors is the LED. The one you should get is the LCD. Has so many diff options to select from (mode wise) and in this game the smooth one looks really good. I can't recommend the LCD enough. It also has darker blacks than LED. Both are super easy to install.

Now who has that premium translite they want to sell me ; ) Trade for my pro trans + cash!!

Yes i want the one that looks smooth, not the one where you see all of the dots.

Glad I got my 5/500 Le back. Still an awesome game.

LED is brighter. LCD gives you more options so you can keep the dots or go Hi-res. The Hi-res looks great. Installation is fairly easy on Metallica. The instructions lacked a little detail so I reached out to a friend that has them in all his games to make sure I hooked it up right. Walked me through it over the phone so it is that easy to install.

where did you get those "M" icons in your speakers? Can't find them....

Did you see that Marco apparently has them in stock? The image is wrong though, so you might want to confirm with them:
http://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch?SEARCH_STRING=metallica+translite

They came on the original run Premium...not sure if they sell them anywhere