Has anyone messed around with changing the color inserts on the Premium/LE models? Wondering what color might look good on the electric chair inserts instead of white. I changed out the boards in the Mystery insert to red/blue. Looks much nicer.

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Maybe someday they will make color changing boards, but for now the red and blue will have to do.

Yes, pretty much all of the inserts are LED boards instead of fixtures.

What colors did you change out the stock boards for? Thinking of going with blue for the electric chair inserts.

Understood, like the pinduino board I have on Iron Man. Programmable to whatever you would like. I did purchase a spare kit, just haven't gotten around to playing with it.

The thick protectors will make balls bounce up. I came up with these simple vinyl covers that can be replaced at the first sign of any wear. They are cheap as well. 10 for $12.00 mailed first class in the U.S.

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I would use mylar, seems the carbon fiber pieces are a bit too thick.

At least with the mylar you can replace it if there are any signs of wear.

I made some really large ones around the Sparky magnet for my LE.

http://cointaker.com/products/stern-spike-led

Give them a call as I don't see SAM ones on their website right now. I know they used to offer them. Not even sure if their is a difference between the boards of SAM and Spike.

Sam and Spike light boards are the same. I ordered a bunch for Metallica. Here is the mystery hole done in blue and red instead of all white.

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Its actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. I have different light boards from pinbits for the fuel indicators. These new ones from Cointaker are bigger and brighter than original. Maybe someday they will have color changing boards, that would look really good in the mystery insert.

I bought the FF speakers for my METLE, noticed a much better sound over stock speakers, but everyone has different ideas on what sounds good. Get in someones car and the stereo is always adjusted differently than you like it. Metallica doesn't seem to benefit from the powered sub like my Star Trek or Iron Man does.

Anyone get the Dirty Donny shirt? Mine arrived today.

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Seems like a decent shirt, pretty heavy material.

I make all sorts of mylar circles and cut outs for games, have a big one made up for Sparky, as well as ones for the hammer hole and standard magnets. Can make them clear, or colored for the small magnets.

some put them around the magnets to match the play field areas. Green and purple on some of the Iron Man. I typically use a black ring around my magnets and a large clear piece around Monger and Sparky.

Has anyone with a premium/LE ever messed with the larger LED boards that light up three inserts? I know these also control all of the insert lighting as well. I am trying to change the color of the "Electrocution switch" inserts to blue. Three of the five of them are attached to the main boards, which light up 2 other inserts. I am going to see if I can solder in wires to power up a separate blue led board, just wanted to see if anyone else has attempted this.

I figured I would post this for anyone else who may want to change the "Sparky" insert colors. Since the led lights for the inserts are mounted on the control boards, you have solder in wires to power the colored boards. The first picture shows the two wires that I attached to the lighting control board. Stern was nice enough to have connection points on the board to solder the wires in. I simply solder the other end onto a colored led board and mounted the board to the insert. Came out pretty nice.

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Did the same mod to mine, used 2 green ones.

Change your captive ball to green.

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Not just a Kawasaki thing.

Captive ball is from Pinball Life, balls are from here. http://mezelmods.com/products/pinball-glo-balls?variant=1314803548

I don't know why I didn't do that, but now it will be.

Thanks

It is possible they are just out, they usually take them off the site when there is no stock.

Been sick of looking at the plain white fuel inserts on my MOPLE. Bought some gels, but didn't like the way they turned out. So I soldered in wires and installed four new LED light boards to get them colored. Turned out very nice.

The boards are red, orange, yellow, and green. Got the boards from Cointaker. Hardest part is wiring into the existing light board connections. Here is the link for the lights, don't worry that they are called "Spike" LEDS. http://cointaker.com/products/stern-spike-led

I tried different gels inside the inserts, just didn't like how they looked. The new boards have much larger and brighter LEDs than the stock Stern insert lights. I just covered them up with black electrical tape.

Just realized we are competing in the ultimate stern fan contest, well we are both in it. I am way out of the competition.

Completely agree with you, it isn't the ultimate Stern fan who will win, just the person who can get the most votes. Should have gone through a judging panel, not an internet vote.

Definitely change those bulbs out to frosted, even the red and blue. Don't go changing the colors though as the blue and red are mixed to create the light show on the premiums and LE games.

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All of the games posted here seem to be missing the stars on the flippers. Is that a special order or something?

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You do notice the clear lifting by the ball return right?

I don't mind either way, my MOPLE probably has clear being worn off in that area. It just looked like it was not sticking to the wood there. My bad.

Even better, change out the white lights for colored on the LE and premium.

These guys sell them in different colors. https://www.lightsoutpinball.com/store.html#!/Metallica-All-versions-Flourescent-Plastic-Set-6-Pieces/p/58740752/category=16139807

I haven't changed the color, only changed all of them to frosted, blue and red as well. If anything I would try swapping the cool white with sunlight white. Warm white might take away the changing light effect.

I changed mine to red and blue light boards, gives it a nice purple look.

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My bad, thought it was the insert. I installed frosted bulbs for those two. Had to drill out the metal just a touch to get the bulbs to fit correctly.

Has anyone seen the holders Stern is using on the new games for the spot lights? There is a piece of wire that clips on the bulb and goes to the back that keeps the bulb in place. Pretty neat clip.

I don't know what game they started using them, I noticed them on the Aerosmith that we picked up at Allentown. I think they may have been on Ghostbusters that we were working on as well.

Of course searching through the manuals, they don't show that piece of wire. Simple little fix to a problem that has been going on for years.

Post a picture of the magnet board.

This is what the board should look like. http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/520-6801-00

It is mounted on the bottom of the playfield. The 4th picture on the page shows where it is mounted.

The fuel lights on the premium and the LE are controlled by one single board, not those single small LED boards. I did not like the look of the gels after I tried them, so I removed the light board and soldered wires into the open ports on the board. Then I installed color light boards under each insert. Came out much better in my opinion.

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It is very simple to do the work. I actually changed out all of the sparky white inserts to blue as well. Some were just single board LED, while others were grouped into a triple board.

Here is the board holder I bought. https://www.amazon.com/Aven-17010-Adjustable-Circuit-Holder/dp/B00Q2TTQEE/ref=sr_1_13

I couldn't get a good look at where your shooter tip is compared to the ball at rest. For some reason the Stern shooter rods are a bit shorter than most. I have replaced most of my shooter rods on my Stern games to get the tip of the plunger touching the ball at rest. If it isn't touching, the shooter rod has to go past its resting point to get any force on the ball. Which makes it a very weak plunge. Swapping out the shooter rod with any aftermarket one makes the plunge so much simpler. If it is the auto launch mech that is giving you fits, there are a lot of threads with fixes for that.

Here is a picture of my stock Iron Man shooter rod next to the new one I bought, a bit of difference in length.

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I'll take some pics when I get home. I don't think that fork ramp should be slowing the ball down, as long as there is the correct amount of force, it will just guide it one way or another.

Did the ball always have an issues launching, or is this a new problem?

Too bad Pinball Life doesn't just have the single decal like they do for Iron Man. http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=3758

Is it only the white GI lights that are out? It should have white/red/blue GI lights if it is a premium.

Ice Blue flashers from Comet look killer

Do they wire the data cable the same as standard? Maybe the wiring is different.

Here is a pic of the wiring diagram, showing the in and out of the data cable.

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https://www.pingraffix.com/product-page/metallica-snake-mod

They said the same about AC/DC, as long as there is a demand for them, Stern will build them.

I think that is what people are referring to when they mention the lower apron, protecting the edge on the drain. I have taken clear and wrapped it around the edge.

Polish those babies up with never dull, or any type of metal polish. They come out great.

I understand it is a NIB game, but is it NIB from a couple years ago? Just curious if it was built back when they were building Star Trek. I think that was around the time they had issues with Metallica decals.

I bought this one in green for mine. - don't know why they don't have a picture of it.
https://www.pinbits.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=13_74&products_id=630&zenid=b5e061193b20d1b07fc282d4be680968

This is the one, found a pic someone posted on pinside of it.

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I used the green ones for the captive ball.

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Has anyone every compared artwork on the original games, and the newer ones, say 2015? I have an original LE, and the artwork on the playfield is so much clearer than the newer pro. This pro also has issues with the cabinet decals shrinking, but that is a different problem. See pictures attached.

Second pic is the pro, colors washed out pretty bad on the faces.

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I think the biggest thing I noticed was the coloring of the 4 band members. The newer one has them all about the same shade, where the original had much more vibrant colors for each one.

thanks for the file, looks like site may be down for a bit, maybe too many people downloading file.

Thanks, got the file. Appreciate the generosity!

Nephew printed out a couple of those light brackets.

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This is just an FYI of what I have found to fix my drop target issue on Metallica LE. Since day one it has had issues registering hits on the drop targets. I didn't notice it wasn't working at first since I didn't pay attention that the switch was registering when the drop target went down. Once I realized the first two drop targets weren't registering when dropping, I removed the assembly and tested it while in the air. It seemed like the drop targets were too far away from the opto, so they didn't register. (At least that is what I thought) I drilled out the bracket some to move the assemblies just a little closer to the drop targets and tested it again, bingo, targets now registering.
So being the OCD person that I am, I couldn't let the drilled out bracket remain, I ordered a new bracket and finally swapped out all the parts the other night. Put it in the game, and of course it is back to the same issue again. So now I know it isn't the complete bracket, must be the opto board. But I know it is working, just have to get the targets closer or something. Since the opto works on reflecting light back, I decided to try one more thing before buying a new opto board. I designed pieces in my sign software to go where the opto interrupter is on the drop target. Just installed the assembly back in the game, and everything is now perfect, the chrome vinyl I installed is obviously reflecting more back to the opto so that it knows its being tripped.

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Credits do not disappear by default when you power cycle a game.

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

Anyone else ever get so pissed at this game? Probably what draws me back to it so much. I have an LE, and that left return lane bounces out more balls up and over into the outlane than any pro I have ever played. We have a bunch in the area, and I seem to be able to get to CIU pretty consistently on those machines. Last night, I was lucky to just get Sparky multiball once.

I believe it is identical to Metallica. From the ones that I have played.

The LED vs LCD debate is all about preference. I personally like the LCD versions, my good friend loves the LED. I actually bought on of the first LED displays for my HS2, hated the way it looked. Swapped it with my friend because he loved it over the LCD.

When you say the drop targets are not registering, do you mean they are not going down? Or are they going down and not registering in the game?

You have to mess with the washers to get the targets to fall just right. I had to adjust my LE after it was new, they wouldn't go down nicely, or they would go down by themselves. Once you get the proper washer spacing in the mech, they will work fine.

You probably have to mess with the washer spacing on the drop target. I have had to fix two of our route games that were not staying up correctly, as well as my personal one.

Each one seemed to need different washers, but yeah - I took it all apart.

https://www.pinballlife.com/stern-playfield-support-slide-bracket-kit-for-sam-machines.html

You will need to mess with the washers to get the target to sit the right amount on the ledge. No spring will fix the issue.

He is referring to the ledge on the drop target. If it is broken, the target would never stay up.

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I don't think Metallica has those, though I may be wrong. The inline drop targets rest on the metal bracket.

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Might require a road trip, you aren't that far away. I am betting the first target is barely sitting on the metal ledge. It is much easier to work on that mech when it is out of the game. It comes out as one assembly very easily.

Never understood why they didn't use frosted to begin with. The clear lens bulbs always have blinding spots. Not like the frosted bulbs cost anymore. I replaced all the bulbs in all of my games to frosted.

Like they said, I used the comet twin smd 2835 frosted bulbs.

Don't give up, plenty of NIB games at distributors.

Does he still sell the hammers?

Sent him a pm, thanks.

2015 Pro metal back box here at the shop, square inserts. Besides, has anyone ever seen a cross insert blank? Every insert I have seen is square, round, triangle, or lightning bolt style. Haven't seen a blank cross insert ever.

Just finished up installing the pinwoofer super kit in my MOPLE. This is the second kit I have purchased, first one was for AC/DC. All I can say is wow, so crisp and clear now. Hearing sounds I never heard before, just like what happened with AC/DC. The only difference this time was I actually had aftermarket pinball speakers in Metallica to begin with, along with a powered external sub. I removed all of that and installed the complete kit. So frigging happy, it is almost like having a new game to play again.

A 1/2" ratchet and the correct size socket loosens that jam nut every time, never had to heat any of the 3 games up that we have.

I changed out the flashers to orange and red.

Noticed you are in Leominster, will be there Thanksgiving week at our new location doing inventory.

What speaker did you use for a replacement? The one in the cabinet is a sub.

The snake jaw is probably a bad switch, go through the switch test and see if it activates when it is supposed to.

Same thing with your ball trough issue, run the switch test and put one ball in at a time. We have a lot of trough issues with our routed games.

Install a pinwoofer kit instead, I removed my external sub after it being installed on my LE from day one. The pinwoofer kit is hands down a much better sound. But if you really want a powered sub, I have two spares now that are just collecting dust.

It may not have enough reflection for the opto to know it is down. I have an LE that I bought new, had issues with the targets registering. Instead of getting a new board, I put some chrome vinyl on the target so it would reflect better. Targets have worked perfect ever since. I am thinking the black that you installed isn't reflecting back well enough.

Try that, if that doesn't work, add a small piece of chrome vinyl where it should bounce the signal back.

I agree with you, I have this on mine since day one. https://mantispinball.com/product/metallica-protector/

Go into switch test and manually activate this switch I circled, or put a ball in there. See if the switch activates, more than likely it isn't.

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100% agree with this, the pinwoofer kit blows away the external sub.

Get the pinwoofer kit. I struggled with my Metallica sound from day one. Had Flipper Fidelity speakers and an external sub. Still was never happy till I got a pinwoofer kit. Game sounds incredible now.

The bulbs are Coin Taker bulbs, you can tell by the CT on them. Replacement bulb is here - https://cointaker.com/products/555-2led

Works in both games even though it says for spike. You can get replacement colored boards from Cointaker. Just 5 volt LED boards. I changed a bunch in my LE, also added some to replace the larger light boards.

https://cointaker.com/products/stern-spike-led

I have had to mess with the washers inside the mech to fix 3 games here. My LE and two pro units that we used to have. Changing the washers adjusts how far the target catches the lip to stay up. Different thickness washers change the location. It takes a little time to take the drop targets apart, but once you get the hang of it the job goes pretty quick.

The colored GI really looks good for the different modes. I would suggest swapping all of the bulbs to frosted, I really hate the clear lens bulbs. I attached the original layout of where the blue, red, and white are supposed to go.

Colored GI.pdf

I am working on doing 6 of them at the moment. Trying to make the kit plug and play. I have the connectors, just need to get them assembled. Pretty simple upgrade.

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I'm working on completing the initial kit together. I want these to be as simple to install as possible. Plus giving you the option to install it in the head as well as the cabinet. The metal cabinets may be tricky. I will keep everyone posted on the progress. I will be on vacation for the next couple weeks, but I will update info when I have something done. Thanks!

I have all of the connectors to make the kits, the one thing I am still working on is the best way to connect the 50 volts. There isn't any open connector to tie into. I can either supply enough wire to solder onto one of the existing coils, or include a connector to clamp onto the power wire. Neither of which I prefer. I was wanting to make it a plug and play kit.

Yes, I have the those boards. I know how to do the wiring, just wanted the kits to be very simple to install for everyone. The 50 volt connection is the last piece of the puzzle to make it easy.

It has been awhile since I posted anything on the true knocker kits I was working on. Since my LE is a wooden backbox, I installed the mech on my AC/DC. The coil assembly mounts easily to the wooden side panels, but I had to drill two holes in the top of the box for the striker plate. Just curious if any of you think this would be a problem with your metal backbox machines? I know how ocd can kick in.

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I was looking for this as well, found the el wire to use, will probably just build one myself.

https://smile.amazon.com/Pack-Jytrend-Battery-Orange-Purple/dp/B01M5E7W2U/ref=sr_1_4

I just searched that quick to post something. There are 12 volt versions, like this one. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Colorful-Xmas-5M-Flexible-Neon-LED-Car-Light-Decor-Party-EL-Wire-12V-Inverter/131416150?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=101023046

I installed the EL paper on my Iron Man armor years back, very simple to install.