But isn’t the flexing of the flipper and shaft consistent? Say you are shooting from a trap. How would it be different from one flip to another if the timing is equal.

Please define one or more of these variables and explain why they are not reproducible with identical timing.

Well sorry that I was the last straw. I feel it is a valid question.

I am unconvinced that the “precision” has meaningful relevance. To illustrate, take my example of a flip from a trapped ball with exact timing. Common sense tells me that whatever variables induced by the bat/shaft/bushing have a negligible impact on the direction/angle of the resulting shot(negligible in respect to the geometry of a given shot). And for me personally I’m sure that the tolerance is orders of magnitude less than my own timing. The limiting variable is always going to be the player.

I am open to being educated but I would need to see a real world controlled experiment to convince me that there is a meaningful difference.

I’ll try to watch the video(no promises) but will still consider any “data” as purely anecdotal.

To pivot a bit, I think that the selling point for these is likely to be more subjective. Ie. how do they feel? Is it a more pleasant tactile experience? But this require people to experience them in person.

There are always going to be flamers, but I think most here are just expressing healthy skepticism. I appreciate the op’s knowledge and expertise. I just need to see practical evidence of the benefit to justify the op’s claims.

Unfortunately I don’t make it to many shows and I don’t see these getting installed on location games any time soon. Most likely I will get a set of these just to satisfy my curiosity.

We won’t know for a while if these are reliable.

Question for the owners. Can you still dead bounce safely with this system or does the ball bounce into the slings or higher?

Surprising. With the stiffness and no slop engineering I would have expected much stronger rebound compared with a standard setup.

Indeed. I will be installing on my AC/DC and will immediately go for the combo record. I remain skeptical that these will make be a better shooter but I will keep an open mind and report back in earnest. And if I happen to break the combo record, all the better.

So, I received the bats with new-style bushings and installed them into my AC/DC. First off I had a devil of a time getting the shaft through the existing pawl. I had to take a hammer to the pawl to get it to fit. It seemed to work out ok but was an unwanted hassle.

Now on to my impressions:

This is NOT a scientific evaluation; merely my observations so consider it anecdotal. Flipper strength is MUCH stronger, it seemed by more that 50%. With the stock flippers I could never make the saucer behind the bell but with these it happened regularly. I also had the bell hit the glass which had NEVER happened before. I feel like most of the “precision” testimonials are likely a favorable result of the increased flipper power. I noticed many “half-bricked” shots would still seem to make it around and ramp rejects were very rare. Backhands seem almost effortless. I did not notice any reduction in “full-bricked” shots and due to the now crazy-strong flippers these were more dangerous than ever. Lots of power-drains. This would be much less of an issue on a more open game with shots further back, aka Godzilla. Overall my ball times were probably shorter.

Summary:
I like the look of these and the snappy feel. I like feeling like a boss when the ball rockets up the ramp (even if not quite a clean shot). I do not see any clear improvement in shot accuracy taking the confounding of the flipper strength into effect. I can not rule out a benefit from increased precision but I believe that my own lack of shooting accuracy will surely negate any meaningful benefit in that regard.

As a competitive player, I also have a nagging feeling that I am cheating while using these. Maybe lowering the flipper power would lessen that feeling, but I suspect I will keep the rest of my machines standard. Though if someday this system becomes standard I would absolutely embrace it, pending long-term validation.

P.s. Before installing these I played 5 or so games solely for combos and set a new record of 33. After a dozen or so tries with the new system my best is around 15. I may not be fully adapted to these yet, though.

Target snappers

(I keed, I keed)

I would be very surprised if this happens on a widespread basis. Most locations/operators are not going to spend the coin to swap perfectly fine flippers. Furthermore serious tournament players will tend to prefer to play on standard/factory setup.