My Premium didn't make it to the freight location in time to get on the truck today as expected. Going to be a long weekend. So close, yet so far.

Haha true -- but I already paid extra for liftgate/residence delivery so it'd be throwing away extra money twice to attempt it. Patience is my virtue this weekend I guess.

Officially in the club. My Premium from Old Town Pinball arrived in mostly great shape, though I had a bit of a scare on first startup where it told me that it couldn't locate node boards 1, 8, 9, and 10, with the whole playfield basically not lighting up. Broke out the node map in the goodie bag and made sure all of the connections were seated on those boards (honestly none felt loose at all), and luckily all was well on the next startup. Still need to get the leveling right, but excited to setup my first pin. May 31st build date, glass wasn't tight at all.

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Being brand new to this, would you mind sharing some of the settings you play with? I did go in and turn down the autoplunge to 125 (still not sure I love that) because the autoplunge was launching the ball too high sometimes and missing the curve entirely, just sending the ball up past Mechagodzilla.

Put in a about a dozen games tonight in between fixing various things.

Anyone else had trouble with the ball bouncing off Mechagodzilla's right arm and landing on the right/left rail? I kind of don't mind it, because it just returns the ball to the flippers, but it has happened about 6 times in a dozen games, feels weird.

Also I installed a Stern OEM shaker motor (the official one) and I've been having a lot of trouble with it. Sounds like jackhammer, had to turn the shaker use to LOW to even really be usable. I looked around the forums for general shaker motor issues and I've tried a few things, but no luck yet. Tried it w/ glass off, took off the plastic cover, made sure the shaker is really, really screwed in (used my cordless driver just to be sure), tried without the coinbox... it really just seems like the shaker motor itself is making the noise but it has been very hard to track it to a specific item. Tomorrow I'm going to try repositioning the weights to not be aligned as I've seen suggested. Also didn't check anything w/ the backbox, so maybe I'll try without the translite too. Happy to hear any other suggestions since I'm totally new to this.

Really appreciate it, I'll try some of these settings out.

For the shaker, I definitely do want one, the thing that's annoying me so far is that it feels way different on mine than either of the LEs I've been lucky enough to play on location locally. Way way stronger and rattling like a jackhammer vs. more of a continuous rumble that feels more like a nice strong subwoofer, if that makes sense? I'll keep fiddling with it. May also try a pinballlife version instead, just to see. The game definitely doesn't feel complete without one.

Here's a video of my shaker during the coil test: https://photos.app.goo.gl/E8DkwE82pAZ3kZXA8

I don't have the cover on because I've been taking it in and out so much, but will put it back on if I get this fixed. I adjusted the arms like gumnut01 suggested (went 180 just to see what that was like, think that's way too light and will adjust it again), but unfortunately the "jackhammer" effect is still present even at 180. Though maybe this is what it is supposed to sound like and I'm just wrong lol. Thanks again all, I'll probably also post in the tech forum where this really belongs

Doh, definitely should have thought of that. The back legs are on a soft pad but the front legs overhang onto the tile flooring of the basement. Will definitely stick something under and see if that does it.

Unfortunately the hard flooring wasn't my issue. Fortunately (?) I did finally nail down the issue. The jackhammer noise is being created by the U shaped casing around the motor banging against it while the motor shakes. I jammed a couple thick pieces of cardboard in the gap between the casing and the motor and the jackhammer noise is all but gone, though that feels incredibly janky as a solution. The casing is secured to the motor on one side by some Phillips head screws, but the other side isn't secured at all and you can flex it away from the motor if you pull on it. The motor shakes enough to get it flapping back and forth apparently. I'm guessing this is what the bolt running through the top of the PinballLife shakers is preventing and why people fix rattling issues with those by tightening it. Posting here just in case anyone else has similar issues with the OEM Stern shaker and is okay with a crappy fix. I'm going to head over to the tech forums to see if anyone else has had this problem and found a better fix than jamming stuff into it.

Edit: If you're a future reader don't be dumb like me and do something better/safer, like the cable tie fix a few posts down

Yep for sure, disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm doing, really, and I can't guarantee this isn't a terrible idea that will burn down your house etc. I've also currently got both a piece of cardboard (from the Stern packaging) and a small instructional booklet wedged in right now, rather than two pieces of cardboard. Basically I flexed the casing away from the motor with my hand and shoved the fillers in as much as I could without damaging the wire connectors. It hasn't 100% resolved the issue, but it is way way better than it was. It only rattles just a little bit on the most extreme rumbles of the game. I'm guessing a better solution might be to drill your own holes and put your own threaded bolt through the top like I've seen that other shakers have, but I'm not really well equipped to try that at the moment.
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Haha yeah, I'm not going to keep it in for long, mostly just to illustrate where the rattling is happening and what needs tightened up to stop it. At this point I'm leaning toward just eating the cost and buying a PinballLife shaker that has the cross bolt that you can tighten to keep things snug.

Yep agreed re: safety, I only have the cover off because I've had to fiddle with it so much the last two days, it'll go back on now that I've found a better fix.

New fix, 100% less fire hazard, completely eliminated the jackhammer effect for me so far through a few games. 14" cable tie wrapped around the very top of the casing/frame, pulled as tight as possible with pliers:
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We'll see how well it holds up over time, but it took about 30 seconds to put on and they're about 25 cents a piece, so even if I have to put a new one on every once in awhile I think it'll work for me.

Spent about 15 mins getting my machine near exactly level with a digital level (I think I stopped fiddling at .05 degrees off) and I'll reiterate what I've seen others say about the Godzilla multiball drop -- way better about not going SDTM. They mostly hit the tip of the left flipper and are playable vs. dead dropping right down the middle. When I first started leveling I think I was ~0.6 degrees toward the right.

I know it's just personal preference really but what playfield angle do y'all use? The manual says 6.5 degrees is recommended and I did enjoy it at the 6.55 that I happened to be at after initial setup. I decided to try it at steeper pitch and adjusted it up to 6.85... not sure I like it as much. Feels like I get more center drains? As a newbie to this, I'm also curious what advantages/tradeoffs there can be to higher/lower pitches other than ball speed, if there are any

Thanks for the playfield angle input all, I think I'll leave it at 6.8 for awhile and see if it grows on me.

Welp, my Godzilla Premium is out of action after a couple of weeks, somehow one of the wires running to the upper flipper broke off. Is this something I can just solder back on and it should work? I'm new to all this so any tips would be appreciated. I'll try contacting Stern support too.
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Thanks all, I'll definitely contact Stern support and see if they'll give a replacement. No idea what happened to it, flipper just died mid-game. I've never taken the playfield out and have been very careful when lifting it up and setting it on the head. I think it may have been damaged in transport and was hanging on by a thread. My coin box was all the way in the back of the cabinet when I first assembled it from the box, maybe it winged this on the way back?

Hah well good (?) to know I wasn't alone with the loose coin box. Fingers crossed it didn't nick anything else up but hey, that's life I guess. Stern support got back to me this morning and confirmed I'll need a new coil, reached out to my dealer and had them put in the warranty order. I'll try soldering it back together soon to see if I can get it working while waiting for the replacement.

Tab for the upper flipper successfully soldered back on and up and running again, though now my right bumper is randomly firing during gameplay so I'll have to tinker with that. Only had time for a couple quick (bad) games over lunch after the soldering so I didn't get a chance to look at the bumper at all.

If either of you might describe the sound as "jackhammer" like and you have the OEM "official" Stern shaker motor, you might be having the same trouble I was (and fixed with a zip tie):

Mine was closer to 27.5" for the backbox width, FYI. Was measuring before moving into my basement on whether I needed to remove the railing. Just got it through without.

I think you have to go into the sub menu and select something like "install update" vs. just download it. At least, that's what I did at the start of the process for both of mine yesterday and they immediately ran the actual update process as soon as the download finished. I think it lets you queue up/turn on automatic download but doesn't automatically install, in case you want to control when it actually does the update.

Yeah, I'm not very good but I've only hit it maybe twice in ~250 games and one of those I wasn't even trying (just a bad shot lol)