Quoted from J85M:Is there any difference between the DE/SEGA/Stern braces compared to the Bally/Williams ones?
I too am wondering about the difference. Looks like PinballLife carries the Bally/Williams style and their pricing is better than Marco. Marco carries both styles. Here are some links:
Bally/Williams http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=144
Bally/Williams http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/01-11400-1
DE/Sega/Stern http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/535-7394-00
From the pictures it is easy to see that the Bally/Williams style is a "taller" bracket, so it would mount to the cabinet over a larger surface area. I have some of the Bally/Williams style brackets I purchased at Chicago Expo a few years ago, but I'm not sure what vendor they are from. I did a quick "test fit" of the Bally/Williams style on Metallica and here is what I found. First, look at the bracket picture and you'll see that there is a portion of the bracket that doesn't have any leg bolt holes, I'll call that end the "extended" end. On the right side front the bracket could be mounted with the extended end either up or down. On the left side front the bracket could only be mounted with the extended end down due to the positioning of the tournament switch above the leg bracket. There is lots of room when mounting the bracket on the right side front, but you'll have to work around wires and such when mounting on the left side front (but looks doable).
One thing I do notice is that when the Bally/Williams style bracket is held in position for mounting (so the flanges on both sides against the cabinet), the back side of the bracket does not touch the triangle piece of wood on which the factory bracket is originally mounted. Maybe 1/8" gap there? Would that be an issue using this style of bracket in a Stern game?
The DE/Sega/Stern brackets are not as tall as the Bally/Williams style, so it would be a bit easier to mount this style on the front left side working around the wiring bundles and such as it would not extend as low into the cabinet corner. I don't know how the "fit" (gap between back and triangle piece of wood) compares to the Bally/Williams style. Perhaps someone that has installed this style could tell us?
Comments anyone?
Not sure what other differences there might be that I can't see from the pictures.