First thing to do is determine if the coil still works, which would indicate it's the pop bumper skirt switch that needs alignment and not a bad coil or blown transistor.

Go into test mode on the system menu, pull out the white post on the inside left of the coin door (so the coils still get power with the door open) and test the pop bumper coils to see if they fire in test. If they DO, you just need to adjust/repair the switch for that coil.

Tests - Switches - Matrixed - does the pop bumper skirt register on the screen when you touch it ?

Tests - Solenoids- with high power interlock switch pulled out to enable high power - does the pop bumper fire in test ?

This will help you sort out switch issue or coil issue.

If coil, go over the coil lugs for a broken wire.

LTG : )

Thanks!! I couldn't figure out why it wasn't testing any of the pop bumpers, but I was able to get it to fire from the test menu with those white plastic posts tweaked. All three of my pop bumpers tested successfully from the coil test menu. So that sounds like it's good news! Can I do the rest with the power off? Trying not to make my hair any frizzier than it already is

You've narrowed it down to the pop bumper skirt - switch issue. Test it by pushing it in Tests - Switches - Matrix. Might just need adjusting.

Turn game off to adjust.

Adjust the leaf blade switch for it below the playfield.

Turn the game off. Lift playfield up and lean back. See the leaf blade switch ? The long one with the plastic spoon is pushed by a plastic rod coming down from the pop bumper skirt. This plastic spoon should be clean, ( not worn on older games ) well centered on the rod, just resting on it, not pushing it up. The shorter lower leaf blade switch should be close enough so the slightest ball hit triggers it yet vibration doesn't set it off. A little adjusting/tweaking, and you'll be fine.

LTG : )

Yeah, good news. Either a broken wire on the pop bumper switch or the blades of the switch just need to be bent a little closer together so it activates easier.

(I'm back - had to get verified real quick because so many of you responded to my question that this thread became a Hot Topic. You guys are awesome!)

I can take the glass off no issues, but when I lift the playfield I don't know how to get it to sit in place vertically. I end up just holding it in place which is probably not the best way of doing things. Trying to locate a YouTube video that shows me how to lock it into that vertical position, but all the clips I've seen just breeze through that part.

For what it's worth, everything is testing successfully so far, but the pop bumper metal ring seems to be returning to a lower/lopsided position, compared to the other two pop bumper rings. I tried testing it with some in-game play, and the bumper is firing weaker than the other two, when it triggers at all.

Someone will chime in with the easiest way to go vertical for maintenance. But I just wanted to say, before you do anything involving lifting the playfield with the intent of going vertical, DO NOT forget to remove all the balls first. Also, don't forget to remove all the balls first. And lastly...don't forget to remove all the balls first.

Also, you need these to save the sides of your inner cabinet or the playfield will ruin it lifting it up and down.
https://www.pinballlife.com/interior-cabinet-protector-blade-set.html
r/
Mike

I never removed them balls, there is a flapper to prevent them from falling out. Heck, I dont even know how to remove them. But it does sound like a good idea anyway! And good call on the side protectors, especially if you have art blades... but if you dont and you scar it up, well, you will have a reason to buy art blades.

But to go vertical, I had to slide the playfield out to the max out position but BE CAREFUL, because you can pull it out and OFF THE TRACKS and then it drops into the bottom of the box. Yikes. Look in there at the tracks on each side so you understand what I am saying. Once it slides out as far as it will go on the tracks you can carefully and slowly lift it up using the bars and it will lean back until it rests on the back box. Some people put a towel on the backbox top edge so you dont scar that up. Its a good idea. But Keep being careful not to pull the playfield so far on those tracks that it pops over the 'hump stop' (I made that up) or it will fall in the box...

Did I explain that right?

Yes - I didn't realize that it actually rests on the back box... I was holding it up just enough to avoid having it touch there. I thought there'd be some slot at the bottom that it would lock into place vertically, but I guess not. Good call on the towel up there.

Hopefully I can avoid getting those blades for a while - not trying to lift the playfield any more than absolutely necessary, and fingers crossed that I only need to on rare instances.

LTG you rock, that's exactly what I was hoping for ! Thanks a lot for these very clear, precise and illustrated explanations ! And thanks Screaminr for helping too !

In LTG we trust.

I remember less than a year ago I got my gnr, first pin. Ah memories. There were times in the beginning I thought that too but then <insert mod> happened. My fingers uncrossed.

I'm partial to the Gnr art blades that match the cabinet and they come with the protectors. https://pinballwizard.com/products/guns-n-roses-not-in-this-lifetime-pinblades%C2%AE-for-limited-edition-1
Screenshot_20221028-210825 (resized).png

Oops I did it again.. I got some interest in the pu parts official spotlight upgrade kit so as I've done this 2 times now and now this will be 3. I guess it's fun helping out. Mezel mods had been unavailable for a while.

Send me a pm if you want one and I'll get one reserved for you. ETA 3 weeks from today. I'm waiting on the final shipping cost but expect it'll be a even hundred bucks which includes shipping in USA only.

This is the official PU parts spotlight upgrade kit from Germany. Imported. They don't ship direct to the USA so they're harder to find/get. It's the highest quality and best made IMO. Consider upgrading to emax servos at the same time.

.

This Kit includes the following parts:
2 x Support angle for the servo motor
2 x Spotlight arms
2 x Spotlight bracket (left and Right are different)
4 x Heat shrink tube 5 mm
5 x Cable ties
1 x Rubber band

https://pu-parts.com/jjp-guns-n-roses-spotlight-pu-upgrade-kit

Please find here the assembly manual.
https://pu-parts.com/mediafiles/pdf/pu-gnr-jjp-spotlight-upgrade-kit.pdf
Screenshot_20221029-045822 (resized).png

Hi GNR lovers.
About one month ago, I changed the spotlight to install the PU parts upgrade kit. I also changed all the 4 servos and expected to be without any problem for a long long time.
But this week one of the four servos broke (the one of the left spot moving bottom and hi)
So I installed again one from the original install, with success.
Now I would like to buy some servos, just in case, because I expect this to happen again. Would you know a website that sells servos for GNR and ships to Europe?

Also would you have some tip to install it, as I think that it was kind of installed not properly, and that is why it broke.

Thanks and happy pinball

AliExpress is where I got my servos. Link here:

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/32849379671.html?gatewayAdapt=Pc2Msite

Thanks a lot Vespula! I even did not think about AliExpress. And the good thing is that those are black, while those sold by JJP are white. If you have any tips to install and check install is correct, I am happy to read!
Have a great week end!

The jjp are not emax so quality is better too from what I hear.
I just went through installing my right one. That sucked.
The instructions on pu parts is 13 pages, I probably should have read them. . Fooflighter posted instructions and I skipped those mostly too except to learn how to access it. Hard headed today. But it's done anyway, and no good tips except don't do what I did... read everything.
I'm not sure why I struggle with getting it centered perfectly. I think I'm just tired and trying to get it right, need a little patience, mm, yeah, some more patience, yeah.
I'm pretty sure I'll be revisiting the right one in the future based on my level of effort.
Good luck!

So does that mean that the ones from Ali Express (which are emax) are better quaility than the original ones?
I strictly followed instructions from PU parts but the thing is that I think we need to be very careful about center if the servo when installing.

The EMAX certainly have lasted longer in mine than the stock JJP ones, but essentially it's a consumable IMO. Especially considering how heavily they're worked every game.

FWIW I replaced all four servos ~2 weeks ago PLUS had Forgelab do some "laser sintered powder" 3D prints for upgraded armatures and mounting brackets.

In Canada, I found some eMax Servo's here for what I thought was an affordable price (and fast shipping was pretty cheap).
https://rotorgeeks.com/emax-es3054-servo?search=ES3054

Here is a look at the stock plastic servo bracket, vs what the sintered 3D printed one looks like.

Also the arms 3d print vs. stock arms.

I am not sure how these will end up holding up, but the price to have Forgelab print them and ship them to me was appreciably less than buying the kit that pinball universe would not ship to me anyways, and it seemed to be out of stock elsewhere at the time.
20221029_143348_HDR (resized).jpg20221029_143352 (resized).jpg20221029_143403 (resized).jpg20221029_143408 (resized).jpg

Cost for 3x sets of the arm pairs, the 2 servo mounting brackets, and 2x of the pop bumper diverter bits (not pictured) + shipping was ~$130 Canadian with tax and fast shipping. I think the parts came to me withing ~5 days of ordering (but I am near where they were made). edit: I just noticed now I ordered 4x each of the "arm" parts, so I have a full extra set of these. Hopefully they will not be needed!

I know these could have been done less expensively if I had a 3D printer, but for the price it was nice to have an option where I just upload the 3d files, pick what I want the parts to be made of, get the price quote, then place the order... and you just get the parts. If the end up not being durable I will have to explore other print options.

It was kind of hard to see detail on the bottom ones, so I lightened up the shadows a bit for anyone interested:
bracket-compare1 (resized).jpgbracket-compare2 (resized).jpg

Pinwoofer Review:

I ended up ordering pinwoofer around 2 months ago, then installed it. But that was around the same weekend that the audio equalizer was added to the beta code.

Install went well, the new pinwoofer product was a noticeably better install than the older versions I had ordered ~2 years ago. Not that the prior versions were bad, just the improvements to the product were noticeable and appreciated!

The only quirk I ran into was when I unplugged the game audio board's power (I can't remember the specific name) the game would not boot. I think that was a recommended step as that board was no longer needing to be powered, as the audio power was now coming from the pinwoofer unit. All I know is when I unplugged that board, the game would not fully boot (it got stuck in some sort of boot loop). When I plugged the audio board it back in, things were okay. It could have been some other power part was jostled and it got jostled back when I "fixed" this. Could have just been coincidental. I did not try unplugging the stock audio board again to replicate the issue (at the time, I was just happy to get things working!). Now, I have the curiousity . Mentioning this on the off chance somebody else runs into this.

My initial take was great, this is working, time to tune it! I opted not to remove the stock speaker grill as I thought, the rattling would not be noticeable with the sound level I was intending to use it at. But in tuning, some lower frequencies were super obnoxious (something was rattling, and not in a good way).

So, I decided to remove the cabinet speaker grill- no appreciable change unfortunately. I then tried to see what else could be rattling. Cable bundles in the cabinet? Backglass? Coin door? I added some foam I had in the backglass and coin door to stop them from vibrating, and things improved a small amount.

BUT the main culprit ended up being the plastic channel that holds the top of the playfield glass. I ended up using some drop target foam I had on the top of the playfield glass (you can't see it when the glass is installed) and after adding enough pieces (4-5 or so across the top back of the playfield glass) I finally tamed the Rattle Beast.

So now I can just enjoy badass sound. I still need to probably do a bit of tweaking, but it sounds "right" to me now that low frequencies are not making things sound like the game is about to explode.

So is the pinwoofer awesome? Sure! I feel I spend a lot more time tracking down what was causing vibrations than I expected (I did not have to do that with my prior pinwoofer installs). Could be luck of the draw on the playfield glass back channel I have, different sound mixes (less bass maybe) on my prior JJP games, just my personal preferences when setting up the pinwoofer.

Posting this mainly in case you take the plunge, do the install, and then feel you have to dial it back due to some crazy audio related vibrations... if you work at it you can probably figure it out (before doing that make sure you don't have the bass set to absurd levels... but if things seem reasonable and you are getting a crazy rattle, hopefully this information helps).

Thank you, my phone camera is a bit crap, probably moving up to a Pixel 7 around Black Friday so that small annoyance can be banished from my life

I don't know what phone you have, but many have aperture lock if you hold your finger on the focal point of the picture for a few seconds and it will adjust the brightness of the photo based on what your target is.

Heads up that I got the Emax ES3054s from readymaderc.com ($10 plus shipping) and the servo heads were slightly smaller than the originals. The originals were tight in the plastic pieces and all 4 Emaxs were loose enough to spin when changing directions quickly. Thought of a bunch of ways to remedy and settled on 2 layers of aluminum foil which did the trick.

I haven't seen any posts from others with the same issue.

I honestly did not have that issue, but was installing the new 3D printed pieces onto the servos!

The servo screw sizes were different, but thankfully the servos I ordered each had a kit with a handful of new parts for different applications including new screws.

Greetings BC_Gambit !

I'm 100% certain that the boot event you experienced is unrelated. (There is no digital communication between the factory sound board and the CPU.)

Enjoy, and our sincere thanks!

Pretty much sums up my experience. Except did not use foam. And I listened to the advice to remove the grill.
The PW kit has plastic adhesive backed glass rattle strips.. I used those to prevent the glass rattle.
Guessing yours did not come with that?

Oh, mine came with the glass "anti-rattle tape", and I applied it.

Just for some reason the plastic back channel was appreciably larger than the thickness of the glass, and resonated to the heavens when lower frequency sounds were emitted from the woofer (e.g. the startup of the song Coma, some of the sound effects from the "Can you Play a game" Chinese Democracy album mode). Fixed now, but it was not super obvious at the time.

Ah, thank you for the tip! I admit I have not kept up on some of the new phone features. I have an LG velvet (last phone they made before they gave up on the cel market). I knew the camera and camera software was not leading edge when I got it, but I also admit not knowing how to use the "tool" at hand can lead to suboptimal results.

Thank you! I am not sure what happened either! I can't explain it either, and if I get bored during Christmas I will re-unplug the sound board to try to replicate the error. Until then I will just use my pin maintenance time to clean and wax my games. And do the once yearly mirror polishing of the balls. Vital work for sure

Most of my pin time will hopefully be spent playing, and in GNR's case enjoying the new speakers

The wife had a friend come over and they played GNR till 5am !
They thought having their picture taken with Slash was the best thing ever .
At one point they called out to say they had lost the ball , I looked in all the usual places , I was surprised to find where it was , haven't seen that before .

IMG_20221031_000457 (resized).jpg

IMG_20221031_000533 (resized).jpg

They look serious! Never seen that trap before. Impressive!
P.s. topper looks good.
And that gnr neon... This I love!

Dammit , just played a game and the left Spotlight isn't moving , this is what I get for thinking "I haven't had Spotlight issues"

I love it , looks great in person , I also really like the JJP topper but the stadium topper interacts with the game so well .

If the linkages to the spotlight aren't broken , how do you know which servo to replace , or do you just change both while you're there .

That one is easy to work on. I worked on my right one finally yesterday. That right one sucked in comparison. So at last be glad your getting some practice on the left first !

Get the upgrade kit from pu in Germany and 4 emax servos from AliExpress. Then you'll be ready to deal with both for when the right assembly breaks/servos fail.

I've got the servos , will have to check if the linkages are broken , I assume you want to change both servos .

whats going on with the powder coating on your armor? ( rails, guides, whatever they are called)

A factory game .
That's the protective film , making it look like it has issues .

FYI I waited a while before removing my protective blue plastic from the side rails and once I did I discovered several areas on the right rail that were damaged and powder coated over. It was obvious it was a factory problem. JJP sent me another right rail.

I’d like to see fog coded in so that if you hit it during the song it adds 10 to the song value. Maybe limit it to 1-3 times allowed per song. That way you have another shot to strategize for in the upper playfield rather than just trying to lock balls

Good idea. It is used though in songs and out of songs.
In songs - hitting it will increase the powerchord jackpot multiplier (2x, 3x, 4x, and so on….no limit as far as I know but resets to 1x at the beginning of every song. Additionally, it’ll reset the powerchord timer if a ball is locked there.

Out of songs - it’ll boost the powerchord base jackpot value (no limit as far as I know).

How the heck do you know this stuff!?!

#grateful

You really should go to INDISC this year since it's not that far from you and there will be top level players there. Your pinball skills are next level, and I think you'd do very well. In fact I think they pay a bounty for the highest non-ranked qualifier, which I am sure would be hands-down you. Ticket sales just opened up... https://www.indisc.com/

Is that the fog target or is it the scoop above it?
I know that scoop behaves like you described, but that would be cool if the fog target does it too.

My problem is I have good rules knowledge on games I own (at the time). And since I only own 2 games, it’s easy - 90% of games in tournaments, I just don’t know. Dedicating the time is the other. I have been losing a little interest in the hobby; so maybe tourneys and leagues could spark it back?

That's what the practice time before competing and rule-checking on the fly on your phone (before competing on a pin) are for. I see ranked players checking rules for a pin they're unfamiliar with all the time at tournaments. I think you're good enough to adapt pretty quickly and at least be able to grind your way to a respectable score, even if you don't know the "secrets" of any particular game. I've also found that many are happy to clue you in to what the best path is for any particular game because KNOWING the path and EXECUTING on it are two completely different things.

You really should give INDISC a shot. I haven't seen the bounties for this year, but if they have the highest qualifying non-ranked player again, you're pretty much a shoo-in to win it. And maybe competing with people at your level and above will juice your competitive spirit.

But don't dawdle getting entered. Classics already has a waiting list, and it's not out of the realm of possibility the main tournament could sell out again this year. I'll be watching for you on the stream!

I've gotta go spring for that neon sign, it's a lot bigger than I thought it was

It appears to be a Cherry E-63 switch, part # 180-5119-02. At Pinball Life, they show this switch is for JJP parts #18-3005-01 & 18-003005-01.

https://www.pinballlife.com/williamsbally-ball-detect-blade-with-roller-sub-microswitch.html

Mancave Madness sell them down here .
https://mancavemadness.com.au/product/happy-days-neon-sign-copy/