Spotify just told me that Don’t Damn Me was my top song of 2020

But yeah the concept behind the pin is the Not In This Lifetime tour, and unfortunately the songs you mentioned weren’t part of it...

Given what they did play on that tour, they did a great job with the selection.

Gotcha, don’t recall those from the show I went to

Edit: they did play KOHD but not the others, just looked it up. Those must’ve been added later in the tour

From JJP or a distributor? If the latter, you may be in a queue for after the CE run.

Same here. I haven’t even watched a video of the lights. Trying to be totally surprised.

So the verdict is carbon balls? Are they a significant upgrade over stock? The vendor’s description mentions that carbon balls aren’t super shiny either...

Per posts above, the concern with standard balls is the magnet and getting magnetized

Am I misunderstanding him here about the likelihood of replacement balls magnetizing?

Also from ballbaron.com:

USE IN GAMES WITH MAGNETS: Some games which use magnets will rapidly magnetize the Ninja ball after just a few plays – those we are aware of include Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones (Stern), and Dialed In. Other modern Stern games can cause chrome pinballs including the Ninja ball to become magnetized over time, leading to balls sticking together (usually in the trough). If you suddenly experience drained balls not being “seen” by the game, your balls have become magnetized. If your game has magnetic features, try our Polaris carbon pinballs.

Thanks

Topper?
Signed by the band?

Plus the backbox and undercab are part of the lightshow, they're scripted

Fwiw, Adler and Sorum both used Zildjian during their GnR tenure.

I feel the Zildjian decals look better.

Only drawback is that they won’t match the Sabians that Frank uses on the video screen.

The best pro-shot stuff from the original band (by original I’m saying the UYI lineup- the most recent cool Axl ) was the Live Era release, which is DVD quality. So somewhat of a downgrade.

But don’t forget that JJP spent weeks (months?) doing the video sync to the original tracks. So unless you want to spend countless hours on syncing the video... you’d have to use the live audio... but then it wouldn’t sync with the light show..

Let’s just be happy for all the cool work that they did on editing the recent live stuff! I mean yeah Axl isn’t as dangerous as he was in the 90s... but he looks a heck of a lot better than he did a few years ago during Chinese Democracy (fat Axl)

If you’re a GnR fan and don’t know this show.. watch it... immediately

Love the way he intros Slash

Still waiting on my CE. Haven’t even been invoiced yet. Sorry to say it might be a while...

For those who have their machine already, can you plug in headphones? Or do you have to use the Bluetooth?

It’s Bluetooth only, what models have confirmed to work well?

Thx

I have only been asked to pay the $1000 JJP deposit so far

Why not just get a freestanding Polk sub (found easily on CL for $50)? What am I missing.

Forgive me for asking a serious question! For clarification, I have the CE on order, so I'm primarily concerned about the bass... since hopefully I'll have sufficient mids/highs from the soundbar.

Ps. I have read all 5,481 posts on this thread

Thanks, I’ll circle back. I definitely appreciate what Dan and other modders do for this community

Yes they said the next game update should include fixes for WiFi and bluetooth issues

Still haven’t had full payment request from JJP for my CE yet. So it’s still gonna be a bit...

“This song’s about a friend of mine. She gets hassled a lot, because people don’t believe the song’s really about her. And now she’s having to sign autographs and can’t understand that one either.”
- Axl, The Ritz ‘88

Hadn’t seen that either, thanks

Where are you getting this info?

Just got asked by JJP to pay in full for my CE. They said it would ship within 2 weeks. I know I was at the end of the CE run since I ordered shortly before it sold out. I suspect they are putting the SEs back on the line afterwards.

Edit: shipping co just called, it’s arriving Friday.

PinballGalore cool idea... love me some Appetite Amber! Think one of mine would work as a topper?
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I just updated my new GnR to the latest code seamlessly. Just went to the menu, connected to Wi-Fi, then hit download update, it was done in less than 10 minutes. Keep the coin door open

Eskaybee where is this setting? I couldn’t find it either.

Where is the plunge supposed to settle on the playfield? I checked all angles but mine still goes SDTM a fair amount. I can try adjusting the gate as others have mentioned but want to understand where it is supposed to go first.

Thanks for the info

CE #299 in the house!

Having a lot of fun. A few observations:

- The bass is pretty nonexistent out of the box. A sub add on is necessary if you want a good music experience.

- The stock monitor settings are awful. Way too washed out. Changed mine to Brightness of 0 and Contrast of 100 and ironically it’s pretty bright and no longer washed out but also not oversaturated

- I really wish we had a printed manual. After I already set the pin up, I found the manual online, which had way better setup instructions, color images, and if you have the topper, way clearer information.

- I feel like the shaker needed to be turned to low so it didn’t shake the house down. Feel like it’s perfect at Low.

- I had to make several adjustments to areas the ball would hang, or to avoid drains SDTM off the plunge. I guess this is part of the ‘NIB experience’.

- The packaging and delivery of the pin were spot on. Great job by JJP.

Thanks to everyone in the Pinside community, and to the JJP team that watches this thread, so that I could address these issues efficiently!

Repost from the CE thread..

MT45 showed the use of a small felt dot to reduce SDTM plunges. I also was getting tons of SDTM plunges, even after using the washer trick and checking all angles. I saw his post and tried the felt button, but I didn’t have one that thin and it would block the ball. So I tried one of these small hemispheric furniture dots. Perfect! Now it meanders slowly to either flipper and hardly ever goes SDTM. Try it out if you’re in the same boat!

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Anyone else had this problem? I noticed the left light was no longer moving. Looks like the little arm that moves it around broke off.

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Is 1.17 worth it? I’m still on 1.14 because of all the issues that people have posted about

Good, almost too good! I have mine turned down to low and it’s still intense.

I replaced mine with Titans from day one, and they are already getting worn down after maybe 75 games. It might just be that the multi balls on this thing wreak havoc on the rubbers

I’m still on 1.14 and terrified.

wilsonza https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-official-jjp-gnr-thread/page/130#post-6161174

Lol so you also added the sparkle playfields, synchronized LEDs in the topper, Coma lock, signed band card/drumsticks, back/under lighting, laser rail etching, skull/rose sculptures, and mirrored backbox/RadCals? My CE would beg to differ.

But honestly, I thought the LE artwork was better too until I saw both. The sparkle and the mirroring are hard to photograph but are killer in person. Every tooth of the daggers on the Barron shine in the light, same with the lightning on the backbox. Take a look at one if you get the chance.

Your mod looks good tho. Hopefully more to come!

Anyone know how long it takes to get replacement parts from JJP? I requested a replacement rotating light for mine that broke several weeks ago, and they said they would send one but no word since then.

Thanks, I will. Was it hard to replace the spot?

I think the patch sets are intended to be a surprise/something to figure out on your own.

What is the purpose of the flashing light over the far right outlane? Above the skull?

JDub03 When you lift the playfield, the stock subwoofer that’s pointing downwards has a free set of metal terminals. Get your signal from there. I used alligator clips on speaker wire. Then you wire it through the hole in the back of the cabinet to your external subwoofer. Of course, it has to be a powered sub since all you’re getting from the cabinet is the signal.

Or, you can get a Pinwoofer kit

As far as lighting, I think somebody said they used one of the USB outlets behind the coin door to supply power for extra LEDs.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-official-jjp-gnr-thread/page/130#post-6161174

This fix works great, went from high amount of SDTM plunges to hardly ever.

Wish this could be made a key post... this question keeps coming up.

Please tell me when it ships. I’ve been asking for one for two months and nothing ...

JJP finally sent me a replacement spotlight after two months... works fine so far... but right after I installed it, the other light’s servo stopped working! Sounds like these have issues. They are super cool, hope they don’t go the way of the flying monkey...

I did notice that the replacement servo is white, whereas the original was black, so maybe it’s a different stock.

And yeah, it’s a super easy replacement once the playfield is up. Two screws and three connectors, all readily accessible (at least for the left spot).

I checked the slack on mine, both spots are fine, that wasn’t my issue.

That was me. Try it. It’s counterintuitive but I think it’s the best look with 100% contrast. However I haven’t tried messing with the color temp.

If you wait about 20 seconds without touching anything, then the machine will fire the jets and it should eject the stuck ball without having to take the glass off etc.

Agreed! I was just replying to the comment that you had to take the glass off.

JJP GnR manual states that you can take them off or leave them on for extra protection.

Not sure, it has a white servo housing as opposed to the original one that was black. So far so good but I just installed it a few days ago.

Took me about two months to get a replacement. Then the second one broke

Left one was easy, two screws and plug and play. Not sure about the right one though (I guess I’ll find out!!)

Got a chance to go under the hood for the first time in a while. A few notes- all three regarding posts by @fooflighter. Thanks for all the info bud!

First, I greatly appreciate your tip about using the felt pad to keep the ball from getting stuck by the lower pop. So far it seems to work well. Mods - can we make this a key post? https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-official-jjp-gnr-thread/page/178#post-6253643

Second, I tried changing the monitor to sRGB color space and I do think it’s better. I preferred brightness at 50 and contrast at 40, but I’m sure each eye has their own preferences. Both your and my suggestions are way better than stock though. I recommend to anyone who hasn’t played around with the monitor settings, do so.

Third, thanks for the tip on swapping the right spot. It is more involved than the left spot for sure, and your guide saved me a good amount of time. Of note, I didn’t have to remove the plastic shields to get the spot out. After the metal plate and the two bolts on the back were off, I could carefully guide the spot out the back and leave the shields in place. You mention them in your guide and you don’t explicitly say to remove them, but just wanted to pass along that the spot can pretty easily be swapped with them in place.

Lastly, my stock servos were DGS and the replacements were both Hobby King. They are white instead of black, but nothing a little sharpie can’t fix . Hopefully these won’t fail.

My CE (Feb build date) came with clear washers on some posts but not all. Can someone who has added washers recommend which posts should get washers, based on those that are most susceptible and/or easiest to add? I haven’t done much pinball disassembly so I’d probably skip ones that are difficult to access. Thanks in advance.

Noob question, what about making a single slit in clear washers and then just slipping them on so as to avoid all that disassembly? I know it won’t look quite as clean as a fully intact washer, but maybe not that noticeable and still looking better than torn artwork?

fooflighter thanks for all the pics. In your first image, did you notch the washer to get it so close to the lane divider? What’s the best way to notch these? Any particular metal washer that you used for the posts that wouldn’t take the clear washers?

I used alligator clips

That would be cool. Really like the pin and I’m a huge GnR fan but I feel like I’m missing all the great assets because I’m always staring at the flippers!

Yea in my case I just clipped the alligators onto the secondary ‘male’ tabs

Well, since the game uses the album masters, the music videos really should line up, unless the video used a radio edit, or have extended sequences (November rain?)

However, a lot of the songs used in the game did not have fully produced music videos, so unless you use the ‘bare bones’ ones from the backdrop at their concerts (humping skeleton pun intended), then you wouldn’t have the source material to do it.

What would REALLY be cool is if someone could substitute the Live at the Ritz live footage for those songs that were around back then, so you get Peak young axl, but the timings would certainly be way off and that would require a lot of manual work

Correct

I told JJP about the pooling on my CE and they sent me this.

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I thought you were selling your machine?

Someone earlier in the thread used a furniture leg button protector cut in half and stuck next to the bumper in the problem area. It has worked for me. Just enough to keep the ball from getting nestled there.

It’s all one sticker. As mentioned, you can get/buy additional ones from JJP, at least you could in the past. There’s also a prior post on here about how to best remove and apply new one (search posts about the record slipping because sometimes you need to remove the sticker to access the central screw to fix this problem).

That’s disappointing. I was a JJP fan but not only will they not acknowledge or fix the playfield issue, but they also won’t go to the trouble to send affected customers a few bucks worth of a band-aid?

Beg to differ, I added a powered sub and this preamp to my CE and it sounds quite excellent. Though I agree the stock sound was pretty lacking until I added both. And I’m very picky about audio. So I would argue that the tweeters (at least the ones in the soundbar) can sound good with the right preamplification and equalization. I posted this in the CE forum.

Nobsound NS-10P Mini Vacuum Tube Preamp Audio Hi-Fi Stereo Pre-Amplifier Treble & Bass Control https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07719G56B

If the same tweeters are indeed in the backbox and the CE soundbar (I have not confirmed this personally) then maybe this preamp would also work well on the LE/SE.

Don’t get me wrong, I think PinWoofer is a great idea, I’m just showing that good quality sound can be had with the stock CE speakers as well.

I agree with the other poster, the shaker on the CE is violent at Medium, I’d hate to feel High. Low is pretty good.

The reason I chose that preamp is because it has 3.5mm female in and out, and the soundbar has a 3.5mm in, so you can just plug it inline with any 3.5mm male to male headphone cable. But I haven’t dug into the backbox to see if the backbox speaker inputs are the same. So I guess it depends on the backbox speaker input.

If anyone thinks that installing the longer locking post alone would prevent the pooling and artwork tearing, let me dispel that fantasy. My GNR lane post has significant damage and it came from the factory with the longer locking post.

For those who attempted a repair on the upper playfield post - did you replace it with the longer locking post? Asking because it would involve taking off the upper playfield and removing all those wires which seems like a pretty time intensive task. Would just ironing the pooled area and adding the larger washer likely be enough?

Thanks

Get all the multiballs and their respective jackpots before starting a song

February.
No black washer factory installed (I added it today).
Yes nylon nut was factory installed.

I am using the JJP post upgrade kit they sent me. The posts are all the same longer ones, there is no metal sleeve or adapted post for the upper playfield. However, there is a notched washer so that it will sit above the lane divider at the GNR lane without modification (of course I didn’t notice this until after I notched my own!)

You can see my post in the CE thread in which I added an external sub and a preamp for the CE soundbar and it dramatically improved both high and low end (though was insufficient without both).

http://tiltforums.com/t/guns-n-roses-jjp-rulesheet/6803

Those just receiving games- can you tell us the playfield date? Should be on the far back of the PF if you raise it

There’s a GnR playfield poll thread

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pollis-there-an-issue-with-your-gnr-playfield

Would be great to have everyone vote there to get a true idea.

I voted “chipping and or pooling”

Thank you for this! I was on my second set of spotlights. Already after a few games, I could see wear at the corner that they tell you to remove.

Not sure why they make it so complicated in the document. The left spotlight you can free up with those two screws on top and avoid all the other steps. Cut and replace. The right one I didn’t even remove, I just cut it in place. A little trickier but possible. I just used wire cutters and they did the job fine.

February

As someone who has had two spotlight replacements myself… I do think the breakages will continue unless you do the “fix”. The issue is that in certain orientations, the arm hits the spot and puts pressure on it until it eventually breaks. I’m not sure how changing the servo would help this problem. Just cut the end off that hits the spot like in the bulletin. Takes 10 minutes. Now there’s definitely no friction on the arm.

The problem with both of mine was broken linkages, not servo burnouts. I guess both are issues. The service bulletin only addresses the former.

This also worked for me, did it a few months back.

They come with the CE. They work great. Just a sheet of durable but thin plastic in the shape of the side art with overhangs so they hang over the cabinet rails. Mine fit tight on one side but that could just be how my playfield sits.

As PinMonk said, a small piece of something at the right edge of that bumper skirt will prevent the problem and is pretty much unseen. I posted a while back about a felt furniture leg dot cut in half at the edge of the skirt has worked great. Black so it’s nit noticeable. Doesn’t interfere with bumper or play and haven’t had a hang up since. Kudos to the OP who had the idea

Edit: it was @flooflighter

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-official-jjp-gnr-thread/page/178#post-6253643

Mine feeds to the flipper from the factory

Every post you make is negative. It gets tiresome. Try embracing some positivity?

Thanks, just in time before Jimwe5t strikes again!

One shooter rod to rule them all

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Some

Mini and regular size

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image (resized).jpg

Blink-182

Anyone with stock spotlights should immediately do JJP’s fix on the arm so they don’t break (unless they fixed the issue on recent builds). I quickly went through two sets of spotlights at the beginning, but no issues since the fix.

Search the thread for the Service Bulletin if you aren’t aware of this.

Edit; it’s a key post
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/the-official-jjp-gnr-thread/page/278#post-6455419

I felt the same way at first. I would hang in there. At first it seems like a lot. But then when you realize your main objective - get through full-length songs - you realize that you really need those MBs to have a chance of getting to the end. Then you realize that there’s a whole new set of strategies that you learn to use on a game like this. Such as getting as many balls as possible into the lock so that you can focus on a a ball or two for the main objective. Or learning how to hit your objective shots despite having several balls in the lower playfield. When I really started to understand the purpose and the strategy related to all the MBs, I began to appreciate and enjoy the game a lot more. I’m certain this was all by design, again, to allow for the player to get through all the full length songs. The art of Eric’s game design.

The only thing I lament is that I hardly ever get to see all the cool animations and video on the main display because of all the action… but then again, that’s the case in most games anyways… and more the reason to invite your friends over so you can take it all in while they play!

It does just hold the ball there and drain it either way. If you succeed, it auto launches at the same time to give the perception that it’s the same ball

However, it is very cool looking. Seeing the gate lift up to save your ball is a trip. There’s a glowing green LED that shines over the ball that matches the color and brightness pattern of the playfield, like it’s teasing you to save it. And then the despair you feel when the exit gate lifts and takes your ball after you drain!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Took part of the afternoon to install Cliffys. I hadn’t done Cliffys before, but it really wasn’t all that bad. Thanks to fooflighter for the install tips. Of note, I did NOT have to mess with the wires to do the install. I had just enough slack to move the guitar neck so that I could perform all required steps without disconnecting any wires to the upper playfield or cutting any zip ties. That was the most intimidating part of the install so I’m glad that worked out.

I don’t know how that last pic got in there!!

Edit: thanks I retrieved the washers

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