On every EM I've played the chimes can't keep up with the spinner until it's used up at least 2/3 of its spin, so I do just hear the clicking of the reel until the end when the chimes come in for the last 5 or so spins

It's out of tune then

(see what I did there)

What would make it out of tune? I've played at least 20 games that all did this, some of them with freshly rebuilt chime units, etc

A properly working chime or bell system should have no trouble keeping up with the score reels. Sometimes it is something as simple as the plunger sticking to the rubber or beer seal it rests on or a bad plunger itself. Freshly rebuilt with all that attended too means the problem is elsewhere. Maybe a switch out of adjustment on the corresponding relay.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one, as I love the spinner sound on it.

I also really like the old Stern SS sounds, like Flight 2000, Seawitch and Quicksilver.

I hear the clicking (reels) on a Williams game with chimes and it sounds like bliss. (Obviously the Williams chimes are much more quiet than not only bells but Gottlieb chimes as well - I like the Williams chimes for playing late at night)

When I had a Grand Prix, that chime ringing kept on going long after the machine was turned off.

And Williams bells are much louder than Gottliebs. Ask me how I know...

Yes, when I decided I wanted to start collecting the early 70's Williams single-player machines with the big reels (still trying to figure out an easy name for their "breed", lol) I was extremely delighted to realize one day after I already had two for a while and playing one of them "wait a second, these are still early enough to have bells! I hear bells!". I didn't really ever make the connection before as I was already enthralled and too excited to notice or care. Made me even happier to collect them, I figured they would have chimes and never paid enough attention to hear or see them inside of the cabinet until I realized one day while playing one of the machines. It is nice, especially because Gottlieb switched to chimes earlier, in 1969, with "Skipper" (which ironically right now is in the back of my van).

I'd say the chimes on the 70's Williams games are a bit softer than the 60's games - that Vagabond (especially with the back door off) can be ear piercing - although in a good way.

I was looking for a different picture but came across this one that I've never posted (and forgot I took recently!) that almost serves the purpose even better (except all the machines in question are off, oh well), here is the start of my Williams 70's single-player-big-reel collection next to my 1962 Williams Vagabond - and then in front of them (with space to play) is my 1977 Williams Liberty Bell and my 1974 Williams Strato-Flite (barely shown) - which both were made after the shift to chimes. The spinners on Liberty Bell fire the chime, advance the score reel, but also advance a unit that moves a cosmetic string of lights under each spinner. It is one of the loveliest sounds in my opinion, and looks great too with the giant string of inserts and lights that move on each side in perfect synchronization since they share the same exact circuit. I believe it uses one of those tiny match/0-9 unit spinners - except of course is in addition to the actual match unit, so there's two in this machine. This one only controls the lights.

IMG_5550 (resized).JPG

Wait until you get one of those old 50 volt Williams with the bells. Those things can wake the dead.

Fresh plungers and beer seal. I have a hard time believing the same switch could be out of adjustment on 4+ games. Plus I even get the same effect on my SS Hot Tip. Chime plunger can't keep up

Friendship 7 is forever ingrained in my mind because as a newbie I read a pinball page that warned (almost violently, LOL) about the Williams 50 volt use and noted that Friendship 7 was the last machine to use it. Of course it was used in a string of machines, but they weren't mentioned (so it "didn't matter"), so Friendship 7 is forever ingrained in my mind as the electronic devil since back when you're new everything is scary and daunting especially when some guy on the internet puts it in giant red text. At least I'll be prepared and cautious if I ever work on one.

I'll have to look on IPDB, I don't think I ever played very many of the 50 volt Williams games - I've played Vagabond (obviously) and Beat The Clock a lot, but they're both after that cut-off. Interesting.

You must be playing too fast then. Otherwise I don't what to tell you. My Williams Grand Prix never had that problem once I went thru it. And we ripped those spinners hard.

I have this problem on some of my EM multiplayer Gottliebs. Probably just need some tweaking to the 10 pt. relay switches. (on mine)

I bet those (and I believe I heard they did) circuit boards had problems with the fast coil pulsing - which is how your situation differs from o-din's Grand Prix which is an EM.

That Williams Coquette I picked up last week I believe was the last 50 volt EM from them. They used 50 volt all the way back to the 40s as best I can tell. The only problem I run across is when somebody has changed coils and not know what they are doing. Sometimes I find Gottlieb coils in them and that is a recipe for disaster as all theirs were 24volt.

I love spinners! The sound on Stellar wars is kinda cool. Like a space laser blaster thing.

fast coil pulsing?

Maybe. I do like to play fast. How many spins do you get off one of your spinners? I'm getting 40-50 and only the last 8 or so are chimed

For me it will always be Aztec.

To it's like a Marimba in a land of metal Xylophones.

I never counted. But the Grand Prix and Hokus Pokus spun like crazy and never missed a beat. Bally liked it's 50 volt system too.

I'm down to one EM spinner game now. Fun park. And they don't spin as fast as some of those 70s games, but are very rewarding when you hit them.

Speaking of Bally, my Skateball and Flash Gordon have some nice spinners.

*problems (my bad, maybe it is more readable now, I edited it to fixed the typo now)

What I meant was the circuit boards have trouble keeping up. They take it through the switch matrix and wiring back to the boards (and also I'm sure the code only checks for switch hits every so often (milliseconds) but it sounds like you're not having that kind of issue since it is scoring) and then the power to strike the chimes has to be sent back out through the driver board, MEANWHILE, an EM spinner is just a switch to the power line of the 10 point (or whatever) relay, which itself is just a power switch to the reel and coil.

SS:

Switch press -> Wait for board to accept -> Board runs through code to go to function of what that switch does -> Adds score -> Tell driver board to power chime -> Driver board powers chime.

The score adding and chime triggering are likely not in parallel since they're probably only fractions of a millisecond apart - why bother? Granted, this is all done incredibly quickly even with the technology at the time (fractions of milliseconds or at least milliseconds)- BUT, then you're ripping that spinner so incredibly fast on top of that, it can't keep up.

I know Bally and Gottlieb games (and probably Williams too) will put everything in a "queue" to be done, so like if your ball hits 5 switches before the board can get through and score them and play a sound for them - you will still receive your points properly. Like if you go in and touch a playfield switch incredibly fast you can create a repetitive line of scoring for each of the those presses even after your pressing is over. But if they did for a chime spinner, it would sound really silly for it to still be going with the spinner stopped, so they likely don't keep the sound queues in this "note to self: do later" line.

EM:

Hit spinner -> Powers 10 point relay -> Powers score reel and chime in parallel

No waiting for much - no reasonable delay, just the 299,792,458 meters per second electricity travels through wire (but read next sentence) & the split second activations of EM relays. Of course the chime coils as well, but the electricity speed + coil speed is something that both the EM and SS share.

Unless other owners of this SS title have different experiences, I'd say your game is fine!

Good point! I wonder what'd happen if they designed an SS game where the clicker reel and chimes were 'special solenoids' (to use the williams term) and bypassed the CPU. *takes notes*

F14 has a pretty cool spinner sound. Just wish it was louder. It's kind of gets drowned out a little by the rest of the music.

AC/DC - just want to rip that spinner all day long....not a good strategy I have found out.

When the spinner lane is lit I love the sound of ripping Gorgar's spinner. It would sound awesome with a sub woofer attached.

there are lots of great spinner sound effects, but from a satisfying standpoint its hard to beat a dialed in Robocop. It spins for days and you know with one clean spinner shot you're getting huge points. Honerable mention goes to Quicksilver and Meteor.

Agree... I own a JM and I got so disappointed when I noticed that..

Resurrecting an OLD thread....

Just picked up a Stern JP Premium, and one of my favorite things on the game is the Dilophosaurus "whistle" sound when you rip the spinner.
Sooooo satisfying....

Since there aren't many newer games in this thread, an Honorable Mention goes out to TFLE in Supper Spinner mode. Love the bass on that one.

Later,
EV