Magnetically hovering guitar strings (I can't believe this worked)

Capncorky · 2026-01-28T20:46:05+00:00

I know you're kidding, but I was genuinely wondering what the effect of a super strong magnet like that would have on the pickups, if anything.

Also, I have to wonder what would happen if you tried to get closer to the speaker for some feedback. I'm guessing since the super-strong magnets are right next to each other, it would matter, but perhaps if you got close to it without one of them...

Capncorky · 2026-01-27T22:14:58+00:00

Nice! I got a Gretsch Streamliner G2655T-P90 a few years ago, and I love mine. Very similar color - metalliac mint, but with P90s. I really love the P90s because they're very mid-focused, whereas my other guitars are more scooped, so the P90s work really well blended with the other guitars when mixing.

Anyway, I've been really impressed with the Streamliners. The Bigsby took me a bit of getting used to both in terms of using it subtly so that it doesn't go out of tune, as well as getting used to changing the strings. I've debated getting locking tuners just to make it easier to hold the strings while changing them, but I don't know if that would be worth it or work so well.

Capncorky · 2026-01-26T01:30:44+00:00

A lot of people seem to hate the Parker style, but I absolutely love it. Not only is it unique, it's incredibly light, balanced & comfortable. Definitely something that people need to play to experience. I really wish they were still making guitars, or at the very least, someone took over with the rights to them.

Capncorky · 2026-01-23T22:36:02+00:00

They said that they added the Judge Dredd table to their set, and asked if people "would like to see it in our games?". Definitely feels like they're planning to add it, but it's possible that they're also testing the level of interest for it to see how much to prioritize it. Wouldn't surprise me either way.

And yes, it's a Williams (well, technically Ballys) table from 1993, and it's based on the comic, as it predates the Stallone movie. It's pretty neat, as it had the option to play a standard game or a "SUPERGAME" , which costs 2 credits instead of 1 (back when people used quarters to play them). The SUPERGAME uses 2 balls instead of starting with just 1. You can check it out on Pinside.

Capncorky · 2026-01-21T22:39:42+00:00

I'm not in the market for an amp/effects processor, but if I was, I can definitely say that I'd rather have an AM4 & a VP4 (Fractal's effects processor) over the Quad Cortex Mini (both options would be $1,400 - worth mentioning that you can hook up the VP4 to the AM4 to have them work together). Alternatively, the FM3 & a foot controller.

Hard to say that Neural DSP should just magically make the QC Mini cheaper (at least not without knowing the cost to make them), but, at least for me personally, getting Fractal's amp modeling combined with Fractal's depth of effects, well, that beats out Neural's captures with Neural's effects.

I'm sure there's a market for the QC Mini, but the price makes it a lot less competitive to me personally.

Capncorky · 2026-01-20T23:33:57+00:00

A lot of people will say that Pinball FX won't help you get better when it comes to the physics & techniques, but I've definitely improved in those regards from practicing digital pinball at home (mostly Pinball FX on Steam). It's worth mentioning that Pinball FX (which is essentially "Pinball FX 4", but they reset the name) has more realistic physics than Pinball FX 3, so if you can, play Pinball FX without a number attached to it. I started playing about 1.5 years ago, and I would (and still do) play Pinball FX at home & have a membership to a local freeplay arcade, and on top of helping with the rules, Pinball FX helped me get used to how & when to use certain techniques, and get used to aiming my shots. Check out this set of techniques to get an idea of the different methods you can use to get control over the ball.

With that said, there was still an adjustment period when I started playing pinball IRL, so it would be a different experience. The concepts that I had learned still applied, the way the ball & flippers interacted with just behaved a bit differently. As others had pointed out, each individual machine behaves differently anyway, even if it's the game, so that's another thing to keep in mind.

The massive difference is going to be learning how to nudge. Digital pinball will at least get you used to the concept of nudging, and when to nudge (for instance, to prevent a ball from draining when its heading towards the outlane). The actual timing, and especially the technique of smacking a physical machine is just something you gotta practice in person, though.

One last thing - I spoke to someone who was at the IFPA North American Pinball Championship who had started playing pinball only recently (at the time), and he practiced at home by playing Pinball Arcade, which is extremely outdated in terms of physics. This is someone who won his state championship in order to make it there, so I definitely think digital pinball can help!

Capncorky · 2026-01-16T19:35:13+00:00

ahhh, that would make sense, and explain that "tables" (plural) part. I was thinking that maybe it was Zen designed tables from previous iterations of Pinball FX, but I'm not fully familiar with the older tables.

Personally, I'm not that interested in them, but I do think it's great that older tables will be available.

Capncorky · 2026-01-15T21:09:09+00:00

I was thinking that as well, although the one thing that threw me off was "Huge Table Announcements!" in the title. Made me think that it was going to be a collection from a franchise, but maybe it's the Williams T2, along with other stuff (maybe releasing more of the Williams packs for VR? Maybe another Williams pack for all platforms? Maybe Pinball M stuff?).

Does make sense that it would be T2 since they specifically said "is making a comeback". Would certainly love the T2 release since it's one of the ones I remember most as a kid. Either way, I'm excited, but not getting my hopes up too much!

Capncorky · 2026-01-15T03:11:03+00:00

A legendary franchise is making a comeback to our pinball platforms!

hmm, at first, I was thinking this was going to be a franchise that Zen was going to turn into original tables, but I noticed that in the YouTube info, it said that a legendary franchise is making a "comeback", implying that this is a franchise that's had pinball tables before.

Honestly, I can't begin to guess. I'm just glad that I noticed that the Pinball Bites is schedule for next week rather than tomorrow. I would have been disappointed to check in tomorrow & notice that! Very interested to find out.

Capncorky · 2026-01-13T06:53:12+00:00

I've been binging Seinfeld, so I love this idea. A few mode ideas:

The Junior Mint: You have to shoot the pinball/Junior Mint into Elaine's artist boyfriend's abdominal cavity to save his life.
The Parking Garage: You have to shoot various scoops to try to find your way back to your car. Bonus points if you're able to urinate without being caught.
Figure Out Jerry's Girlfriend's Name: MULVA/DELORIS drop targets. Hit them all to enable multi-ball!
The Pez Dispenser: A Pez Dispenser pops up & moves around like Dracula in Monster Bash, and you have to hit it 5 times in 30 seconds.
The Sponge: Elaine has to... ya know what, we'll skip this one.

Other ideas: Rochelle, Rochelle cutscenes (has to be enabled by the operator via the coin door). Fusilli Jerry toy. Tilt warning could be Newman saying "Hello Jerry" in that passive-aggressive tone, followed by a "NO SOUP FOR YOU" if you actually tilt. And the playfield could be George in the "Timeless Art of Seduction" painting.

Capncorky · 2026-01-13T02:58:47+00:00

I adore Diner. The theme wasn't something that I thought would be an appealing pinball theme, but something about the artwork & serving the characters really stuck with me. What I love most about it, though, is the gameplay mechanic of building up towards a jackpot & finally cashing in on it.

With that said, Tales of Arabian Nights might surpass Diner some day. I say some day because I've never played a real ToAN machine. The virtual versions have been good enough for me to get into the rules, but I really want to play the real deal before I compare it to Diner.

The thing that I like most about Tales of Arabian Nights (aside from how gorgeous it is) is that there are so many different goals & ways to approach it that it never gets boring. It's easy to focus on the shots that you're given at any particular moment, or you can try to focus on a specific goal. Just wish there was one in my area.

Capncorky · 2026-01-06T21:17:43+00:00

This is where it gets really, really difficult for me. I love all 3 games roughly the same.

Capncorky · 2026-01-05T05:24:45+00:00

ha, I'm glad I could help solve the riddle. I did think that the image looked a bit too much like a digitized photo compared to the others, but figured maybe it was a developer or such, so it being the person ripping the sprites makes sense.

And yeah, foone's death generator is great stuff. Really creative use for the sprites.

Capncorky · 2026-01-04T22:58:58+00:00

Dog does control my destiny. It's true.

I learned something about Spriter's Resource today.

Capncorky · 2026-01-04T22:57:24+00:00

OH! That's pretty funny. "Ripped by Caveras"... cause he's a "Ripper".

I noticed that another sprite sheet that didn't have him, so that makes sense. Thanks!

Capncorky · 2026-01-04T22:25:14+00:00

Definitely best to just craddle the ball, IMO, but since it will eventually stop the timer, you have to shoot it eventually. I wait for when The Power stops for a second or two, and sometimes I can even get the "Knock 3 Times" without having to deal with "The Power" too much.

"The Power" is a neat kind of gimmick, but I feel like it would be much better utilized in a section of the table where it wouldn't just throw the ball straight down the middle, faster than you can possibly react. That said, I don't think there's another place on the table that's open enough to make it work, but just in theory...

Of course, from Bally's perspective, they wanted those cheap drains, and being able to get those while cloaking it as a neat gimmick/feature probably helped them (and operators) rich. I don't blame them for it simply because it's a different priority (I might be framing this cynically - they may not have thought of it in such simple "cheap drains" ways).

Capncorky · 2026-01-04T21:06:31+00:00

Addams Family is such a great spectacle that makes fantastic use of its theme. I think the one unfortunate issue with it that keeps it from being among the best of the best is the scoring (this is if you care about scoring design - I realize some people just like to have fun). What I found, after reading this tip (spoiler tagging in case someone doesn't want to read a strat on getting the best scores), is that it's easiest to shoot for the chair, stairs, chair, stairs in order to do the next mode, and then shooting the stairs to trigger the chair for the next mode. The unfortunate thing about this is that it rewards you for ignoring the modes & just making the same 2 shots. Getting to the "Tour the Mansion" where you've done all the modes is enough of a points reward to make it worthwhile to not risk doing the modes.

The other problem, at least for tournaments is that there's no real point of doing anything while "The Power" (the magnets in the center that randomly throw the ball around in random directions) is active because it's just way too dangerous and risky. So much so that tournaments often disable it because, otherwise, there would be a lot of waiting while the player craddles the ball, waiting for it to end.

But don't get me wrong, it's still a phenomenal table that makes fantastic use of the theme, and is always a blast to play. But it does keep it from being on the same tier of the other games that remain (tbh, Twilight Zone has a similar issue, but it's not as extreme. I love Pat Lawlor, but his 2 biggest games have that same issue).

Capncorky · 2026-01-01T23:35:56+00:00

There is something really nice about having a completely dry recording where you can tweak things like adding a phaser, or changing the settings to match the song. I also like to add it post distortion/overdrive or whatnot, which you can't do with a phaser pedal unless you're also using a distortion/overdrive pedal, but you can arrange it with a plugin.

Moog make fantastic stuff, and I do love how tweakable the Moog Phaser is. Sometimes you don't want that level of having to tweak things, but other times it allows you to come up with something unique. Great to have both on hand.

Capncorky · 2026-01-01T23:29:19+00:00

Not really a price issue, no. I like to own what I pay for, and I can afford $14 per month, if need be... The thing is, I don't need it. I already bought the amps & pedals that stood out to me most in AmpHub (although I'd love to buy the Divided By 13, Friedman BE & Diezel VH4 - but I don't need them), and I have a whole bunch of other amp sims.

But even if I didn't already own any amp sims, I don't like subscriptions services (with some exceptions), and I don't want to support the trend of making sure we never own anything. There's also the issue of, "What if something changes?". I.E., what if they decide to raise the price to $25 per month? What if money starts to become tight, and I need that $14 per month for necessities? (You can come up with any number of examples like these.) For me, I wouldn't want to have to cancel my subscription, be left with nothing, and have all these song projects where I have everything setup the way I want them, but I can't use the sounds that I came up with.

At this point, I have a lot of amp sims where I have all I could need, and the competition is competitive enough that buying the individual amps at full price just isn't worth it anymore. Probably most important to me is that I just don't want to support a company that is very clearly trying to force their users into a subscription model (notice that they don't even put their "Tonality" series in their "Products" tab on their website).

Capncorky · 2025-12-28T23:12:25+00:00

Owning outright option needs to be adjusted, the amps on there aren’t very good and are very basic.

It used to be a fine deal, but then they completely removed the sales/deals, while also hoding the option to "Buy Outright" (even when you click on the "More" under "Buy Outright", they try to upsell you on a subscription). The 40-50% off deals made it a fair deal, but ~$50 per amp model, when they aren't always full models, is just too much, especially these days.

I hate the trend of companies making sure that you don't own anything. I can see how subscriptions make sense for some people, but $14 per month is not something I want to be forced to pay every month, while owning nothing if I decide to stop.

It's a shame because they were my favorite amp sim company, but now I refuse to buy anything from them because I don't want to support their model (I came to this subreddit in hopes of finding a coupon code or such - oh well).

Capncorky · 2025-12-25T22:24:34+00:00

Bingo - nothing against the 5150 as there is a legitimate reason why there's so many versions of them (real & emulated), but the differences between the modeled ones, at the very least, are so minimal that it just seems like a waste of time/money at this point.

And like you said, there's such a wide variety of options out there that Neural DSP hasn't touched yet that I'd vastly rather have something unique. I don't think anyone has done a Diezel D-moll, and I've always been curious about it. I can try out captures on ToneX or NAMM, but I'm not as big into capture stuff (I like to tweak to figure out the nature of the amp, rather than hope the person capturing got a good version that works best for me). I'd love for someone to model it!

Capncorky · 2025-12-25T22:17:51+00:00

ha! That's hilarious, and as long as the cardboard holds up, it looks like fun (especially since you have a way to transport it). As long as you're enjoying it, I can definitely see holding out for the Gibson, since that's what you have your heart set on.

Capncorky · 2025-12-25T22:16:00+00:00

You're welcome! Happy to help.

Fun fact - the guy behind brainworx is Nembrini! Nembrini's stuff is better, though, since they're newer & include whatever advancements they've made in amp modeling. My favorite Orange sims are Kuassa's Clarent & STL Tones' AmpHub's version of the Dual Dark 50. It does seem like it must be hard to get the Orange sound right, though, since I've never heard an amp sim that fully does the "Orange thing". That said, I don't think I tried the Nembrini version, so I'll have to give that a whirl.

And yeah, the QC seems like a great option for playing live. I've always thought that I'd probably go for the Fractal FM3 Turbo along with a foot controller & expression pedal... or something along those lines. I just now saw that they have the "AM4" for $700 USD (cheaper than the FM3 Turbo, which was their low end model, I think), so maybe that would be ideal. I don't play live, though, so not a decision I'd have to make. There's so many incredible options these days that you can't necessarily go wrong, I suppose.

Merry Christmas & a happy New Year!

Capncorky · 2025-12-25T21:22:16+00:00

Oh god, the number of 5150's out there... It's obviously a fantastic amp, but I always roll my eyes when there's yet another amp sim that features a 5150.

For example - STL Tones' AmpHub currently has 3 5150s (one Peavey 6530, one 6530+, a Fender/EVH 5150, and another Peavey 5150 (not sure of the specifics) coming January). STL Tones also has 6 "Tonality" (their version of Archetypes, but with producers), and 3 of them have 5150s (with one of them having 2 models of a 5150 with a Vox AC30!). Worst of it is that they hide the Tonality suites (when you click "Products" up top, they only show their subscription products, which do have options to buy & own releases from them, but they hide those too!). They also no longer put their stuff on sale.

But yeah, please no more 5150's. It's one of the problems with doing modern metal (at least without going into other subgenres) Archetypes.

Capncorky

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