• We have upgaded to the latest version of XenForum and the process finished without any errors!!!! Enjoy the new forum!

Williams Spanish Eyes: Chime to Bell Mod

spiroagnew

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Dec 1, 2012
1,334
311
83
Scotch Block, ON
www.creditdotpinball.com
Here's a quick mod for the few EM types that frequent here. Gottlieb bells and chimes are known as the high water mark in electromechanical "music". After hearing the soothing bells/chimes on a Gottlieb wedgehead, your aural senses will be spoiled for all other EM noise. That's exactly what happened when I got Williams Spanish Eyes up and running in the gameroom. The game has a single chime located in the back of the cabinet that triggers at 100s and 1000s scoring (the 10s have no chime associated, so you just get the clunk of the advancing score reel as per usual on cheap-o WMS games from the era.) The chime bar is built inside of a luan or other thin ply wood box and sounds like complete shit. I rebuilt the chime with new rubber spacers and tried to adjust it every which way, but it still sounded clunky, sick and dead.

In the EM Hangout on Pinside, I got the idea of replacing this chime with a bell. Bell assemblies are available from Pinball Resource and come in a few different types. I went with a plated 10s/100s point bell, originally used in 1950s and 1960s Gottlieb games. If you tell Pinball Resource that the bell will be a replacement for something other than a Gottlieb game, they will pre-install the proper coil for you! Turns out, the Spanish Eyes chime coil was compatible with the stock one installed on the PB Resource bells.

My PBR Bell:
20151218_1500299999.jpg

I disconnected the wires from the chime coil, and added lengths of wire to reach into the backbox. I suppose I could have installed the bell in the cabinet, but it was much easier on my back to install it in the backbox, and will probably make for better acoustics in the long run as well. I zip-tied the new wire lengths to the Jones plug harness and added quick connects on the end of the wire for easy disconnection in case the game ever needs to be moved. Viola. The game sounds 100% better. It is not stock, but makes for a more pleasant playing experience.

Another Pinside member suggested that the game could also be wired to have bells for each of the 10s, 100s and 1000s, by adding PB Resource's plated ones bell for the 10s, using the one I installed for the 100s, and then getting the big 5-inch bell for the 1000s. It would require some extra modification, as you'd have to wire these directly from the points relays in the backbox, not an impossible job, just a lot more wire. You'd also have to plan space for all the extra hardware in the backbox, and if there isn't room, it would have to be transplanted back down into the cabinet.

I've added before and after pictures of the install. If I can figure out how to add a video, I'll do that, too, for the complete sensory experience (wish I had a video of what it sounded like before, but trust me, it was horrid).

The original cruddy chime box. Notice the litany of shit I tried attaching to it to try to make the sound a bit more appealing (to no avail). You can see the two newly installed yellow wires running with the harness for the new bell in the backbox:
20151218_150026.jpg

The bell installed in the backbox:
20151218_145454.jpg

My son, official play tester, gives the new sounds a whirl.
 

spiroagnew

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Dec 1, 2012
1,334
311
83
Scotch Block, ON
www.creditdotpinball.com
I should mention that I left the original chime box installed. There's a very good chance this game gets sold sometime down the line, and perhaps the new owner will have a horrible sense of hearing (or want a stock-sounding game). It's easily reversed.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk
 

singlezero

Active Member
Jul 10, 2014
262
60
28
Orillia ontario
do you think that wood box is stock? today I was fine tuning a 1962 world series pitch and bat. Anyways I also have a project one in my front room(probably you saw that!) and I went to that game for reference as my schematics are missing some pieces. im not good reading schematics to begin with. Anyways I noticed over and above the two bells that exist in my working copy , there was the wooden box chime as well in my project one. the wiring appears to be original and I guess I wont know until I fire it up if I do. I am thinking it is for maybe an "out" bell because I feel mine should have that which it doesn't.

Anyways to further the discussion, I have a couple of Williams machines. I noticed on my Apollo there is a one point bell attached to the bonus unit in the back box. I did discover that the armature to ring that driven by coil is missing and I plan to get that on the next pbr order. I cant remember but I also think it might be in either my skylab or stratoflite the same thing. I took a look quickly on ipdb for Spanish eyes and saw in the backbox picture that same bell attached to the stepper unit. Does/did your game have that? if it is missing it might be something to consider for either adding a bell sequence or replacing one

http://ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2265&picno=58955&zoom=1
 
Last edited:

spiroagnew

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Dec 1, 2012
1,334
311
83
Scotch Block, ON
www.creditdotpinball.com
The wood box is definitely stock...here is a picture from ipdb:

000-pins.jpg

But good eyes on that bell. Mine certainly doesn't have one as pictured. Nor is there hardware for it on the match unit. A few other single players on IPDB from the same era are also missing the bell. Maybe I'll check out some videos of Spanish Eyes in action to see if I can hear anything. If its missing, I'll have to do some digging to try and replace the parts.