Dave Manasseri here, BCA instructor from Queens. I am now bowing down to all of you, kneeling even! With the help of Glen and this site, I was able to get Blatt Billiards to repair my table after 10 years of trying.
10 years ago I bought a reconditioned gold crown 3 from Blatt. Played nice, but slow. I complained, but they said it was ok. I spent the next 8 years looking for a mechanic to explain why, and verify that my table played slow. I must have had 5 or 6 guys come look at it, and all of them said I was nuts. "Nothing wrong with the table man, it plays fine." I roll my eyes, and press on in search of somebody who knows how a gold crown 3 should play.
Then I asked a well known poster, Cornerman Fred about it....and he sent me here. Finally, I found voices of reason. Glen and Dartman knew what my problem was, without even looking at the table. Wrong rubber, end of story. Whoever put that rubber on should be smacked around like the 3 stooges.
I took this enlightening info directly to Brunswick, who verified that a gold crown 3 gets k-55(not k-66 which is what they gave me). After a lo-o-o-ong struggle with Blatt, they took back my rails and mounted some new k-55's on them. Finally, the table played the way it should have in the first place(so I thought).
After playing on it awhile I noticed ball hop. So I ordered myself a rail gauge, and sure enough, the rubber were not straight. The nose height was all over the place, a disaster. I complained, so they tried to shove some walnut shims in the low spots. I didnt think that would work, and I was right.
After that it took me another year and change to battle Blatt again, and eventually win, again. This time they gave me a replacement set of used rails, and mounted diamond rubber on it. I didnt ask for Diamond rubber, they just gave it to me. I asked for k-55 the last time they did the job, don't know what made them do that. I played with crooked rubber for over a year, but I can't complain because they didnt charge me. The table plays very well now with the diamond rubber.
Through it all, Glen helped me out over the phone as much as humanly possible. And, he did all that for me without knowing me from a hole in the wall. Thanks again Glen, I owe you a big fat steak when you come to NY!