Gold crown vs amf

[Dartman]

A lot of people get confused with AMF & Brunswick - both being competing companies in the bowling/pinsetter and billiards business.

 

[TableTek]

Having worked on them and other tables I'm sure you know alot more than me about them. But when I shot on this AMF the other day. I was sold on it after about 5 minutes. The rails were very lively hitting 4 and 5 rails with just a medium stroke. The balls rolled dead straight I was very impressed. I couldn't get my money out fast enough. But now the fun really begins tearing it down, hauling it up out of a basement, loading, unloading and putting it back together. But before that I have to sell and tear down my 7 foot Olhausen. Then brace up the floor joices in my poolroom. I use it have an old nine foot Brunswick in there and over the years the floor must have weakened a little cause the slates shifted and that happened again with the Olhausen. So i'm going to make sure that it dosen't happen again. BANGER

JUSTABANGER,
Thanks for buying the AMF, you will be happy with it provided time is taken during the setup with an experienced mechanic. As you certainly know by now, the 60's AMF's play great. I bought 4 of them in various stages of entropy a few years ago, got 3 very solid tables out of that. I am not a fan of the skirts as they have a strange way of clamping into the really funky corner castings. They play almost identical to the GC1 with the exception that the stock cushions are K66 if I recall. The rail height is the same as the GC so I just reprofiled them to put on Diamond and Superspeed cushions. A very cool table in its day, a great vintage piece now that still compares to modern designs. They do have dowel slates which are hit or miss in my personal experience. One thing I love about the table is the figure eight base which is a ***** to get a wedge under the slate (I just tell my helper to do it..heh). I am including a pic, let me know if this is the model you found!
Rob
www.tabletek.net

 

[zymmer4]

Amf

I don't know about that but I know AMF owned Harley Davison motorcycle company for awhile back in the 70's.

yep..H_D's worst days in their 110 year history too.

 

[Black-Balled]

I played on AMF Gold Crown ... distinctly remember ..you could literally slow roll a ball down the long rail and make it in the side pocket. ...

Hope this helps.

I have played on a few GCs that did that too. Good and bad, Mr. Good and bad.

 

[DogsPlayingPool]

I have played on a few GCs that did that too. Good and bad, Mr. Good and bad.

I've never seen this on a GC, at least not to this extent though perhaps in an isolated case. I don't think it was the set-up either but rather the design of the table because there were 8 of them in this room, all new, and they all played this way. If you looked down the rail you could visibly see the cut of the side pocket extend out past the cushion into the playing surface on all 8 tables.

 

[membrane]

A lot of people get confused with AMF & Brunswick - both being competing companies in the bowling/pinsetter and billiards business.

For what it's worth, here's the explanation I got from Brunswick regarding the "AMF Brunswick" table I had posted about earlier:

We regret to inform you that at no time in our history was Brunswick
Billiards affiliated in any way with AMF.

This table is an AMF table produced by them in the early 1990's. Although
it looks similar to tables Brunswick had been providing for some years, an
examination of this model at the time it was first offered showed it to
have been produced very differently than Brunswick would have produced
tables.

Beware; it's not a Brunswick table, nor was it produced with our
engineering and materials.

 

[TheTablePro]

Not sure which year it was however, this actually happened at the annual BCA Tradeshow in about 1988 - 90. It was the year AMF introduced the Grand Prix, which smacked of the G.C. so much so that Brunswick took a peak under the table and saw a Brunswick sticker or plate on the frame. AMF was forced to cover it up for the remainder of the trade show. (anyone else remember that???) It was all Brunswick parts with the exception of the rails and slate.

That said, once AMF put out their legitamate version of the G.C. (the Grand Prix) it was and in some cases still are nice playing tables. There is a bowling alley in Hunterville, NC that still has 7 of them and they play great! I know nothing of the pre-Grand Prix AMF commercial tables and have only seen a few in my high school days at a local place and paid no attention to them.

 

[OTLB]

some of the Grand Prix also had 1.5 inch slate

 

[Mr. Bond]

as was already pointed out - AMF and Brunswick have never been in bed together. 'fiercly competitive' would be an undertstatement.

several companies have produced fairly successful knock-offs of the GC. AMF's "grand prix" version is (IMO) not too shabby if you dont overpay for it, and maintain it well. but the best knock-off (IMO) was the one produced by Murrey & Sons. (that were used in The Color of Money) the '6400 pro series' i believe it was called....