CaptainNeo,

I blame this experience on you...

I opened up my 1980 Williams Black Knight, and saw it had my "best shot" at a lighting upgrade from how it came from the previous owner. (It once had 30+ 44's in the backbox.) I had left all the bulbs for "BLACK KNIGHT" at the top as 44's and the rest of the backbox was 47's. I put the controlled callouts like "tilt" "extra ball" etc in 44s.

I decided to try out CaptainNeo's recommendation to go with only 7 bulbs in the backbox.

1) I removed all bulbs minus the controlled bulbs in the callout boxes (tilt, extra ball, etc.)
2) I started adding in 47's one at a time, thinking about two main ideas:

A) When I stand and play, where is my focus? Is there any reflection when I focus on those spots?
B) What part of the backbox artwork do I want to accent? What lights the scene the best?

I stopped at 9 bulbs. 3 of the bulbs -- I colored the tips in black with a sharpie to quiet them down a bit.

Let's just say, I feel like CaptainNeo shipped me a brand new BK to play. I've never seen my game before. It's been doused in non-stop glare.

I can't wait to take this approach to all of my games. Start with 0 bulbs, and work up, instead of working down from 30-45 bulbs...

Thank you CaptainNeo!!!
You are a f***ing genius.
-mof

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I checked all the rest of my pins, and the glare occurs always in the upper PF, and it's games with upper and lower playfields that suffer most from this (GL and BK)...

Space Shuttle needs a little more of a backbox bulb enema, otherwise I'm good...
-mof