It's a matter of taste.

There are so many bulb options now to choose from to really customize your lighting scheme. I usually keep a small sampling of various bulbs on hand, so then when I settle on the bulbs I'm going to use, I then order enough to install in the game. Half the fun of customizing a game is this process, rather than going with a pre-made kit.

But yes, the game will run cooler.

If you want to run incandescents, be sure to use the cooler variety (use #47 instead of #44, for example)

wide warm white GI, cool white under white, warm white under yellow, multi led under pops, flex led where required to get around corners and whatever works under the others. But thats what *I* like not what you do.... as above.. its a matter of taste

I highly recommend LEDs under the inserts, especially on a game like Firepower where the inserts have faded over time. Color matching will really make the inserts pop. The added benefit is you won't have to crawl under your playfield to replace bulbs all the time. Today's incandescents don't hold up.

I did mine but had to keep a few of them as incans because even the no-ghost LEDs would ghost like a bitch. As long as you stick with white for the GI and color match the inserts it can be tasteful and give the game a cool sci-fi look.

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Pinsider goingincirclez did LEDs in his machine...I thought it looked pretty good and had a few colored LEDs in the GI...see below.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/this-ongoing-saga-says-if-im-wile-e-coyote#post-3114351

Heres a Vid from the Firepower Club thread that was sent to me from Jumping-Box:

For the safest bet:

1. Color match the playfield inserts. I usually use Warm White for the yellow and orange inserts.

2. Warm White for GI (unless the playfield is mostly blue, like F14 (then go with Cool White). Only a few games (like Fireball Classic) ever had colored bulbs for the GI from the factory. #1 nubie mistake is trying to colorize the playfield GI.

3. Never try to colorize the backglass. This always looks like clown puke. #2 nubie mistake is trying to "improve" the colors on the backglass.

4. If Warm White LEDs still make the backglass look washed out, switch to #47 bulbs. Games with a lot of warm yellows in the backglass (like Comet) can't be LEDed; they just look like they were baked in the sun.

Don't be a clown.

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That's pretty cool, I should do that to mine.

Art + Matrix System = Genius

For the love of God, this x infinity. GI should be WHITE so it shows ALL the colors around it. MAYBE an exception here or there in specific locations, but it's so depressing to play dark games because someone's put in all blue GI...

I'd allow one exception: using colored bulbs to help disguise flaking areas. Before I replaced by Big Game glass, I had a couple red bulbs behind the BIG GAME letters to help hide cracking and flaking. Also worked to help make a crappy Flight2K glass look a little better.

I put some LEDs in my FP, but only in a few spots: red and blue under the FIRE POWER inserts, blue in the left 3bank standup inserts, and red/yellow in the pops (X pattern). I found incandescents lit up the rest of the inserts just fine.

GI looks best as incandecent 44/47. LEDs are OK in the inserts.

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I'm the one who was linked above, before the clown puke rebuttals from Vid and Metallik...

Just want to say, that's precisely what I did: with a few exceptions, all the GI on the playfield and GI is white. I used cool white for "space" and warm white where ignition, burning, warmer tones (red letters), etc is implied.

The exceptions I decided to experiment with are these: under the left inlane, the bulb aligns with the spaceship's yellow plume, so I put a yellow bulb there. The right side of the "death star" is purple, so I put a purple LED under the sling. I then tried an aqua (cyan?) bulb under the right inlane to see what that would do to the Earth. The left sling and all other GI is white. In the backbox, I used a red bulb to hide flaking in the lower right corner, but the ones I have are a bit intense. Still, that point of red light could be the source of that explosion...

I agree that artwork is generally designed with white illumination in mind, so you don't want to shift the colors too much! To that end I'm not sure I want to keep the aqua bulb, but the purple and yellow ones enhance the tension implied in the art without losing any detail. IMO anyway.

For the inserts, I color matched. The lone exception is the "20" insert, which has an RGB color-changer. I wanted to constrain the white inserts to the Death Star itself... and once you're playing well enough to make "20", the color change gets your attention and seems to stand alone as another artwork object in the battle.

Anyway, those were my personal reasons. As others have stated, have fun with it, but try not to overdo it.

All my bulbs are plain frosted 2SMD's from Comet and despite all my other issues with this particular game, I have no ghosting issues whatsoever.

The color-flashing strips in that video are awesome, I'll have to add those!

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I disagree, I think it is a personal preference. Todd Tuckey has been in the business since 1979 and I don't really consider him a nubie. Here is one example of a backglass that he colorized. It doesn't look bad at all.

The bottom line is that it's your pinball machine. Do what you think looks best. Don't let others tell you what does or doesn't look good on your game.

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Take a look at his playfields that are touched up with a paintbrush and we'll talk.

Todd and I are good friends, but would you want one of his lumpy playfields and lime green alien?

This would look great in a My Little Pony bedroom:

I put slow fade color changers in the tiger face of my Big Game. I didn't like it at first, but it grew on me.

I consider myself a newbie when it comes to this hobby. I've been at it for about a year now. I only own Firepower but my buddy has 7 machines. We try different things with different coloured LEDs in the games.

My FP is fully loaded with coloured LEDs; under-playfield, GI, backglass, everywhere. I think I might be better suited to switch to some white bulbs underneath the playfield plastics rather than coloured but I think the choices have worked well. The backglass was a lot of trial and error. Some colours looked good, some looked horrible. The attached pictures don't do it justice. It is a brand new backglass from Mayfair. I don't have any shots or video of my CPR playfield post-swap. I will try to remember to post some this weekend.

At the end of the day, to each his own. As long as you're happy with it, doesn't really matter what anyone else says.

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