I did a full set of LED's in my FT and it looks great in my opinion, not sure what you mean by container; cointaker typo? Got my led's from marco. I used some colored led's in the backglass to make certain parts of the scene pop out more. Blue bulb behind the lightning bolt in the top left looks really cool, like its actually flashing. As well as adding more green behind the Fish Tales logo and the fish and adding some bulbs to certain parts where the water looks like its splashing, bubbling etc. I can get some pictures/video of it up in a few days.

Also, I heard somewhere that the lighted button in the reel plunger is actually on prototype cabinets only. Anyone know if there is truth to that? If there is a mod to light the button, I'd definitely be interested.

edit - Thanks for the cast button link.

Here is what I changed on my Fishtales.

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led's are a must on fish tales makes it look great.

I changed to green bats and yellow rubbers to look like the fish mouth.Changed the red pop bumper caps and wafers to blue and added blue leds. Also I put colored leds under the white fish inserts.Changed the yellow lane guides to green with green leds.

Bballfan, those pop bumpers and lane guides look great. I think I may do the same to mine.

I've seen colored covers for the stretch the truth bulbs on a machine somewhere here on the forums, but I haven't found a store online that sells them; but I haven't looked too hard. I'm currently switching my flippers from yellow to white lightning bats with blue rubbers to see how that looks next to the splashing water below them.

Nicely done bballfan. Very tasteful mods indeed.

I have the colored bulb condoms to match the boat inserts on mine. Looks 100x better IMO.

I also used a fishing spoon as a keychain. I unplugged the topper solenoid as well, it's to friggin loud. My buddy installed a manual switch on the topper solenoid of his FT so he can easily turn it off or on depending on the wifes mood

I put a full LED kit in and matched the colors to the inserts (much better than blinding white IMO). Alternating blue and green 5 LED supers for the topper really make it look really cool too (the CT kit comes with these).

Back when I owned a tackle company I also had one of my lures in the fish topper's mouth. The blue pops and green lane dividers look fantastic btw.

I used standard bulbs with different colored bulb covers for the sign, to match the colors of the boat inserts (red,green,blue etc)

Reflow the header pins on the board for the "LIE" lights. Also make sure the bulb holders are touching properly to the board. You may need to pinch the metal bulb holders down a bit.

I went with a mix of frosted cointakers and incandecents in my back box. A couple green behind the fish & title, blue around the water & clouds, along with some white and soft white strategically placed. Went a little overboard with the green/blue and moved those extra LEDs up to the fish topper. I might get more LEDs at some point... most likely white (not soft white) frosted.

Not sure what to do about the flashers though. I got a couple green Ablaze 9 LED flashers but they don't diffuse enough for the backbox. Not sure if the Cointakers would look better.

Thinking about putting a color changing LED behind the topper lure... but not sure how that would look.

Unfortunately i have been needing to rebuild the right flipper on my FT so i havnt got too play it very much lately but the key is to shoot for the right loop shot, the "Long Cast" shot, it will advance the captive ball and allow you to achieve Rock The Boat, Video Mode, and another mode thats slipping my mind (possibly Feeding Frenzy?) and also Instant Multiball. During rock the boat each boat shot is worth 10 million so you can really rack some points up!

The key to Fishtales is SUPER JACKKPOOOTTTSSS!! period....

Anyone know where to find this plastic?? As you can see mine is crap looking!

Mine looked like that too, but guess which plastic is still there after as full of a restoration as I could do?
Just Novus the shit out of it and put it back. You won't see it from almost any angle once the game is back together. Or cut yourself a new one from plexi.

Cool thanks Tuna!

Another trouble I'm running across.... The Flap on my ball gate was extremely rusted so I ordered a new flap.. Well the ends of the pin holding the old one in were flattened somehow! Anyways I managed to get the pin out, but can't get it back in... Anyone know what kind of metal I can use and how would I flatten the ends once it's in?

I'm thinking piano wire for this also, but not sure it will be strong enough.

Subtle but nice.

huh?? Did I miss something?

I made the pop bumper changes bballfan made but Marco doesnt have the green lane guides in stock yet. Gotta say the blue makes way more sense than red.

I wanted to change my flipper buttons but wasnt sure exactly which ones were on the machine. Can anyone point me to them on Marco? Wouldnt it be great to have lit flipper buttons?!

Here is the lighted cast button
http://www.dziedzic.us/cast_button.html

Here is what the original lighted cast button looks like, the new button has the same part # but is bigger and doesn't fit in the handle.
You can also fit the old style Stern tournament button in there with slight modification.
Chrome by Mike C.

FTSH_004.jpg

Nice chrome job. Maybe someday I'll send my shadow gun; Sttng phaser and FT handle/rod all at the same time.

How much is a chrome'd gun anyway?

You would have to check with Mike, hpu at comcast daht net for current pricing.
I had 2 FT, 1 STTNG and a DH gun done in a package deal.
He may have them in stock and do an exchange for yours.

thanks.

I'm lovin my FT by the way. Had it up and running in the game room for about a week now and after 100 plays i think it's a keeper.

How do you FT paired with your W?D? Are they both keepers?

That button and chrome look great, tracelifter. I put in a led button too but it's smaller, more like the size of the regular one.

I was thinking about redoing the handle in black and keeping the reel chrome to give it more of that old Zebco spincaster look.

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Who?dunnit is a good pairing. I can set it for "novice" play when new people come over and it'll relaunch drained balls for a timed play (3 minutes) which lets them see more of the game. It's also my wife's and my Mom's favorite in my line-up. I play it a couple times a week.

FT has the new taste still so I can't really give it an unbiased view/rating yet.

Can someone make up some plug and play light up buttons for dummies like me? I would love to have one, but skeered of screwing something up!

Yeah, I like both games but with the center ramps on each I wasn't sure if I'd like them in a small lineup.

The "feel" different. the boat ramp is harder to make back to back to back shots

The power for the bulb is right there in the harness and the washer needs to be modded into a square in the center to hold the button.
If you order the button switch when it comes it won't fit in the handle.
Gregg B. found these buttons at HAPP and the girl there checked the bin and the part #s were the same but the newer buttons were bigger.
She found 2 of the original style and he bought both, it was a real pickle dance to get the buttons, that is the problem.
The Stern tourney button doesn't need the washer or nut, you just dremel the bezel to fit the slot in the handle halves.
This looks really good as an alternative, the yellow goes good with the game and so does the tournament start.

Cool, I have a tourney button that I don't use from my potc. If I hook it up it will just stay lit all the time, or is there a wire there that controls it in sync with some features?

It is controlled, follow the loom back from your handle and you will see the connector.

What flipper button style are on FT? I dont want to order the wrong ones and was thinking of switching up the color.

Awesome, thanks. I can't wait to get home!

I am sure I will be back with" which wire do i put where" questions

We'll I gave it a try, and I couldn't be happier with the tournament button for the launcher. It fits the whole "fishing tournament" theme perfectly. And for a total cost of $5, it's one of those mods that there really is no reason not to do. Why was the lighted button removed anyway? Obviously it was wired, so the cost of installing a lit button versus that ugly gray one couldn't have been much.

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I still need to put things back together, but it's 100% working.

Looks good.

I really don't think you'll be confused. It's as simple as wiring gets, but if for some reason you need help feel free to PM.

The best mod for FT is the one that allows you to turn off the flopping fish topper! I have a few in stock but will be making another batch due to high demand. PM me for a special Pinside member discount if interested.

A mod to unplug the coil???

When I bought my FT, I notice somebody had cut the wires going to the fish, so I repaired them.
It didnt take me long to figure out why the wires were cut. The flopping fish got old real fast!

I don't understand cutting the wires when the coil has a quick disconnect in the head???

I dont understand why a person would do that too. They were cut off at the coil behind the fish.

I guess they went the fastest and easyest way and just didnt care.

I put a bunch of vibration dampening tape on the different parts of the solenoid assembly and fish to dampen the sound. Best mod so far... I get most of the machine shaking effects with 1/3 the noise.

I'd guess you could substitute weatherstripping from the hardware store.