There is a joke thread already started..jk

I am a huge fan of LEDs, but I also don't like when people over due them. I understand you have to see the Pin in person to get the real affect cause pictures make it hard to represent true brightness and color. And even though I love LEDs I also do not like a Pin to look like some one threw up skittles (not my quote...but a good one).
I do, however, enjoy a great EM to which LEDs usually do not belong. Have fun starting your club.

I prefer incandescent bulbs in all my EM's and early SS games, and then led's in newest games.

Count me in.

I use a mix.

Games like WH2O do not run through the levels of dimness with LEDs.

Some games like F14 look amazing with all LEDs.

This is where herg's GI OCD controller board really shines (no pun intended).

Whoops! Wrong dude.

Ha! My bad, thought you were my friend MOF who has tons of blue leds in his whirlwind. That's what I get for reading so quickly.

What's an LED?

Count me in, I prefer regular bulbs to LED's for the most part. Basically, if it shipped from the factory with regular bulbs, that's what I prefer in that game. New stuff with LED's? Fine with me, that's how I saw it the first time and what I'm used to. I do sneak a few LED's into my older games under certain inserts though.

I feel left out of the light clubs... I am an incandescent for GI, LED for insert club member. Every game with a translite gets LEDs behind it, I just want the heat reduced back there even though they aren't on 24/7. I don't colorbomb my machines though.... If they are inserts, they are color matched, and the translites either get all warm white or all cool white depending on the game.

While very dependent on what game your doing, I usually like incandescent on the playfield with premium 555 leds for the inserts. When I got my Goldeneye the previous owner had all leds and with sega/dataeast it's too much with all the flashing. Looks great now after I went back to incandescent, also there can be a high risk of disco ball around the flippers although the latest Sterns seem to be great with all Leds like STLE, AC/DC. Cointaker is making some great retro led's now that really mimic that oldschool look but can never duplicate fully.

I won't use LEDs except for in very few, specific spots on games that weren't designed for them. You lose all of the dimming effects and have to deal with strobing, etc when you got to LEDs. I do have a color changing LED in the door knob of my TZ and the clock insert. Also the center gem on my CV.

Games that were designed for LEDs look great, Stern ST, WOZ, etc, but older games, no way. I am not a fan of how the hobby is turning into "blinging" everything out. IMHO, its tacky.

Agreed! Although, credit due where credit is due, a fella near to me has a F-14 tomcat that's blinged out with LED's and I have to say it looks incredible. I think it can work depending on the theme, but it certainly isn't my 'bag'.

Touches nose with finger.

I wouldn't do this to my bike..So I won't with my pin.

ledcrazy.jpg

Card carrying member

For newer Sterns and JJP games with LEDs and color changing LED's I vastly prefer LED's but on older games I prefer incandescents on about 95% of the games out there. There are a few games that seem to look really good with LEDs such as Xenon, Black Hole or something more futuristic like STTNG but I really prefer when these are done in a way that minimizes strobing and ghosting and without color bombing.

Mot, I also have a TZ that is all incandescent besides the clock and gumball light and what I did to help make it look "warmer" is to take a dab of yellow acrylic paint and apply it over each LED to make them appear as warm white.

I much prefer incandescent bulbs, especially on any games from the beginning of time until a few years ago.

When I got my Tron, the previous owner had put LED's in the feature lamps and I think it looked good so I kept it that way. That and the jets on my CFTBL are the only places I have any LEDs in my collection. I'll never put them in any of my other games as I can't stand how they look in them.

Definitely more of an incandescent guy myself, too. I like the bloom instead of the flicker. Besides, the way most of these games were programmed, they were compensating for the behavioral aspects of incandescents.

That said, I'm not completely averse to using some fun LED's in some places. I've got a color-changer in the door knob of my TZ. Seems like it should've come that way from the factory.

I do love me some incandescents!

Sure, but just too much effort for me to go through on a pinball machine.

I just mix 'em when I need to.

Church of the Glass bulb member here

Says the guy who will spend countless hours restoring every nook and cranny of a machine.

I think if I routed machines, LEDs would be a no-brainer to reduce maintenance calls and keep the heat down.
Since I don't route, I can use as many incandescents as I choose.

My collection is 1980's machines. I tend to use a formula like this:

backglass: 47s (9-12 in the machine, using as few as possible to reduce glare)
GI: 44s
Inserts (red/blue/green) colored LEDs
Inserts (white/yellow/orange) 44s

-mof

Let's see some pics of those games loaded with incandescents!

I hear ya, lol.

I've got 43 games right now.

If I only had one, I'm sure I'd be programing lighting fades and whatnot, but for now I'm using incans when I need to.

Yeaahh! Count me in!

I like 'em like they were designed.

You think if leds were more readily available they wouldve designed them with leds? Yes. Nordman has commented in multiple interviews he tried to work them into games

incandescent are more standard than LEDs. I've gotten LEDs from a few places and the differences in brightness are pretty wide. that being said, i like the color factor of LEDs and they are great for putting hard to get to places so you don't have to take a bunch of crap off the PF to get to a burnt out bulb.
anyone used colored incandescent bulbs? i saw pinball life has them.

Incandescent Bulb Club. I think I have that T-Shirt already.
There are no LED's in my pins. Mainly because they are EM's, and they are not on all day either.
LED's used incorrectly look bad, using colours for G.I. Also using the brightest ones you can find.
Coloured incandescent bulbs do work, but colours are limited.

I just changed out one of my EM's to 100% LED's. I stuck with warm retros from CT and it honestly looks about the same temperature wise, just a bit brighter. I too am generally not a big fan of too many colors, but it's a personal choice. I know I would rather buy a machine with tasteful LED's vs one wit hot 44's that bent the plastics, but again these days routed older machines aren't too common.

Go with what you like best personally!

...and countless hours creating threads teaching others how to do the same.

Incandescents are still considerably cheaper than LEDs.

I love incandescents as well, and if I actually owned any machines they would probably be all incandescent. But for route games standard bulbs for the GI circuit are not feasible. So we use a mix: warm white frosted LEDs for GI and standard bulbs for inserts. The filmaments on those crappy Taiwanese bulbs break all the time, constantly changing them. I will eventually start dabbling with LED OCD, but it's not in our budget at the moment.

for me its incandescent for gi only.

Oops wrong club - I'm out. Love me some LED bling.

Incandescent all the way as long as I can get em!

Can I join even if I put leds in my white inserts occasionally?

I am a lifetime card carrying member.

I only use incandescent bulbs. I hate LEDs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Normally, I am into the latest high tech, but not with LED's.

I use lower power 47s and 159s in place of 44s and 555s. This cuts down on heat and prevents melted plastics, ramps and inserts.

- LED's look harsh and cold like fluorescent lighting, instead of having a warm glow
- LED's cause strobing of the ball
- LED's are super bright and blinding
- LED's blink on and off instantaneously instead of glowing on and off slowly (I hate looking at an LEDed game during attract mode)
- LED's flicker badly when they are dimmed

They have warm white LEDs. And LED OCD fixes all those drawbacks.

I really like the look and 'light' of the incandescent bulbs. But lately I've been switch inserts out to cheapo LEDs mostly because I'm sick of seeing bulbs out every time I fire up pin row.

I'm shopping a BR right now and gonna take the leap with warm whites in the GI and see what happens. Half the GI bulbs have red condoms so I figure this would be the one to mess with

this is annoying. i bought an earthshaker with LEDs about a year ago this drove me nuts. i change the slingshot lights back it incandescent and haven't had issues. also played a TFTC w/ LEDs in a dark setting and it was blinding and killed some of the playability.

i think the real key here is personal preference and just doing the lighting RIGHT. incandescent, tastefully done LEDs, or a good mixture of both.

Agreed, but you're still paying $100 for LEDs plus an additional $150 for the controller just to make your game look and behave like it has $10 worth of incandescents installed. I don't see the point in doing this, especially in a home environment where things like bulb heat, connector stress, and power consumption are less significant concerns.

Incandescents 4 lyfe!!

I really appreciate the appeal of doing a machine up with LEDs - it looks like fun and produces some pleasing results - but my eyes are just too sensitive to the flickering and strobing that you get from LEDs.

I read a lot about people trying to make their games easier or play better by putting posts in the down position, setting replays to award EB etc. Yet their machines are full of LED bulbs that don't light the playfield very well, cause strobing etc etc

Eric got a really nice black hole that played awesome and had been done entirely with LED's - it was extra brutal cuz it was hard as hell to see the ball! I figured Black Hole was just a really dark game (which it is), but when I came over to play it post incandescent "conversion", you could see the playfield, ball trajectory etc etc. It actually made the game "easier" and more fun to play.

I just got an ACDC that had LED flashers in the pop bumper window - couldn't play it for more than 20 minutes without getting a headache. Put old fashion '89's in there and it was way easier on the eyes . . . and easier to focus on the ball! To sterns credit, they LED configuration they ship their games with is great. No strobing, well lit etc etc.

Except of course for them flying out of their sockets. Never had an issue with that w/ incandescents. Happened on my 4th game of AC/DC. Ha.