You can shave a bit off the bulb base. Or slip a thin flat screwdriver into the 555 socket and gently twist to slightly enlarge the socket gap - of course that's not always an option under the pf.

Funny enough, since I don't have any classic Bally's (although I converted a Centaur for a friend and experienced the pain), I have the *opposite* problem: most of my Williams with twist-off sockets, I have to *close* the socket blades together to get sufficient grip on the LED leads!

Guess there's no one-size-fits-all except for good-ol inca bulbs. Funny how with all these replacement options and competitors and knock-offs, nobody can get the literal base dimensions right.

It really depends. I'm kind of like you in some ways, and have adopted a hybrid approach: flashers stay inca'd... colored inserts get LEDs... EM's I don't overdo it; GI gets cool white to make the art visible but not blown out, but controlled areas with complex flashing effects might stay incad'd for the flash rate. And I know what you're talking about with seizure-mode; I unplugged the GI flasher relay on my Torpedo Alley because it was so horrible.

But I prefer LEDs for the lower current draw and heat output. AND on the backbox, it's a must. I don't like backbox art to look like mac-n-cheese casserole. Soft glow be damned; once you've seen backbox art illuminated with proper (i.e. NON-YELLOW) color tones there's no going back.

I do agree, LEDs can be a PITA for the reasons mentioned. But I've found them pretty trouble free once installed. If one was flaky, the socket was the culprit and would have given the same issues with an inca bulb (and in that regard, I've found LEDs can work pretty well and maintain full brightness in some places where an incad might have been dim).

It's 2019 not 2012 though: there's no reason to be using shitty cheap ghosting LEDs. That was solved years ago.