This thread is useful to me since one of my current projects is a 57 Bally Circus - http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=520 - which is from an era when Bally was mostly making Bingos, and the OPs sockets are exactly the kind that Circus has...a huge amount of them I might add. My initial thought was to replace them all with more modern ones as someone suggested, but there's just way too many.

So I appreciate baldtwit's approach and suggestions - I'll post any tips/experience/useful info I might encounter while going through the back-box of this title.

How do the 1458/1464 bulbs compare to 55s?

I have MANY 55s, but none of the others...not that I'm adverse to buying them, but if they're virtually the same I'll use what I got, especially since I haven't found great use for the 55s I find in so many woodrails...

Sean

Great Terry...thanks!

I missed the whole voltage part earlier...thanks for clarifying for me. Bingos are great, but I GOTTA stay focused on my flipper EMs...I got a lifetime of those to restore already.

The higher voltage bulbs may be useful in the projection units for those 40's and 50's pins that use those...they need to be bright! I use "silverlight" auto bulbs in there now...but it feels so wrong. Haha

Sean

As I suspected...the lamp circuits on both Circus and my projection unit games are all 6V...so 55s and auto bulbs it is!!

Thanks Dennis...it's a bgResto BG, so I'm not sure the heat is as big a concern...however shining through (I've heard), will probably be. It seems like folks are finding LEDs to be a better fit for the direct printing BGs, so maybe the 55s will be the ticket. I'll try them out first regardless...there's alota bulbs behind this BG thanks, in part, to the two-player lamp driven scoring, so I don't want to replace them with LEDs unless I have to.

The "original" BG was a horrific spectacle indeed! Remarkable that someone went thru the painstaking task of scraping all the unlit areas away, only to fingerpaint the replacement and create this monstrosity. I have to assume they thought it would turn out better...lol

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And what it's supposed to look like:

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Thanks for the breakdown bt...it's very informative! I will report back later this year with what I end up doing - this is a major project, and I have extensive PF work to do, and I'm also repainting the cabinet. I hope to have it ready by the York Show in October.

I was working on the head insert last night, and since I had it laying face down to go through the stepper units, I did what you suggested with the center tab that makes contact with bottom of the bulb, except I pushed DOWN on that tab as far as I could push it. You were right - they spring back, and are now going to all be tighter when I finally install the bulbs. I think I was just lucky, but none of them broke!

I also checked out the Coos BGs you mentioned Terry...hadn't heard of them...great news! I'd love to find a use for these 55 bulbs...I find a ton of them in my old woodrail projects...

Sean