I play around with LED's too much. I think the white under inserts work fine. But if you want a really rich true color then color match them. It is worth the time and effort to me. The folks at Cointaker will gladly help you out. They are great people. Have fun with it as you can always change it up later.

I have tried all Leds and the best way to do them is color match them

1. Colored inserts should have the same color bulb. Otherwise not enough of the color will show. For instance, a red insert will tend to pass the red spectrum, and tend to block other colors, some more, some less. Using a white led will work, but won't be as brilliant.

2. I have blue leds behind white inserts on T2. Look great!

I agree about color matching the LED to the insert, however, I do not like to do this with yellow inserts. It makes them look kind of orange. A white LED beneath a yellow insert looks much better.

I will be going FTB (Full Tilt Boogie) on my "future" LOTRLE... With a complete Superbrights package. He (Chris) assured me that the 'You Tube' video does not do it justice... Has anyone else done full Supers on their LOTR? Or have they stuck with just frosted for the PF?

Now I just need to motivate Matt to make more glorious Toppers...

I find that color matching inserts give a nice rich color. The white inserts you can use colored led's and I do but keep in mind the nice cool white you get from led's looks great. Having some cool white inserts make all the other colored ones look even better.

What makes LED's great is you can put color where there was never color intended to be. But be careful not to overdo it.

GI lights- I use cool white and colored where I want it. Under ramps, slingshots. But I find too much colored bulbs in the GI will make the game dark. I find you need the white for brightness especially in darker games.

Make sure you use frosted for places that hit you in the eye when your playing.I find this very important.

Playing with Led's is fun....they can really make game shine. Some more than others.

Yes, sometimes white is better under yellow inserts..I agree.

I'm going through some trials and issues installing LED's on my two machines. I'll probably write up some lessons and advice and put them in the LED sticky thread once I get through everything. I can tell that the final results will be worth the effort, but I'd be happy to spare other people some of the learning experiences I'm going through once it's over.

Meanwhile, in keeping with this thread, I agree that putting color matching LED's behind colored inserts is the way to go. The colors look deeper that way - really eye-catching without being overwhelming.

As far as the white inserts go, putting colored LED's behind them works great. I have one machine (POTC) with too way many white inserts in the center of the playfield. Not attractive at all. I put colored LED's behind them, and it really makes a big difference. The colors aren't as deep as the ones with colored inserts, so there is a little difference in the shading of the colors, but they look fantastic. You may want to keep some inserts white (with white LED's), depending on how they look with the rest of your playfield, but it all depends on what works best for you. White LED's are available in both cool white and warm white. It's easy enough to experiment to see what you like best.

Nimble:
I have not done a LOTR but I have used the "Super" kit on a couple of machines now and they really rock. Chris seems to take great pride in his kits. Usually I get a kit and install it then I make a couple of changes to make it my own. They do a great job with their kits though. Show us pics when your done.

I will coast...
I have a laundry list of things I am installing on this one. Thanks Stern (for going cheap on a LE)!
It will probably take me all day- or at least half with a friend to get it finished...

But there will be plenty of pics! (mostly to remember where I left off!)

I can't wait to play one that actually works!

Fingers crossed it won't be a DIB!

No DIB's Nimble! So you are going all in on the lotr le......don't wait too long for the "future", the LE is a sweet machine! I"ll post pics of mine over the weekend in between some cold and chilly ones...

Coaster, are the kits tough to install or just time consuming...

It's time consuming to make sure all the lights match the inserts not all kits are 100%. Also changing out a large number of bulbs can also be pretty time consuming given that you have to mess with LEDs sometimes to get the correct polarity for them to light up. It takes more time but I go bulb by bulb to see what color/type I want and go from there. I have always loved the results. Part of the fun for me is customizing the lights to my liking. It does take more time to do it that way though.

Cool whites under yellow , orange and white inserts

Color match red and green inserts

Color match the plastics above when putting in GI's

Super brights by coin taker are great

Don't be afraid to color match yellow and orange inserts, either. It's a matter of personal taste, but I like the way mine turned out when I matched them.

Man- we have been waiting all WEEK for those "pics" iceman!!
Is your wife "Grand Champion" yet!?!

FWIW, I put in an LED kit for my LOTR SE (sans the flashers as I find them too bright) and felt it really added to the machine. This was especially true as both my wife and I thought the game was too dark beforehand, thus hard to see. Also, before the correct LEDs were added it was difficult to tell the colors of some of the playfield inserts but after adding the LEDs the inserts looked great (yellow was yellow, orange was organge, etc.). Lastely, the owner before me had placed color changing LEDs in the Fellowship playfield inserts near the flippers and they look absolutely amazing!

As a note I usually do not add much, if any, LEDs to the backbox as I do not like the look. I may be risking a little too much heat near the PCB using the older technology incadescent bulbs, but it was hard for me to justify the cost of the LEDs when it did not look good IMO.

I am struggling with that one too on the supposed "Mirrored" backglass for the LOTRLE. Chris (@ Cointaker) said it looks good through the "Patina" style trim... I will probably leave the "FloT" for now and stick with PF (Supers) only.

i agree with colormatch you will be glad you did.

Inserts: Color match but put warm white under yellow inserts.
GI: Too much color matching can look bad IMO.

As far as back boxes go, putting all cool whites in the back of Whitewater made it appear more blue and less yellow. I thought this was a great idea and it turned out really nice. I'll have to post some pictures soon.

For me, I found that either warm white or color matching with bright LED's worked for orange and yellow inserts. Standard color matching looked too dark for orange and yellow.

Yeah, I found that out when I tried it on one of my machines. Colored GI lights tend to wash out the playfield and plastic graphics or makes them look really dull. I found a few individual spots where I thought it was an improvement, but those were the exceptions.