Let me rephrase. Do I need to buy a new board? Is this repairable? I've soldered a thing once with yous guys' help!

Also, endless thanks to you all. You have aided me several times with my pins at moments when I have been very disheartened and frustrated. I can't believe how nice and helpful y'all are! You are why I love pinball so much!

Well you are super close to Stern..... I would call Stern or just talk to a local distributor and you probably can get a board easy... the part FELL OFF! That is way different than a component just failing. Parts should not just fall off a board. Stern usually does a good job on handling small issues like this.

If I wanted to change the color of the F U E L lights on my premium, is it just a matter of swapping out LED's?

IMG_0362-300x225 (resized).jpg

No, you need to swap the LED boards or use gels to color them on Premium and LE models.

https://mezelmods.com/products/metallica-pinball-gel-inserts

Does someone make an LED board for this?

Great eye Phoebe! Not just a fun gal to hang with....she really knows her stuff!

Yes. Pinbits sells them ...

http://www.pinbits.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=13_74&products_id=561&zenid=8e538dba35ff38cc72d0c3f357c2d82d

That's not for the f u e l letters in my pic.

I gave these away to pinsiders a while back. Heres a thread with some pics of my Xmen and Metallica with the gels inserted:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/cheap-xmen-le-lighting-mods

Assuming you are happy with the colors, the same boards should work for either application.

If anyone is looking to swap out some songs, I found a great site for converting audio files. It's fast and free. My entire music collection is ripped in the Apple lossless codec, so I needed to convert the m4a files into mp3s before loading them into Audacity for editing. Here's a link to the site ...

http://audio.online-convert.com/convert-to-mp3

Really. Cool. Has anyone on this thread done that?

Also, does anyone know if the Habitrail mod is still for sale? I contacted seven but haven't heard back.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/met-mod-bye-bye-ugly-ramp-plastic

Looking for a PREM monsters translite for awhile now.
If you happen to have one you can part with, please PM. Thx!

I see there are a few different backglass options. Some are interactive, some just convert the lamp to LED, and some are interactive. I was thinking about the LERMODS RGB option.
http://lermods.com/products/metallica-pinball-led-strip-backbox-light-kit

Any thoughts on which looks the best?

Or do as suggested and replace the sand resistor that is missing from your existing board?

There is a cheaper way of doing this and much easier. Just buy some Red, Orange, Yellow & Green Super Band flipper rubbers & cut them to fit in the inserts & you will have a nice effect. I did this on my Road Case & it turned out great. Will post pics.

Here is what they look like using super bands as insert filters.

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Can you take a pic of what it looks like underneath?

The fuel lights on the premium and the LE are controlled by one single board, not those single small LED boards. I did not like the look of the gels after I tried them, so I removed the light board and soldered wires into the open ports on the board. Then I installed color light boards under each insert. Came out much better in my opinion.

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I love that helping hands contraption you have in your second pic. Where did you get it?

I am not sure I want to do the soldering. I may stick with the gel option.

Better than the helping knees in the first pic.

It is very simple to do the work. I actually changed out all of the sparky white inserts to blue as well. Some were just single board LED, while others were grouped into a triple board.

Here is the board holder I bought. https://www.amazon.com/Aven-17010-Adjustable-Circuit-Holder/dp/B00Q2TTQEE/ref=sr_1_13

So I swapped out every song in the game, and I'm not thrilled with the results. I have an external sub hooked up via alligator clips, and it seems like 90% of the sound is coming from the cabinet speaker, not the backbox speakers. This may have always been the case with this game, but now I'm hyper-focused on the music, and it really bugs me. Is there a way to give the whole system better balance?

My custom shooter.

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You really don't mind grabbing that thing? I would hate it! Looks neat though.

I also swapped out most of the songs and use an external sub connected with alligator clips. Can't say I've noticed any sound issue like that though, but will pay attention when playing in a bit.

By custom do you mean home-made?

It looks 3D printed.

Here is a underneath pic

IMG_1931 (resized).JPG

how did you get those things to stay in there?

Cut them to a tight fit and they give enough to hold them in place. Also the light board prevents them from falling out.

I know that Butterflygirl24 does the Sparkys and they are super quality. You might want to PM her.

Anybody have difficulty getting to Blackened mode? For some reason I am finding it very hard, I almost never see it!

I get to it maybe once every ten or twenty games. You really have to hammer those guitar pics over and over. Or, change the settings to require less pick hits to reach Blackened. I left mine factory settings for that, but you can lower the requirements to get there faster. I never really pay attention to how close I am, until I hear that horse whinny. Best to get it during a multiball so you can hit more picks and pick up the band members and fuel lane bonuses.

pinball life has had sparky's in stock for the past 2 years. last year at the expo explosion, there were at least 3 or 5 sitting on the shelves

Great idea, though I would swap the ones on the left around to match the ones in the middle, i.e. red for empty, green for full.

I just remember when the option to buy the Dirty Donny ones came out and all the stock vanished. Maybe once they sold out on his they let more back into the channel.

I had asked asked this higher up in the thread. If anyone has an opinion please share. Thanks!

The backglass florescent is God aweful dim.
I see there are a few different backglass options. Some are interactive, some just convert the lamp to LED, and some have RGB capabilities. I was thinking about the LERMODS RGB option or the Rock custom for my Walking dead and Metallica.

http://lermods.com/products/metallica-pinball-led-strip-backbox-light-kit
https://mezelmods.com/collections/pinball-backbox-lighting-kits/products/metallica-pinball-interactive-back-box-light-kit?variant=36041488712

Any thoughts on which looks the best?

I have the Refinery board in my Refinery Pro and it's great. I wonder if they sell it. Never looked.

They do. I have it in my Refinery Premium, and it is great.

Here is what I use. It works great, has a customizable setting to dim when a game has started, and is much more affordable if you just want white LEDs to replace the fluorescent tube:

http://www.arcadeupkeep.com/backbox-kits/4587457160

This is what I have as well. It eliminates BG glare and works perfect.

interesting and reasonably priced. I am not crazy with the fact it requires you to clip on to the transistors on the main board. Is there a chance the transistors can blow out if one of those alligator clips come loose or touches a transistors next to it? I assume you need to unhook all the alligator clips if you need to get to the main board for service?

The alligator clips are quickly and easily removed or installed. Use the 3 specified transistors and any wire on any transistor will do. An adjacent transistor wouldn't blow if you happened to touch it with the clip. These are just low voltage sensing connections.

Also use this. Works really well and takes the glare away. Also put one on SMVE. Makes a big difference

Yup I have 2 of them in other games and they really work well.

Same here. Bought 5 dimming modules and making my own boards & fittings. 1 installed in SM last night:

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As much as i want a Premium, they're over £8,000 now! That's new of course, but i've not seen any used machines for sale in ages - at least publicly, so have no yardstick to measure against.
The Prem/LE Hammer annoys me a bit as it blocks the playfield visibility a tad, but it's a very cool effect. A used Pro will have to suffice. I'm half tempted to do the same with TWD by downgrading an LE to a Pro, but that red light show on Horde is seriously cool. At least the well walker doesn't block anything behind it. All my personal opinion. Also watching the Total Lightshow development thread eagerly.

Also, is the code now considered to be fully baked? Not that i'm complaining.

Yes