Red! Fits well with theme and more bouncy than black. Hmm, green, now you have me thinking...

Can you post a picture once you get the Green rubber on your SS bats? They seem a tad too fluorescent for me, but on the pin I'll bet they'll look great.

Also on the topic of SS flipper bats: I'm following the guide on Rob Winter's page to make my own bony bats. Have a set of originals and some new $5 standard white Williams bats, so I'll try to make the mold, glue the bones on top and paint the entire bat to match. Finger's crossed. If it works no more $30-60 flipper bats for me!

Couldn't have said it better. Just came back inside from dancing in the streets and have my wallet in hand... woo-hoo!

Hey guys, anyone try these yet?
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-pop-bumper-led-caps-on-the-market

Wonder how they would look in the lab.
I like the solid rings of light (the style used in car headlights) rather than individual points, but not sure anyone tried to add these yet to their SS? . hmm just another potentially cool upgrade that may look awesome in our Scared Stiffs!

@ yzfguy: also the black powdercoat not only looks great but it sets the crate (side art) off more, so you really see the playfield kind of pop out of the gray crate. I will definitely go this route if I powdercoat mine.

maybe I missed it, has anyone done their SS in black matte powdercoat ?

Hey everyone, maybe a bit off topic from pinball but just came across this... haha how many of you are members? http://elvira.hostedbywebstore.com/Fan-Club/b/4924677011?ie=UTF8&title=Fan+Club
*ahem, Ted?
I was just poking around the web and found that Cassandra has a fan club.
Okay gents, back to modding my SS.!

ps. I'm not a member... yet!

Thanks for putting these pics - I was curious how these would look in the lab. Pretty awesome! Do they also dim along with the bulbs inside the jets during gameplay? I will definitely put these on my wishlist...

Hmm, maybe a ground loop? I actually had that problem in my car once with an amped setup. I know you can buy what are called "ground loop isolators" that you can wire in line and it can significantly reduce the background buzz or hum. Good luck with the troubleshooting, keep us posted.

Figured it might be worth checking into if all else has failed. Here's some pleasure reading on it:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_loop_(electricity)

The isolators are like this:
http://www.sonicelectronix.com/cat_i469_noise-filters.html

Also maybe somewhere a ground wire is improperly grounded to a wrong location. This may be hard to spot since all ground wires will still be connected to something. Might be worth comparing your connections to the schematics.

Another possibility, maybe it's just some interference from the power board too close to one of the audio cables in the backbox?

Good luck troubleshooting, don't give up this is a great game to have working perfectly!

Welcome to the club! I'm in Geneva, nice to see others from around Europe.

Love the eyeball for the start button, Cool mod

neverahighscore, nice work! Did you custom weather the flipper bats and other bones? Same for the beast? They look really great compared to the standard white plastic.

Hey fellow Stiffs!
This is actually a follow up similar to bax's post about two weeks ago.

I'm also getting ready to transition to LEDs, and there is such a huge selection of colors and styles. So please let us know your thoughts and experiences, curious as to what you all think looks best with all the artwork.

1) GI on playfield : cool white LEDs under blue electric pattern plastics (along edges) and warm whites everywhere else? Or actual blue LEDs under the blue plastics? Green LEDs near flippers to jive with the green ooze, or is that overkill?

2) Blackbox : Warm whites (frosted) behind Elvira, cool whites everywhere else? How about spider wheel inserts, do you color match each insert? Anyone try just white LEDs behind the spider wheel options ?

3) Playfield inserts, etc. Color match each insert plastic or are white LEDs enough?
I found this which has some great ideas for the colors.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/scared-stiff-ledsa-few-s
Check the post from Wise_Guy

What do you think?

4) Stiff-o-Meter : color match yellows and reds, or warm whites under all levels?

4) Did you also replace the flashers with LEDs?

I love the idea of transitioning to led, but at the same time I would hate to loose that warm feel that regular bulbs bring to the artwork.

If you have a chance, can you post pics of your lit Playfields? It would be cool to compare and to see how each of you set up the colors. I plan on doing it by hand and not getting one of these pre-built led kits.

I also plan on adding herg's ocd boards for both GI and Playfield LEDs.

Thanks guys!

Thanks guys for the input so far...!

How do you think the Stiff-o-Meter would look just with all warm white leds? Wondering if they would tend to wash out the yellows?
PS: haha glad you are using the ocd boards too.. Once I get organized here with this project I'll be visiting your site.

OKay this is exactly what I want to avoid, to have the color wash out any lettering. So I guess for the 6 tales of terror, I'll use warm whites for the red and orange, cool white for the green and blue inserts...

So far here are my notes:

1) Keep the regular bulb flashers in order to maintain the nice fade effects
2) GI (assuming the "frosted" led?) Warm white leds for most - however since the side and back PF plastics are blue with white electricity designs, I'm thinking cool whites would be better under there.
3) Backbox.. Warm whites behind Elvira and the bed, and cool for the TV and "Scared-Stiff" area? Would that make the backbox look too "unbalanced" in terms of color temperature?

Herg or yzfguy, do you have any pics of your lit PFs you can put up here? Anyone else with their favorite bulb ideas?

I'll keep you all posted as I make the transition (this summer..) ..!

Hey Stiffs,

1800 posts.. not bad so far!

I've completed "Phase1: Backbox" of my conversion to LEDs, and wanted to share some of my results (Yes, I'm a scientist so I tend to be a bit nerdy about this stuff). I was hesitant at first about loosing the standard bulbs because I love the warmer tones and feel they fit well with Scared Stiff.

Thanks to all the great advice in here, and multiple informative emails from Art at cometpinball (Thanks so much Art!), I ordered a bunch of bulbs. I also got Herg's controller board that I will put in once I get to the playfield. We're moving soon so I'll have to pack up the pinball for a little while.

For now, here are a few photos that might help those that are still considering changing over to LEDs. I've seen a lot of awesome looking machines in here and I love the creativitiy that people have regarding color choices. Regarding my tastes, I like the colors in all the artwork so I didn't want to use too many colored LEDs so as not to wash out the original art.

For the backbox, I used:
#44/47 1 SMD Frosted Warm Whites (WWs) and Natural Whites (NWs) (and 1 SMD RGB slow fade color changer behind the TV)
#55 1 SMD Frosted Natural Whites behind the spider inserts

Here I put a NW next to two WWs, surrounded by the original bulbs. The photo makes the LED bulbs look a bit more blue-green toned than they are to the eye. By comparison, the standard bulbs have almost a pink tone. I was pleased to see the nice light throw of the LEDs.
BB_colortemps.jpg

Here I used WWs behind Elvira (to maintain skin tones and the red of her bed sheets), and NWs beind the "scared stiff" sign. In this photo, the spider inserts still have regular bulbs.
BB_44LEDs_1SMD_Frosted.jpg

And here's a comparison of the NWs on the right side of the spider inserts, with the standard bulbs on the left side. The LEDs are definately brighter and bring out the inserts, AND, they don't have any spotting (bright dots on the inserts), just beautifully diffused light!
BB_colortemps2.jpg

And finally the "Before and After". In person, the back box looks stunning now! The inserts are sharp, and the extra light from the LEDs seems to light up the spider better as well. Now I'm totally stoked to do the rest of the machine, but have to wait until we're settled into our new place.
BB_compare.jpg

I'll give some updates once I complete the playfield. Thanks again everyone for all the advice and great ideas!
Cheers

Ted, you are absolutely right. Once I played for awhile and had to stare at the back box, I didn't like the fleshy tones either.
So I experimented a little more with bulb placement and I am much happier now!

Totally counter-intuitive for me. I thought that by putting cooler color temps (Natural whites) behind the skin, it would make it look too washed out and unnatural. However the Natural whites work REALLY well behind her legs, boobs, face and hands.

Here are my final color temp bulb placements after a few trial-and-error sessions, switching in the natural whites..
W = Warm Whites, N = Natural Whites
BB_colortemps3.jpg

It's amazing how good the art and color looks now with more natural whites in there, the warm whites were too overpowering.

So, in the end, I'm 100% pleased with the LED conversion in the backbox.
Here's all three views at the same time, I didn't color adjust any of these images so they are pretty representative of what it looks like in person.

Look at those flesh-tones baby!!!
BB_compare_v3.jpg

Now, another question for ya'll:
Can't remember who, but somebody mentioned they used Herg's board (was it Herg himself?) to turn off all the backbox lights at the beginning of "scared stiff" when you complete all the tales (when the playfield lights turn off). Is it also possible to "dim" the backbox lights at certain times? For example, I would like to have the backbox dimming at the same time as the playfield and at the same "dim levels" during game play (like beginning of multiball, after ball drains (and after last bubble pop just before the next ball when all the lights go out), when she flips through channels at the end of the game, etc...) !

Hey Sparky, now that's cool. Would the TV that you made for SPP (Stern) run on a WPC95 (same connectors?) ? Just wondering because it might be neat to have a TV shaped video display like this instead of just the square frame. It might jive pretty well with style (like the TV in the backbox artwork). Instead of a pink Simpsons TV, the same TV shape but in a dark wood grain would be cool.

If the Simpsons TV can be wired to work in Scared Stiff, I would order one then paint it to match the theme...
Nice work!

Hi TechnicalSteam,
Velcommme..

Just to be sure and continue with your troubleshooting: are you holding in the two buttons near the hinge on the coin door, or just pressing them once? Don't want to beat a dead horse, but just because I made that mistake at first I wanted to check with you. Make sure you are constantly holding those buttons in (actually I think only the top button has to be held in) while you do the flasher or solenoid tests. There was actually a small tool/bracket that Bally had in the goodie bag to allow one to keep the high voltage on while the door is open. It slides over those buttons.

And, agreed with Honch, you might want to check that those buttons actually do work (But I assume they do because your flashers work with the coin door closed, no?). Might want to grab the schematic of the high-voltage part of the power driver board in the back box. Check out the various components for any visible damage. Always an easy place to start : fuses.

Regarding LEDs, there are a lot of great options regarding which company and what type of LEDs. Personally I've had great luck with Comet (and Art is just awesome in giving advice). I just converted the entire machine and I'll try to post photos and vids in the coming weeks (too darn busy these days).. Make sure to pick up Herg's OCD LED controller boards, they eliminate the LED flickering in the WPC95 systems and make all the LEDs smooth, dimmable, and behave like old-school incandescent lights.

Happy modding!

Great thanks!

It might be neat to do a run of wood-grain "Elvira" TVs for all the Stiffs in this club...

Or just the black ones then everyone can paint to their liking..
I have no idea where to even fit this thing in a SS, but it is just too cool!

Maybe just check the spacing between the contacts in the switch. If they are at the limit of making contact, every little vibration during game play may be triggering them. You might have to slide out the leaper and remove the plastic in order to see the switch clearly.

Keep us posted, good luck!

"These PinBlades make me stiiiiiiif...! "
Nice work, also itching to see photos of these installed. How thick are they? Sometimes my playfield edge gets close to the cab when I slide it out, just worried these might get scratched if they are too thick.

Sweet! Thanks for posting these. I'm considering getting them too. Can you also please put up a few pics with more light (daytime or room lights on), and also maybe a players view?

Just curious how the side art colors blend with playfield colors. They look pretty cool!

Hi, I didn't change out any of the 89 (flashers). I really like the more dynamic (intensity ramp effect) blinking / strobing of the incandescents. So actually my entire machine now has leds everywhere, except for the flashers - I think it all looks great with the old school flasher bulbs. I'll have to get a video up here sometime. Good luck!

Oh, and Happy Easter everyone!

elivra_easter_(resized).JPG

Hi everyone!

Not much activity in here lately (everyone focused on Ghostbusters these days? )

Over the past 6 months I've been doing a lot to my SS and wanted to share, just haven't found the time. So, here is one of the latest projects:

I finally added the LED eyes to the skull pile plus some flickering candles. It was a fun little DIY project and I was so amazed that when I turned on the machine, it actually works!!

I put a more detailed write-up here, with some more pics:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/diy-skull-pile-led-flickering-candles-for-ss-for-15#post-3099657

I also put a blue LED strip from Comet over the skull / lab area, and I think it really makes things look nice! That area used to be so dark and I can't believe what I've been missing!

SP10_(resized).jpg

Hi guys, tech support needed!
Anyone ever have to replace their opto switches?

My #36, right popper (spider hole) opto, the Transmitter (white one) stopped working and seems to have fried. Did all the troubleshooting to no avail. The measured voltage at transmitter is 25 volts?! But it should be about 1.4 volts according to manual. I measured others and they are all around 1.5 to 2.5 volts.

Not sure if voltage to this opto is now high from a problem somewhere else? Or if when opto blows, no resistance in led that is causing high voltage?

Full story here
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/opto-switch-voltage-weirdness-help

Thanks for any thoughts or tips!
Cheers

Thanks for the bump Ted (haha love the new avatar, looks like you need to borrow a set of shades from the X-men Cyclops

Okay so some guys suggested it might be the 16-opto board that is the problem. There definately shouldn't be 25 volts at the opto transmitter. So to me it seems a resistor might have come loose (on the 16-opto board).

Anyone in the club have experience with this 16-opto board (the one under the PF near the right spider-hole popper)??
I can make some sense of the schematics (and the opto wiring) in the manual, but I don't know how to find out what resistor on the board is controlling this particular opto.

Ehh - once I get this stuff fixed I'll update here in the club. I have a few more mods I want to share with you all but now, but the priority is getting a playable game.

please help me all you opto-board and wiring gurus!
Cheers,
Tom

Welcome to the club...! I wonder how many "members" we have now? Ted did you come to your senses yet and get another Scared Stiff ?

Wow guys (and gals? ) there are some great looking machines in this club! How many were made? 4028? Wonder how many of those 4028 are in here...

@visi0n. Is that some kind of led string you have running through the boney beast? It looks awesome!

I've seen these light ropes to line ramps (like the guys in the Tron club), and it seems like a cool idea to run a light rope down the (inside) spine of the boney beast to give a pretty cool glow effect.

Yep. I redid the entire machine in color matched silicone and kept the slings and flippers clear. I even made a "kit" for scared stiff ( at Titan) if you want to try that.

I have lots of photos from my latest mods but just need to find the time after work to post them here!

Visi0n, awesome mod on the beast!! I have a few similar ideas that I'll try to hash out here in this thread later this summer.

Congrats on the great looking machines guys.

20160228_125128_Richtone(HDR)_(resized).jpg

Hi everyone,
Just checking in, wanted to point out a new thread I started. Hoping it might be a useful resource. There are a billion great ideas in here, and also a lot of tech-talk. So spfxted I'm not trying to hijack this thread in any way (this is one of my favorites), but just trying to organize resources so we all have a "reference" for various mods.

If any of you would like me to discuss any particular mods or have ideas feel free to let me know. I started the thread because of my disastrous attempts to find good-looking boogie men that actually LOOK like the old-school monsters from the 80s-90s. Seems they just don't make them any more. But after a few weeks part-time, half-drunken research, I found a few random shops that carry these monsters that look close to the orginals. Might be useful for anyone looking for nice replacements.

So hopefully this will save others time in the future and as we add new mods, might inspire others to try them or even improve them. I just have the Boogie-man links for now.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/scared-stiff-mod-resource

PS : Can't wait for March 25 : Cassandra+Dennis+Greg doing a joint discussion panel at the TPF... Holy cow! Must be Elvira 3, no?

I was following your build. Amazing!! We often mod the inside, or refinish the outside or add a topper, but you "nailed" this one!! (pun intended).

It really is gorgeous and the craftmanship is top notch. Wish I had the time, supplies, and skills to do something like that. So, are you going to make kits to sell to us?? !!

Hey, welcome to the club. This happened on mine in the beginning, and it came down to a simple adjustment of the eddy board sensitivity. Sometimes this gets a little off, and won't register the ball any more as it rolls next to the crate.

Check this one out, keep us updated:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/scared-stiff-crate-problems

These pop off pretty easily. Starting from either end of the ramp, you can pull up gently from one edge of the vertebrae, to pop it out of the outer edge of the ramp. Once one side is off, you can rotate it a bit and slide it away easily. Repeat for each one. Good luck with the ramp removal. You will have to loosen the right ramp as well since they are both wrapped so tight around each other....

I have a kit I made there.
https://www.titanpinball.com/kits/index.php/view/id/300

Highly recommended

First image of the machine used on their site is random, but I included photos at the bottom of the page.
Used those rings for 1000s of games and love them. Colors are great and excellent quality.

Hi all, just like @30fathomdave, I got my new eyes installed too.

They come stock in a yellow color that looks great, and you can also order a little bit of red film to put in front of the screens.

Some more details here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/scared-stiff-realistic-eyes-for-bony-beast/page/3#post-4268594

Thanks again @f-2niro.

PS : Warm welcome to @ajnada !

BB_eyes1 (resized).jpg

BB_eyes2 (resized).jpg

BB_eyes3 (resized).jpg

Wow Ted, you're getting brave with the mods! I know how much you love digging in to your machines. I'll be standing by eating popcorn... Keep us updated... Good luck!

That's pretty cool art, nice find! I just picked up both #1 covers from the artist's website in case anyone is interested.

https://www.moregreatart.com/store/elvira-1-combo/

Screenshot_20180629-075331.png

Not sure if this will be helpful, but I've had a similar opto issue in the spider hole. Everything else was fine (boards, connectors, solder joints). I replaced both emitter and receiver (both white and black sides) just to be sure. Works like a charm.

Also, not sure it works with all phones. But you can hold your phone (on camera mode) over the opto emitters (and look at them through the phone screen) to make sure they are making light. Pretty cool trick

Here you can see it in action towards the end of the video.

Good luck!

Thanks for sending the pointer @Marcbud!

@delt31, since the spider hole only has one per side, I replaced just the little boards with the led already on it. Part A-14231 and A-14232.

But in your case you just have to remove the non working emitter from the board and replace with the part referenced by Marcbud.

Since theyre so cheap, might be worth getting a few in case others start to go (hope not)...

Right here, to the right of the pop closest to the deadhead stack.

_20191013_215538 (resized).JPG

It's to help any stray balls to not get stuck up there. Yes, seems odd to have a ball up there, but I've had a few high energy ramp shots that had the ball land on top of blue plastic near the pops. Rare, but can happen.

Yes once you have the boogie men slingshot arm extensions installed, if you're asking about the moving boogies during the disco, there is also a menu setting to turn this on and off. When you get the boogie man mode on the spider wheel, the slings will fire to move the boogie men (dancing) . However this is quite loud from the mechanical firing of the slings and actually quite annoying.

So far over 2000 games with my moving boogie men and arms still attached. You can get nice looking similar looking ones for pretty cheap.

Hey everyone, I don't quite understand why this model truck is being made, but I thought of this thread when I saw it. Even has the boney beast ribs integrated.

Thought maybe someone in here would be interested.

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/124822

Stay safe and healthy every one!

79150701-2379-4967-b8fe-dd606aa43594 (resized).jpg

I've seen multiple CPR in person on various machines and feel they are a bit too high contrast and seem darker than standard translites. For some titles that fits well but for SS I think the softer and more color rich feel of the original works best.

Same for me too, just have the Cliffy in the front spider hole but it sometimes caused a hangup with a slow ball arriving at the top. I stuck a piece of mylar in that area to smooth off the ridge, and help keep the ball rolling - has been fine since then.

Just a thought, perhaps the mini Allen set screw on the little nut holding the spider on the motor spindle got a bit loose? Might cause some intermittent issues if motor spins too fast.

Another thought, could one of the spider legs be bent too close to the backbox art and catching on something or binding...

Hmm. Also on mine, the opto in the spider hole crapped out a few years back. Changed both emitter and receiver in there, no issues since.

Or it may just be the motor itself showing its age, hope that you can get to the bottom of it.

There was a bit of discussion years back in this thread about replacing the flashers with leds. One disadvantage is that the lightshows during the game play use a lot of smooth fading with the flashers (e.g. Waking the stiff in the coffin for 3 ball multiball). Switching to led flashers will ruin a lot of that nice light ramping.

To each his own, but I ledded my SS but kept incandescent flashers.

Herg sells led boards that translate the voltage ramp signals into the right led controls to get the incandescent look out of the leds. I have that installed and notice a huge improvement!

Mine are snappy! There are a few things you can check, not necessarily Scared Stiff specific, but solid state pinball in general.

Start with checking out your EOS (end of stroke) switch gaps on both assemblies. If the EOS closes to soon on flipper swing, it gives a feeling of weak mushy flippers.

Check also there are no physical issues (when you move bats with your fingers, do they rotate easily in their nylon post guides?

Sometimes with age the coils themselves get swollen and can affect motion of the rod inside the coil, plus the coil bushing gets old and crappy after a lot of time. So in these cases, just getting flipper rebuild kits can do wonders!

I would suggest starting here. There are other things you can check like the flipper button opto boards, and solder connections on the coils that could impact flipper strength.

Same as the other's votes, let those leapers fly! I was worried when I first got SS and had success by taping a small piece of cork from a wine bottle to each post under the playfield . It stopped them from hitting the glass but even that little extra weight noticeably slowed down their vertical acceleration. Lethargic Leapers.

After about a month I hated it! I took off those stoppers on the underside and the leapers, and they came alive. Mine have been hitting the glass (regular glass) for over 10 years with no problems.

Welcome to the club and wow, that main topper is something else! I'm a fan of less is more, I think it looks better without the skull and hands.

The main statue and wings looks heavy. Is it securely attached? I would be worried it could shake off during more aggressive play or nudging..

Welcome to the club! (finally catching up around here). I remember there was a lightning mod at some point, same blue lightening stickers, but with some flashers integrated behind...