This quarantine stuff got me the pinball bug again and I'm working on games I haven't popped glass on in years. My current collection: Whirlwind, Twilight Zone, Attack from Mars and Teed Off. I haven't put a single LED bulb in any of these. A burnt and melted flasher bulb in my TZ got me bit by the LED bug. What first was going to be a small set of flasher replacements to keep from melting any more domes has now turned into an all out addiction to wanting to LED all 4 of these games.

At first I looked at kits, including the pinballbulbs kits which add those nice spotlights to help light the playfield better in dim areas that I love. However I quickly realized that the community at large recommends just buying bulbs in bulk and doing this yourself rather than via kit. I could always add spotlights later at the end. So here I am looking at bulk bulbs.

I think I want to keep the more pure warm white look vs. the white look of LEDs so the games keep the more classic feel vs. the modern and almost digital feel I think that the cool whites bring. Don't get me wrong, that's also a cool look, I just think it feels a little too modern for my tastes, and I like the pins to retain their era look and feel.

I'm in Central Pennsylvania so a quick drive to Ardmore, PA -- Therefore I looked at CoinTaker, great reputation, though prices for bulk LED look higher vs. the also loved Comet Pinball. I liked Comet's description page and am thinking maybe starting with a box of 100 frosted sunlight or warm white of both style of wedge and bayonet would be a good crash course. I haven't counted bulbs on my 4 machines yet so no idea how far that will get me, maybe I should look closer to 200, that said, it can be a gradual process. I am still a bit torn on the warm white vs sunlight, and the frosted vs clear, though it sounds to me like the overall "safe bet" is the frosted sunlight for a fairly traditional feel. Am I on the right track?

I guess basically I just want to make sure I'm on the right track. I welcome any and all suggestions, realizing a lot of this comes down to personal preference, but hoping that my description of the effect I am trying to go for helps.

Thanks all!

So much great info here so fast, great community and thanks all. I am looking forward to getting started and the inevitable addiction to doing them all 100%. The nice part is that I can just start with some and add on as I go. Thanks for the tips on the matrix system at Comet, didn't see that either. It's really nice to see so many vendors out there providing pinball support these days. All of them are great, seems Comet is leading the way in price and reliability which is why I will probably start there.

The only reason I even looked at flashers is due to the heat of one that must have stuck on melting out and melting my dome plastic in my TZ. I would agree I don't need LED flashers but since this happened now I'm all worried about the heat they put off if they get stuck so I'll eventually hit at least the flashers inside of domes as well.

Does Comet ever run any sales or coupons?

Good times.

Looks like a run on bayonets, hopefully he can get some back in stock soon. I'll get started on the others a while I suppose and get an order in. So much great info in this thread, I learned a lot. Can't thank you all enough. I'm sure more questions will arise.

I think there's merit in both instances. I'm actually considering buying a cheaper kit for one of the games and a couple hundred bare bulbs to start, way I figure, cheaper kit gives me a nice starting point for a retrofit, and if I don't like any of the choices I can replace with a different style and have some extras to use for another game or keep inside. So I get where Bospins was coming from. I've always been shy of fully shopping out a pin because I don't solder well and am afraid of breaking something delicate, bulb swaps seem like something a little more straightforward so it's a good way to get me back into my games again after letting them sit in sad neglect for a while. It's sort of excited me about playing them again.

JawJaw, what games you got spreadsheets for? I admire this level of OCD.

I saw the LED OCD and it looks like a must for TZ - Not sure if I'll run into that on my AFM, Whirlwind or Teed Off but I'll have to look and see which games are susceptible. Once I see it I won't be able to unsee it.

I placed an order today, with all the quarantine stuff going on it's a great time to work on my pins and also relaxing in a weird way. I don't have any rubbing alcohol for the inserts but have some Novus 1 around that maybe will do the job. I'd go buy rubbing alcohol but, well, you know...

Thanks Tim, got a recommend on the bulbs? I'm afraid the bayonet from Comet may not fit and that was going to be my go-to. There's not a lot of Tee'd Off owners out there, would love to know some of the special colors you wound up going with. Appreciate the post.

I remember back in the day I used to order pre-programmed ROM chips. Is there a newer better way now? I'm using the latest home rom on there now pretty sure. That may be a nice compromise to buying all new chips, programming them with something to add the patch for the lighting. Heck who knew light swapping was so involved. But hey I'm up for the challenge!

One other question - I haven't seen a lot on non-ghosting vs. standard in the inserts, seems like if you intend to ever use the OCD board you should not ever buy non-ghosting bulbs for anything correct? Are you guys using NonGhost in your inserts if you're skipping on the boards?

I bought some non-ghosting in the hopes I could start with my AFM, but that will just get me started there, maybe I will plan to do the AFM with the non-ghosting and then do my TZ the way you said. Need to look into how I program pinball chips (I guess you need an EEPROM programmer and software, new thing to look into!).

I must say for some reason due to that blue color I do think that the cool white LEDs might actually look awesome in the GI. And I am a huge fan of the warm colors. Will have to give that some thought. It would be interesting to do all of these a different way for some variety.

AFM - Non-ghosting inserts, sunlight GI
TZ - warm white GI, standard inserts, program EEPROM
WW - cool white GI, not sure on inserts
Tee'd Off - who the heck knows

The efforts I make on the AFM and the final result may inform me how I proceed on the rest. Plus hoping Comet gets the Wedges back in stock.