I recently purchased the new generation Retro warm frosted LED bulbs. I have 6 EM’s set up in my game room.

I’ve tried LED’s before with poor results. The LED’s were too blue which washed out playfield colors, and were TOO BRIGHT. I have read that the new "Retro" warm bulbs are far better at emulating incandescent bulbs, so I thought I would provide before and after photos.

Daytime Viewing Incandescent playfield:

Incandescent Lighting (resized).png

This is the machine outfitted with incandescent 44 bulbs. Many would rather use the cooler 47’s, but I personally like the brighter bulb.

Pros: Warm candlelight ambience. The incandescent bulbs are actually part of the artistic tapestry.

Cons: Hot! When all games are on, the game room heats up. Burnout is common. Backglass and plastics are vulnerable to the heat. Although, in 40 years I haven't experienced any significant damage as result of hot bulbs, although I do use 47's exclusively for the backglass.

Daytime viewing LED Playfield:

Gold Rush LED (resized).jpg

Pros: These warm bulbs are certainly a lot less dominant than other LED bulbs I have tried. They are vey cool. No worries about potential backglass or plastic damage caused by the heat of the old bulbs. Even lighting.

Cons: "Warm" in an LED reality is less blue than the other LED bulbs, but there is still a dominant blue hue and there is still color washout. . You can see the color influence of the LED through the on-field plastics. I feel the game appears a bit too antiseptic. You can see the LED influence on the ball itself…it’s weird, like the ball is hyper-blinking.

NIGHTTIME VIEWING:

night led (resized).jpg

The warm LED’s are far from warm. In the darkness it becomes obvious how blue and flat the light is compared to Incandescent lighting.

Its Candlelight vs Flashlight.

Which do you prefer?

I corresponded with Gregory Nelson of Comet Pinball concerning the blue hue. Comet is committed to solving this issue:

"We are looking into making our warm whites even slightly warmer and looking more closely at the entire wavelength spectrum to try to eliminate most of that blue hue. Hopefully we can continue to make progress!" G.N.

In addition, he mentioned that certain people can pick up on the "High Frequency Flicker" that I was referring to when the ball is in play.

I did the exact same thing. Even the colored bulbs are hideous. I have hundreds of useless LED's in inventory. I rule.

I left with the last post that I had a great inventory of useless LED's, at least from the EM perspective. I decided to experiment. Would like to have feedback. I like the effect and I don't suffer retina damage. Thoughts?

Little Joe LED (resized).jpg

That's a riot! Well, I tried the warm whites (Blue)...hideous.

Second swipe at it. I added incandescent yellow 44's into the mix. Its much better than Christmas in Hell?

Little Joe LED 1 (resized).png

Better?

Little Joe LED 3.png (resized).jpg

I'm not worried. I think LED's are awful for Em's. I'm trying to make them work. They don't. The latest was a mix of incandescent and LED's...still doesn't work.

EIKO seems to be the supplier of 44's. I run into the same issue. This is why I hoard as many GE bulbs from all of my older projects. BTW, like you I have tried various LED/Standard bulb combos and I just can't stand them.

So, I did some research and actually bought 2 boxes. The 1847 are basically "47's". They are dimmer than the 44's. BUT, they have brass bases and have a nice warm light. In fact, the packaging and the bulbs look like new old stock.

I think if you dress the entire machine with these you wouldn't even know. I have one installed on the right sling shot. They are noticeably darker in person.

Even still, BIG thumbs up!

1847 (resized).jpg