https://www.cometpinball.com/collections/how-to-buy-pinball-leds has some great information and the owner is active here. ryanwanger

It's such a personal thing you'll probably have to try a bunch of stuff and see what you like. Some people love a clown-vomit look on the playfield, others hate it. Find a good deal on an assortment of bulbs and try some combinations.

Safest to change bulbs with the power off.

Welcome to Pinside.

i would stick to the factory specs - #47 and #455's for the blinking lights

Comet is my go to guys for LEDs, but use what works best for you.

Nothing but LED in my EM's now, the new incandescent bulbs are so bad they die in weeks if not hours in my experience. Guys will resort to buying NOS bulbs off Ebay to find proper incandescent bulbs.

For the score reels I prefer a sunlight frosted SMD LED which helps them pop a little and easier to read. Back glass can be a sunlight or warm white frosted SMD bulb. None of these have to be non-ghosting as the bulbs are always on.

For playfield GI I use a warm white SHORT clear SMD dome which mimics an incandescent look. Inserts on an EM pin will have to be non-ghosting to keep them from flashing when off. You can use frosted dome in warm white or sunlight. Some inserts will pop better if you use the same color as the insert or if you have a white insert you can always change its "color" by using a colored LED behind it.

LED's come in slow and fast blinking, be aware that at first they will flash at the same rate till they fall out of "sync." I like to mix flashing LED and a few flashing 455 incandescent to keep it random.

Have fun!
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I recommend frosted warm for backboxes in most games, unless sometimes when it's a heavily blue or black color scheme and then cool can look good.

Note that LED flashers don't work like 455s. They're not random. So you need to get multiple speed flashers and try to space them out to emulate the effect. I don't think it quite works, so I keep 455s behind the lettering and use leds for the rest.

For any controlled lights (like game over) you'll need non-ghosting

I quite agree with you regarding these new conventional bulbs. I've bought lots and have seen many fail in weeks. I'm no fan of LEDs in an em but really, if you can source ones that are not too "wrong" then so be it.

That's what I have tried hard to do, hence the example pf of H&S above. All LED but looks like incandescent. The picture is off slightly and looks overexposed, one thing I have noticed that trying to take a picture with my cell camera the picture is always off with LED for some reason. Same thing with my Nikon digital camera. My camcorder on the other hand gets it right or at least more so than the still cameras.

I just ordered some comet LED's from this place in Saskatoon.......I'm in London so we'll see how quick shipping is...............https://www.absolutepinball.com/. I've just ordered from Playdium right in your hometown. You could probably go there in person and pick-up some LED's. I'm in the same boat as you, new pin owner, just got my Royal Flush 3 days ago. A word of warning, highly addictive hobby and the community here is most helpful. Lot's of knowledge around here..........

Yes, ordered the intense white (I think that was the only option!). But I also ordered a few 'yellow'........just to see how they look. I have a pretty dark backglass so cool white actually looks good.