Stunt Saber Staff Brightness Difference

I am rather new to the forums, but this is the second stunt saber I've built. It is a staff that also can separate into two single blades that each has a blue and a green LED. Upon finishing the second blade, it is dramatically dimmer from the LED and the illuminated switches. I do not have a soundboard, and am using resistors for everything rather than a buckpuck. I have read a few posts about how variance in LED brightness should be expected, but this doesn't explain why even the switches are dimmer. Looking for possible reasons one set-up could be so much dimmer than the other.

I am using(for each blade):
Cree 4x3W LED
16mm Anti-vandal latching switch with illuminated blue ring
16mm Anti-vandal latching switch with illuminated green ring.
Resistors (according to LED Calculator)

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Attachment 10711

Are both sets of batteries charged?

Sorry I forgot to list that. For each blade I have a 4xAA holder with three brand new AA batteries and one "dummy" battery so the total source voltage is 4.5.

Maybe something conductive is touching the hilt. No thermal tape under LED or not centered on the heatshrink? Not always an issue but a potential fail point.

I'd check each battery you're using. Looks like one of them may be weak.

Thanks everyone. I took it apart again to have a look. I definitely had something conductive touching the hilt. I was also playing around a little and found that the way I had my LED wired up with the switches was causing both to be dim. I guess I should take the old adage "measure twice, cut once" and apply it to lightsaber buildering..."check connections twice, solder once."