I have to agree with everyone else, LED is much better. I personally never thought i would build anything but EL sabers, but I started on some LED's after i worked with aluminum and it is by far better. Yes they are harder to change color, but that can be a quick fix if you are inventive or do the quick change LED. ALso, i do prefer the 3/4 inch thinwall blades, and truthfully i have compared them to my 1 inch blades and they are just as bright. When done right, any LED saber can be extremely bright. I hope this helps. Oh, and btw, EL needs at least 12 volts to run correctly, when LED's can run on as little 3.