I need help finding a bulb for my Christmas tree

[A.Nonymous]

Long story short, I've got a pre-lit tree. I've had it for a few years and now I've got two sections of it that won't light. Running my hands down the string, I can see the burned out bulbs. Problem is I don't have enough replacement bulbs for the entire string. So, I decided I'd go out and buy bulbs at the store. The problem is that these bulbs are apparently some sort of proprietary design. Regular bulbs won't fit in the socket.

I looked at the box and it's from Lowes so that's apparently where I bought it 8 or 9 years ago now. I couldn't find any replacement bulbs at Lowes when I went earlier today. This is really depressing me. How hard is it to find a freaking light bulb. Here's a pic of the bulb if anyone knows where I can find one. You can see that the end is tapered instead of being round.

I really need to make my Christmas tree light up. I tried the bulb with a rounded end like this:

And they didn't work at all.

 

[Member138406]

I have heard a few bad experiences with these prelit trees actually. And 9 years is incredible.. most dont last more then 3. As far as I have heard there are 2 ways to fix this; one, buy the newer lights and rewire yourself... 2. get some scissors and just cut off the lights and put your own on.

 

[Hrethgir]

Or #3, buy a new tree. Freakin' proprietary crap! Always hard to find and expensive to replace. I'd suggest getting an unlit fake tree and just using plain old regular lights like they sell at Target, much easier to deal with if something goes wrong. This is what I used to do before I became a Scrooge and stopped putting up Christmas decorations, anyways.

 

[A.Nonymous]

I've gone to 4 different stores now and had no luck whatsoever. Also scoured the Interwebs for a couple of hours and came up with bupkus. I'm gonna use the half dozen or so replacement bulbs I've got to see if I can get it all to light up this year and will plan on replacing it after the holidays. I can't bring myself to spend $200 on a tree when I can get one for 50-75% off in a couple of weeks.

 

[Clementine_3]

Santie Claus, why? Why are you taking our Christmas tree? Why?

(But do you know, that old Grinch was so smart and so slick, that he thought up a lie and he thought it up quick.)

Why my sweet little tot...(The fake Santie Claus lied...)...there's a light on this tree that won't light on one side. So I'm taking it home to my workshop, my dear. I'll fix it up there, then I'll bring it back here.