Alright, my lights are all up and working right now, but please, can someone try this themselves and confirm the result?

do NOT try this on LED-based xmas lights.

(but nonetheless great idea, learned something new today)

Mind... blown. I'll try this after work and report back, overdude.

Put me on that list also. I have some lights that could use a fixin.

Uh, yes it works. I tested it on some old outdoor mini lights and attempted to create one good string of good lights out of 3 partially-working strings. Unfortunately, one of the lights exploded and a piece hit my ceiling really hard! Fearing for my eyes, I abandoned the project.

I recommend just buying a new string of led lights