Love this lamp made of 20 6v5w festoon-style bulbs in line. It stopped working today, the switch is good and the wiring is good. I believe the bulbs got so hot they either melted the metal coating on the connection points or one of the bulbs just blew.

I need to replace bulbs.

I figure the lamp works because there are 20 6v bulbs in place which makes it compatible with 120v. But if I were to run 10 12v bulbs, that would also work? What would happen if I ran 20 12v bulbs from a standard 120v wall socket? What if there was a dimmer switch in line?

I'm asking because 6v5w festoon bulbs are proving expensive and 12v are cheap.

Thoughts?