Yes.
Hey guys, total fight stick noob here.
I got my Venom a couple of days ago and I’m not totally fond of the square gate that comes with it.
Is it possible to replace the original gate with a Sanwa GT-Y octagonal gate, or do I have to replace the entire stick?
I searched the forum but couldn’t find an answer to this, all I found was someone asking the same thing but never got a reply.
The stock joystick isn’t compatible with Sanwa gates.
So yes you have to replace the entire joystick.
That said I think you should give square gates a chance, use L shape movements when you need a quarter circle
Octagonal gates also have their flaws, Octagonals are actually worst as diagonals
Well, can’t be lucky all the time. I was lucky enough to find the Venom here in Norway!
Sure, I’ll give the square gate a try and put some more hours into the stick before I start modding it.
I also need to get new graphics sorted, and that’s gonna take some time.
Thanks for your wise words. I’ll def be back with more questions! 
Keep in mind no all solutions work for everyone.
Try out Square gates for a while, remember to try L Shape movements.
After a month or so if it still don’t work for you then consider an Octagonal gate.
I’m considering this for my first fight stick (price is £55 or £92 modded).
How do the differences feel between the unmodded/modded version? I’m planning on buying the Venom and seeing if I like it enough to upgrade via this guide but due to me not being familiar with sticks I have no idea of the differences.
I hardly used mine, or sanwa stick when it was modded in, cos I prefer hitbox layout. But I think the general consensus is, for non branded parts, they’re alright 
The good thing is you can try it then upgrade if needed!
because its your first stick, go with the standard version, you may decide that you wanna go back to pad, and you can resell for around 10 lower than you paid and no big loss.
you wouldn’t know or feel the difference between stock parts and upgraded as a first time user
if you decide that you wanna keep with stick, then by the time you adjusted to it in terms of exceeding your pad play performance, normally a month or three depending on play time, your stock parts will be wearing out and you can upgrade them
Sounds like a plan, I’m not very good at the Pad so it shouldn’t be too hard to match my standard I guess.
Replaced the stock parts with sanwa buttons and balltop. The stock parts are alright but I’m used to the responsiveness of sanwa, so I would be pressing a button but nothing was coming out due to how lightly I was used to it.
Replacing the stock parts was easy as pie, easier than my madcatz fightstick pro, getting the clips off those buttons was an absolute nightmare.
Anyone know how the Venom lever compares to other sticks? While my input is questionable, I feel the lever is pretty stiff.
I’m not sure if this is common or not, but if I feel sometimes when doing diagnols the lever jumps a bit to either side, and requires a bit more force for diagnol imputs.
Also if anyone has this stick and has any Guilty Gear art on it that they could post I’d appreciate it. Also the size of the print needed.
(I know last response is 10 months old, but thinking of swapping the parts out now, and it seems this is the primary thread that shows up online)
The stock joystick lever is terrible.
I was wondering if it was just my lack of input ability for a while (obviously will be partly that), would you know if I can I just buy the Joystick on the OP and keep in the square gate?
Honestly I my experiences with other people I would say its a little of column A and a little of column B
Yes you can buy the same joystick the OP uses.