I love the ls40. My favorite stick for a long time, but I have gone back to the jlf for its easy to find. As for semitsu snap ins the build quality of them is superior IMHO to sanwa snap ins. I feel obsc buttons are good for one install. After that broken tabs will happen. I’ve had one tab on a seimitsu break, one. That was on a pearl button.
I agree, the JLF is really easy to find. It’s saturated the market IMO. It’s a good idea to learn how to play on a JLF, because should your own custom stick ever break and you have to borrow one, chances are it’s JLF. If you had to play at arcade, chances are it’s JLF. I personally don’t like the stick and don’t really care to get used to it, especially since if I travel to a tournament I bring tools with me in case something goes wrong with my custom. Although I do recognize there are some aspects about it that are very high quality. Still, it isn’t nearly as good as a LS-40.
How tight is the LS-40? I hate how loose the JLF is but I do like the compact design. The 56 feels nice to me it’s just that I want it to be a bit tighter, but It’s something that wont kill me and I can live with. By what you guys say i’m really tempted to get an LS-40 but short shafts always give me trouble. JLF length is just right for me (another thing i like). Are there no custom parts for 40’s yet?
LS-40 is right around the same tension as LS-32… same spring after all. as for custom parts, you can use ls-58’s colored/translucent shaftcovers/dustwashers on it… it uses the same long lever micros too, so the ls-32 zippy mod should work on it (i personally havent tried it yet on the ls-40)
short shaft isn’t that much of an issue, just use the correct mounting plate for you panel. honeslty overall it feels somewhat similar to the ls-56, but “sturdier” imo.
Some people likes JLF, others LS-40 along with other Seimitsus but i think no one is considering which game the person who like LS-40 (for example) is used to play.
As for fighting game, i think the 40’s has not appropriate engagement for it. Don’t get me wrong, maybe my english isn’t enough to explain how i would like to do but i think armi0024 may agree with what im about to say. The “problem” about the LS-40 is that the stick has a very large range of diagonals and a very small range of cardinal directions, which makes the stick to be “incorrect” for fighting games…coupled with a very fast engagement, which imo, helps to causes accidental jumps (fighting).
But it could be great or the best for any other game.
I have to disagree, the corners are no different than the LS-56. If you can play on one, you can play on the other. They have the same engage and same range of throw. Only difference is the mounting of the switches, the actuator size, and the gate size. The larger actuator requires a larger gate, but the throw/engage ratio is exactly the same, it’s just a less compact stick with a superior pivot.
I’ve played many games with both sticks, mainly fighters though. I started off on stock and fighters were fine. I did a short throw mod a few years ago and never looked back. I play fighting games just fine and the short engages are good for fighters. If you play SF4 (I don’t usually except when I play casuals with a few local friends) then the short engage allows for fast dashing and double taps that you’d never get on a JLF. I mainly play ST, and don’t have any problems with it, and I mainly play charge characters although I’ve been playing with other types as well recently.
I don’t personally like the feel of the Zippy mod. It needs more tension and the spring isn’t tense enough to use switches with that low force.
I have both an S plate (which I use for wood panel mounting) and a flat mounting plate for the LS-40. Unfortunately, the shaft is still too short, it’s about 2 mm shorter than the JLF or LS-56 when measured from the plate to the threading, so even if you mount the stick up against the plate it’s still too short. Not quite sure why it’s designed that way. The LS-56 with a S plate for wood mounting measures the same as a JLF. I really want a longer shaft for the stick, lol.
as a shmup player, all i can say is Any of the seimitsu sticks are fine, but over time, i had more “over shooting” errors on ls-56/58 mainly because of the extra throw after engage. overall i seem to perform better on the compact sticks. but these days, i simply stick with ls-32’s.
well, let’s check how it was originally mounted…
actually i cant really tell, it looks “just about right” but these are old zoomed out pics and no real way to measure (I dont have a neo cab sadly :()…
for reference here’s the underside.
rusty
looks to be almost the same kind of S plate found in older Astro’s. which mounts the stick “almost flushed” to the panel,
theoretically, ls-32 extender can work haha.
Yeah, if you can mount them flush against a metal panel I’m sure they’re fine, but if you route out 1/4 inch wood panel then they won’t mount correctly unlike a LS-56 with a S-plate. I’m not sure exactly how well the S-plates fit onto most panels these days, all I know is that the HRAP3 and MadCatz SE would not fit them right.
Damn it. Looks like the LS-40 just made my joystick bucket list.
@Moonchilde
you said everything I ever wanted to cover on the comparison of the Sanwa JLF and Seimitsu Joysticks.
To me the Seimitsu LS-32 is the most forgiving joystick, while the JLF requires exact precise execution.
The one Sanwa Joystick I really like the JWL got discontinued by Sanwa. The JWL sat in that magical world with the precision of a Japanese joystick but can take (almost) the same abuse as a Happ.
We still have jlw’s
<- Mind Explodes
I’m pretty happy with a JLF after adding a 2lb spring and .5mm oversized actuator. I may try a 1.5lb spring soon to see if it makes double tap dashing any easier. I feel like 2lbs may be causing me some kind of wrist fatigue. When going back to the stock .9lb spring I found that I really preferred the stiffer spring rate of the 2lb spring. It has a quick return to neutral and engages in a similar way to an LS-5x with the oversized actuator though there is a pronounced difference in hitting diagonals between the two. This is probably due to the lever type switches on the LS-5x joysticks and/or the fact that my JLF has an octo-gate. I installed an oct-gate on an LS-56 recently but have yet to give it a spin. If anyone uses octo-gates and has experienced one on an LS-5x I would be interested to hear if this effects the performance significantly (good or bad). I would love to get a hold of a Twist lever for an LS-5x. There are still quite a few joysticks out there that I would like to try including the LS-32 and 40, and Crown 303.
@darksakul haha, got to figure out how to get the word out about our stock. It blows my mind that I see people every day asking for other companies to carry stuff in the us that we already have…
@inendoi time to pick up some levers! The new ls55 gates in our store will solve the over throw issue, and we may release a true octo, the existing is the octo bump style.
@Armi0024 - I have the “bump” octagon plate. It seems weird to me. I may file down the bumps to make it a true 8 sided opening. When will these new gates be available? BTW…I would be happy to pay for postage to test that JLF gate for you. I play at least 2-3 hours of SFxT or AE per day.
I will get together with moon when I get back in town and get an octo moving, he’s put a lot of blood, sweat and tears (real men cry) into the ls56 plates. We can test an octogate pretty quickly. Hit Susan about the jlf plate, don’t know how many are left. Thanks!
A true octo gate won’t be a problem, I’ll have the design done by the time armi gets back so we can get that going. I’ll probably get 2 design variations for tweaking the stick. Also some other surprises then, too. Keep your eyes on the thread!
Aha! You’re a shmups player. You will definitely want the LS-40 or the LS-5x. The second design variation for the octo I’ll work on will be specifically for shmups players to have the FASTEST possible inputs.
Oh, also wanted to follow up on this.
If you want to use the 2 lb spring I’d recommend springing (lol) for one of the aluminum ball tops. The extra weight helps add some additional force to the movement yet you retain the snappiness of the more powerful spring. Have you seen the white aluminum ball tops? They’re SLICK. Unfortunately I don’t see them on the site anymore. If you’re willing to try a bat top, I’d recommend picking one up.
Corners are better on Seimitsu sticks because of the levers. Also note, octo gates will cut back some of the range for hitting the diagonals, but that shouldn’t be a problem, it just means you need to be aware of the gate and make sure you hit it every time for getting good corner action.
Crown 303-FK is a very interesting stick, but corners are NOT its strength. I love the feel of the rubber gromment, it’s good stuff, but if you need to hit corners it will be a little tough on that stick to get used to. A softer grommet will probably help but then you may lose some of the snappyness. I tried Laugh’s Myoungshin at EVO and it felt very different from the Crown I have, it was over all a smoother feeling stick. Still, it’s tough to describe the feeling of a Korean stick compared to a Japanese, they’re very different, it’s something you have to try out to get it to click.
Well, I currently have a Link shaft installed on my main stick (though I’m considering removing it for a Twist shaft. Its hard to explain but there is just SOMETHING about the Link that is weird to me. The more I use it the less noticeable it is but I digress…) so the extra weight does a little something in that respect. I have been wanting to pick up an aluminum ball but I have been waiting in earnest for the fabled green anodized stuff to make an appearance.
Right. That’s what I thought. I know that octo-gates put the corners slightly farther away from DC. It really is a tactile thing for me. I like to feel the gate so that I have confidence in my input if that makes sense.
I will get around to trying one eventually I’m sure. Thank you for the input.
@Armi0024 - I sent Susan an email. Thanks.
Well, I currently have a Link shaft installed on my main stick (though I’m considering removing it for a Twist shaft. Its hard to explain but there is just SOMETHING about the Link that is weird to me. The more I use it the less noticeable it is but I digress…) so the extra weight does a little something in that respect. I have been wanting to pick up an aluminum ball but I have been waiting in earnest for the fabled green anodized stuff to make an appearance.
Right. That’s what I thought. I know that octo-gates put the corners slightly farther away from DC. It really is a tactile thing for me. I like to feel the gate so that I have confidence in my input if that makes sense.
I will get around to trying one eventually I’m sure. Thank you for the input.
@Armi0024 - I sent Susan an email. Thanks.
Pretty lights are pretty! I like the new LEDs. One of mine was burnt out, but that’s OK my stick is a 6 button anyway! (and I could replace it with a Pele)
Hard at work coding over here! <3