I’ve always played with Happ sticks at the arcade, so I’m well used to knowing what kind of maneuverability I have with an arcade stick using that. My problem came when I knew Sanwa sticks some months ago: I was enthusiast about people saying it was the best stick all around and it was almost profane not to like all of it’s features.
Let me say, my style of play takes sensitivity a lot into account, and I usually go for anything that is most intuitive. Sanwa sticks are very precise, I’m comfortable in that aspect. But after knowing Sanwa’s buttons, which are very soft, and give you quick reaction times, I evaluate the Sanwa stick and it has a flaw that is contrary to the buttons: it’s shaft is pretty heavy (being made of steel and all). So heavy that I fail to press forward forward or back back to run/dash like 1 out of 4 times. I believe that with all the adequately well thought out features it has, parts well made and all, this and the noise are it’s only weakness, one that Happ doesn’t have. I’m well used to Happ and it’s shaft is actually lighter to move, I never had this problem with them.
You will realize from this, that not only forward or back are affected. For me the pressure you need to apply is excessive. When you are in the middle of an intense fight, with all your concentration put on the fight and metagame, you need your controls to be as intuitive and your commands as easy and safe to execute as possible concerning the equipment you play with. This area in Sanwa sticks is a flaw. I’m wondering, because I don’t know much about the subject, ¿are there replacements or alternatives to solve this?. ¿Should I try to adapt a Happ shaft to my Sanwa (is it possible?, ¿are there Sanwa options I can buy?, ¿custom mods?. I appreciate your opinions.
which sanwa stick do you refer to ? jlf or jlw ?
Also i don’t think sanwa stick’s shafts are heavier than Happ, however their dynamics are probably worse, this may be due to the hemispherical pivot and soft spring.
If you are looking for jap sticks with great dynamics, try either a seimitsu ls33 or ls55.
First off, shaft weight has nothing to do with stiffness. In any case, both Happ and Sanwa use metal shafts, the only difference is that you cannot really see the metal innards of a Happ stick since it’s covered by the battop. Stiffness is determined by the spring and Happ springs are stiffer than Sanwas.
The problem you are having is due to the JLF having a much further throw than other sticks. There is a lot of dead space between neutral and activation which can make simple things like dashing difficult for some people. I had issues with dashing myself with the JLF and I switched to a Siemitsu LS-56 and it cleared up all of my dashing and execution issues. Now when I want to do something it actually comes out 100% of the time where I don’t mess it up myself I feel less like I am fighting the stick and more like I am playing the game.
Personally, I think the new Hori stick would be perfect for me but sadly you can’t buy those outside of buying the full stick right now that I am aware of and I won’t buy a stick I can’t at least dual mod.
I’m actually talking about the pressure you need to apply intuitively for the stick to start moving towards activating the micro. I don’t like Happ’s stiffness, it’s excesive. A little more in Sanwas would be good to be able to go back to neutral a little faster.
It’s like there’s a little weight barrier that you have to defeat for the stick to start moving, plus the micros are not the most sensitive out of the box, I had to do the lil papers mod to them. Happ doesn’t have neither of these 2 things.
Get the LS-56. There is barely a dead zone compared to the JLF, the pressure required for activation is much less and there is an 8 way restrictor gate option if you like that. Also, you can change the spring for more or less force required. The LS-58 is I believe supposed to be quite similar but I don’t have personal experience with it.
Amerika you got my point. you are right, after more inspection the deadzone seems to be a big part of the problem. I think it’s also the fact that the little plastic things that activate the micros are a little long, which means a few more instants have to pass for them to move and activate compared to others, that’s what I think at least. I applied electrical tape to the actuator and it’s a little better. ¿What else would make it better?. I just can’t believe that so many people worship these sticks as the best and I haven’t seen much discussion about flaws like these.
¿Do you know what this is for? the part starting from minute 5:10. I think it’s just for the feeling of stability (very important anyway), but I had to cut it down to 20cm because using 38cm as the video suggests makes the shaft too heavy and the micros harder to hit, reduces my dynamic a lot. With 20 it gives you that stability with good motioning.
That seems like a whole lot of effort to “ghetto rig” your joystick when you could simply buy a different stick with the properties you want and know it doesn’t have electrical tape that will wear out pretty quickly in it. Maybe the optical JLF mod called the Spark Optical Sensor would be more to your liking as well. Toodles offers it on his site Godlike Controls and you can read about it on this forum here, Spark/SparkCE Optical Joystick Sensor for JLF.
I’d still say go with the LS-56. It sounds like you are having the exact same issues I was and have the same concerns with feel + throw distance.
I’d prefer to buy the SparkCEs straightforward instead of buying Seimitsus, if you get one please I’ll be very interested in your feedback about it, since we seem to look for the same thing.
If you want a bit more springiness, get a LS-58-01. They look cool and fit exactly your specifications, plus if you buy it from Focusattack it comes out of the box ready to be dropped into any stick that previously held a JLF.
I feel less like I am fighting the stick and more like I am playing the game.