If you’re already entrenched in this strange hobby of ours, you know that working with
stabilizers can be tricky. And if you aren’t really that deep into the hobby yet, this is,
well, the general consensus. It can take building multiple boards or countless hours
before getting a solid method down for properly tuning stabilizers, which is obviously something
that most people don’t have, or want. However, this frustration towards stabilizers has led to
a lot of innovation in our tuning methods, and the creation of clever mods to make your stabilizers
better than traditional lubing will allow for. So my goal today is to cover all the popular
aftermarket stabilizer mods that claim to make this process easier, stepping you through them,
and taking a look at their benefits and downsides. At the end, we’ll also take a look at some
exciting new designs that will change how we work with stabilizers for the years to come.
And of course, all of the content from the original creators from the mods will be
linked in the description, as well as the materials needed. I highly highly
recommend going to the original creator’s media if any of these mods entice you,
as this video is meant to be a starting point, and not a substitute for a full length tutorial.
Let's start with one of the most popular, plugging the butt. Technically, I don’t consider this a
mod. I think of a mod as a method that involves outside materials that aren’t lube, but this is
a technique that I think absolutely everyone should have in their back pocket. Plugging the
butt was created and popularized by minterly, and is the easiest of the bunch to perform.
It merely involves taking a syringe or brush, and adding more lube to the back
of the stabilizer stem, where the wire end sits. The empty space in this area is the main reason
for rattling stabilizers, and adding more lube here will help get rid of it. A link for the
syringes I personally use is in the description. This mod is unique in that it can, and actually
SHOULD be done multiple times, and almost at any time you want. You can add lube into the hole of
the stem without taking apart your board, which many other mods will require. But unfortunately,
if you are using a thinner lube on the wire, you will need to plug the butt every once in
a while since the wire will displace the lube and start to rattle again.
Because of this I recommend 205g0 for housings and dielectric grease or XHT-BDZ for wires.
Next is one of the most popular mods, holee. Created by tet and popularized by Hamaji neo,
this involves applying a sheet of band aid on the upper part of the stem hole, which I’m now going
to call the stem mouth. This helps cut down on the space that the wire can travel, thus reducing the
volume of rattle. Additionally, the soft bandaid surface dampens the noise that the wire makes.
However, because of the thickness of bandaids, holee will usually be mushy and sticky at first,
and can sometimes be scratchy if the bandaid is frayed and dragging around inside the housing.
These next few mods will more or less follow the same principle as holee,
and experiment with dampening the same spot in the stabilizer, but with different materials.
Let’s take a look at epsi. This mod was created by epsilon keyboards
and involves using a very small piece of deskey film attached to double sided tape.
The piece should go on both the bottom and top of the mouth.
The deskey isn’t as intrusive as a bandaid, and thus won’t feel very mushy if at all. However,
double sided tape can sometimes lose its stickiness and fall off,
meaning you’ll have to get it out. Additionally, any extra bit of tape or deskey sticking out
of the mouth will cause tick and scratch, which will again, require you to take it out.
Next is the clear tape mod. This was created by Durian SoftJoJo and involves applying
transparent tape to the top of the mouth. This is my personal favorite because you can easily
adjust how many layers you want to use, and find your personal balance between sound and feel.
Depending on your tape, this could help dampen the tick noise,
and like holee and epsi, makes the mouth smaller resulting in less wire movement and rattle.
Unlike holee and epsi, however, this mod is much more minimal,
has a very low chance of making mistakes, and is generally faster. The only downside is that
sometimes the tape can be so unobtrusive that it barely has an effect on stabilizer rattle.
The newest of the bunch is the dry HUMP mod. This is a pretty lengthy
mod created by thockpop that aims to create a rattle-free stabilizer without any lube at all,
but in the interest of time we’ll only cover the parts that relate to rattle and tick.
Dry humping involves placing PTFE fiberglass tape in the mouth,
covering almost its entire surrounding area. I never thought I would ever have to say that
in my life. Moving on. Additionally, you can choose to wrap PTFE teflon
tape to the bend of the stabilizer wire to help eliminate rattling where it clips in.
Next is an unnamed mod that tries to get rid of tick in a different way, which for now I’m just
going to call the wire bandaid mod. This mod was created by luke mason and involves putting
a small sheet of band aid under the wire of an already installed stabilizer. I don’t know
much about this mod, but it seems like a very fast and simple way to combat rattling wires.
And the last mod we’re going to cover here, shrink wrapping or heat shrink tubing. I know
the least amount of information about the context of this mod, but it’s pretty self explanatory.
It involves forming a piece of shrink wrap around the short ends of the wire. Shrink wrap can be
substituted with a few different kinds of tape. The few people who have tried this mod have had
positive experiences, but depending on your type of tape, it could result in a mushy feeling.
And that’s it for mods. I know there are many more out there, but these are the most popular
ones to date and really the only ones you need to know. But this video isn’t over,
there's still quite a bit more to get into. First off, most of these mods try to address
the same issue. The wire moving around too much in the mouth. And for my duration in the hobby,
one question echoed in the back of my mind. Why can't someone just redesign the common stabilizer
so that this isn’t such a big source of sound? And thanks to Zambumon and AEboards, this question has
finally been brought to light. Staebies have a refreshed design, aiming to remedy the exact
issues that led to the creation of all of these mods. It has significantly tighter tolerances,
which should mean inherently less rattle and tick. However, this may not come without its own issues.
The extremely tight tolerances of staebies makes it easier to over lube.
and if you’ve never felt overlubed stabilizers before, they’re mushy and sluggish.
But yet another stabilizer innovation has surfaced, this time by none other than Owlab,
the studio behind the widely known Jelly Epoch and the beautiful Mr. Suit. Alongside the Mr.
Suit came “Liquid Metal” stabilizers. Owlab focused on fixing another known reason for rattle:
wire imbalance. Imbalanced wires lead to a lot of conflicting motion across a stabilizer,
and Owlabs sought to remedy this by using a new type of metal that was comically flexible,
allowing it to better retain it’s straightness. However, this is a double edged sword.
If the wires get bent somehow during manufacturing or shipping,
there is no easy way of bending them back, and you’ll be stuck with a bent wire.
And yet again, months after this script was first being written,
TX keyboards has also prototyped their take on clip-in stabilizers,
which seem absolutely incredible and sound like they’re somewhat tuned right out of the box.
And before I can comment further on any of these, we’ll have to wait until I can grab some,
in which case I’ll review and compare them all.
All in all, there are tons of different ways you can tackle your stabilizers,
and in the future, there might even be tons of different basically rattle-free stock stabilizers
to choose from. And like I’ve said before, I absolutely love to see innovation in this hobby
and people being willing to step up and do something nobody else has tried before,
especially with something as common as the stabilizer.
For those of us who build boards all the time, these mods and new stabilizers will be massive
time and headache savers. And for those of us who are just dipping our toes into the hobby,
there’s a much better chance of getting stabs right on your first shot.
Regardless of your standing in this hobby, the future is looking bright,
and hopefully, our stabs silent. That’s all I have for you today.
Thanks for watching this episode of nearlucid. If you liked this video, drop a thumbs up.
If you have feedback or questions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below. We’d be more than happy
to answer. Also, these videos take lots of work, and by subscribing, you’re letting us know that
you want us to keep making them. That’s all for this video, I’ll see you guys later.