Instead of spending money modding a terrible joystick, why don't you just get a good quality stick to begin with?
Well, to begin with I see that you haven't answered any of my questions.
Then, what is a "good quality" stick?
Zippyy is a budget joystick, that's for sure, but I thought to purchase it for a reason:
1) it is basically a clone of Seimitsu LS-32
2) I need an "all round" joystick that is suitable for various game types, included shoot'em up, and the LS-32 is widely recognized as good for the job... indeed for years it has been considered the best choice for this purpose
3) I hate short shafts: Zippyy is an LS-32 with longer shaft, moreover while the original LS-32 has many plastic and cheap parts the "poor clone" Zippyy has more sturdy/metallic parts
For the reasons above and as far as I know, Zippyy may be a cheap joystick but sports the features I'm looking for and is actually better than the original LS-32 in few area.
Of course is not that I don't know about alternatives, rather I looked literally at every joystick on the market, BUT:
1) Sanwa joysticks, particularly JLF, although "high quality" are best suited for fighting games about which I can't care less. Also, I hate long throw as well the sloppy feeling. JLW are discontinued and anyway not so good for various reasons.
2) I looked at Seimitsu too, but LS-40 has a very short shaft and generally I don't like it very much (I have the original Neo Geo, imported from Japan in 1990, so I know very well what I'm talking about). LS-56 has many fans and maybe is not so bad for my purpose but still I found a few cons. Other models are simply no good for my purpose.
3) I looked at Ultimarc wide range of "XYZ stick": U360, Mag-Stick, Mag-Stick Plus, E-Stick, Eurostick, ServoStick, etc. The U360 has very nice features but also many cons (that I am not going to mention here: at the very least I think you should agree that it is not the right choice as a primary 8-way). E-Stick and EuroStick are not for me. I was very interested in the Mag-Stick, particularly the Plus version with the nice feature to switch from 8 to 4 way and viceversa "on the fly". Also, I liked very much the idea of magnetic centering. But then I read many negative opinions (a number of which here on this forum) and problems with the (very) short throw and some other annoying issue: I got the feeling that the joystick has potential but as it is now is more an hassle than a jolly. The ServoStick seems like a Holy Grail but even for this joystick I read about problems with this and that, not to mention the hassle to set it up.
4) to be honest, the joystick which convinced me more as far as I could document myself is the GGG Dominux8. Very high quality, I read lot of positive comments in general and it should be very good for my purpose. Also it comes with grommet and true leaf switches that are a plus to me. So, what is the problem? That it is not distributed in Europe. Sure, I could import it, but the joystick ins't cheap and shipping costs must be added as well as customs duties. Since for now my goal is just to build a simple arcade stick, it doesn't seem worthwhile. I will consider for sure this option in the future, for a "serious" arcade panel.
So, what is your suggestion? Of course the "quality joystick" that you will recommend me should satisfy all the aforementioned features I'm looking for, that I can summarize here:1) should be suited for all type of games, a "general purpose" joystick. Fighting games are expendable.
2) has a long shaft (at least 4+cm from the base)
3) has good and fast centering, no wobble, no random actuation of opposite direction
4) has short to medium throw
5) should be able to hit precisely the direction (diagonals included)
6) has a good feeling, not too stiff nor too sloppy
7) has a nice "sound" to it, in case it use microswitches. Well, of course this could be improved easily
8 ) if it is also good quality (materials, build, etc.) even better
9) the price is not a problem, if the joystick check
all the boxes
I'm looking forward to your advice