If you do end up doing a plexi top, You can use the snap in buttons pretty easily, even without routing. Drill 1 1/4" holes in the wood, and 30mm holes in the plexi. The wood is there enough to support the plexi and buttons, but is far enough out of the way to let the buttons snap in properly
Without a plexi top and just 3/4" wood you could use the screw-in sanwas, and route out some of the wood on the backside and screw them down.
The sanwa ball-top sticks are godly btw, MUCH more precise of a feel to them than HAPPs. I grew up on HAPP and got a sanwa arcade stick a year or two ago, I would never go back to HAPP. Worth the extra 15 bucks in my opinion. Or you could get the cheaper JLW + pink balltop and it would only be ~8 dollars more than a Super/Competition
Heres a shot of my control panel with snap-ins + 3/4" MDF. And No the joystick is not mounted above the plexi, its just an illusion from the all black paint + glossy surface
