Now if you get back from testing, and all is NOT well, here is how to fix what is most likely your major problem you've run into. You hit the buttons but they simply don't register like you want them to! Being a rhythm game, buttons not working is a very bad thing, so here's what you need to do to any buttons that are acting up. (I did this to all of mine just for a consistent feel, and I personally think it feels great.)
Take note of this right here. Those little white tabs that you squeezed in to disassemble the controller are actually what is pressing in the microswitch (as you can see here). What we need to do is take that side of the button mechanism and add just a
little tiny bit more to it.
This is where our friend the Scotch tape comes in. You want to get yourself a piece of tape, very very thin. The width of the tape itself will cover all the length you have to worry about.
To get a good thickness on the tape, you need to press one end of the tiny strip on the white tab of the button, then fold the tape over itself, then fold it back over itself again. This gives you three layers of tape, which ended up being exactly the right amount in my case. Once the tape is in place, you can just pop the switch back to where it needs to be and test it out.
Once you're finished, it should be a much quieter controller, and you can set off the buttons with either a light touch or a good solid slam, just like you always could.
And there you have it! It's a cheap and effective way to make your Pop'n playing much less of a pain in the ass for friends, neighbors, loved ones, and people you don't particularly like but who enjoy complaining about you for making too much noise during the middle of the day. If you try this method out and it works for you, please post about it and tell other people you know who have Pop'n controllers to try it out!
If it doesn't work very well, you can let me know as well, and I'll see if I can revise a few parts of it if they don't seem to work. However I've managed to beat a lot of my scores on Fever CS after doing this mod, and I personally think it makes the buttons feel a bit more like stock arcade Pop'n buttons (like at the late, great TGA or the Fever/Party at BGSU in Ohio). Thanks for reading, I hope it helps, and as an added bonus here's my cat deciding he wants to learn how to work with electronics.
