Sorbothane Struts are quick-dirty version of Sorbothane sheet between plate and PCB. It does seem to reduce to reduce noise and reverb, likely not as much as full-sheet but nice considering that placing these struts takes little time and effort, particularly for hotswap boards.
Sorbothane used are 5mm thick sheets from Amazon.
I was going to try placing something between the switch and the PCB as well, like a ‘switch mat’, but got lazy and went for this instead.
How do you like the north facing switch Washers ?
They do the job with little or no downside except the hassle of putting them on.
Did you run into any trouble getting the first few switches soldered in with the 5mm sorbo in place? I’ve been doing this mod with 4mm thick strips (cut to that thickness for a larger sheet), and even then it’s a bit of a hassle sometimes - the sorbo presses back, making it difficult to ensure the switches are properly seated on the PCB for soldering.
Either way, I agree that it’s a good mod - gets most if not all of the sound benefit, and far more cost effective.
No. The board in my photo uses BSUN sockets. It holds pretty good so I had only 10 switches on the board before I started shoving Sorbothane struts in and switches didn’t pop out. Once that was done, I inserted rest of the switches.
Just pre-solder some switches before inserting the struts.
Ah, that’s the difference - I didn’t realize you were putting them in after soldering the first few switches.
I’ve been laying down the strips of sorbo on the PCB before I put the switches and plate down.
Looking more closely at your photo, I think your “struts” must also be pretty short, no wider than the switch cutout? When possible, I’ve been using longer strips spanning several cutouts, which I think would be hard to place after the first few switches have been soldered in. I should try your approach next time.
I was doing a rebuild this afternoon for a board that didn’t have any PCB/plate dampening treatment, and thought, “hey, how about right now?” I went with 4mm thick pieces, less than 1cm long each, and pushed a few of them in various spots between the PCB and plate. I found that it was easiest to compress each piece a bit before wedging it in, and I also found that I needed to poke and prod it with a small phillips screwdriver to get it just where I wanted it. With that said, it seemed to function just as well as the longer strips I’ve previously used, in terms of dampening ping and reverb, and it was certainly easier to get good switch seating on the PCB first.
In short: I like this mod! Thanks for sharing, @donpark!
