Tattoo Machine Silencer Armature Bar

Tattoo Machine Silencer Armature Bar I was introduced to this item via Guy Aitchison's "Reinventing the Tattoo" (second edition) he uses them, and he is arguable one of the leaders of our field of art. it basically has a groove which is filled with a 2/3 inch long strip of firm rubber, placed where the armature bar hits the front coil, this eliminating the zapping sound that tattoo machines make which the sound outright intimidates some clientelle. it also takes up a little bit of the force that the skin normally would deal with, making it a LITTLE BIT less abrasive to the skin, but obviously not significant enough to reduce the pain of a tattoo. more for aesthetic thing but if the industry leader is using it, it's worth the 8 bucks to try it out. make sure you know how tou put this on without totally jacking your tuning if your machine was tuned by the builder. i would mark all settings with a sharpie that could possibly move during installation of this. in this case, you want to mark the location of the front spring exactly because that is going to come off when you change this from your old bar. (ps, for those incredible foriegn to this item, the black line will be on the underside when assembled. hope this helps.

OK, I gave this 3 stars because I'm not using it and can see why someone might want to try it. So since I haven't actually used the product I can't say if it's good or bad. However, what I want to know is why use it at all? If you want your machine to be quieter and have it hit a little softer put a piece of electric tape, medical tape or masking tape on the bottom of your armature bar. I personally like the buzz of machines so I don't tape the armature bar, but tape is a method tattoo artists have been using for years for getting yoru machine to quiet down a little. As for it softening the hit, tune your machine the way you want it to hit as has been done for years also. Like I said I'm not knocking this product, I'm just wondering why use it?