I have a question for all of you who have either replaced inlays with labels, or have milled hot stamps to take labels: does this cause the sound of the chips to change or become muffled? It’s just something that I’ve genuinely been curious about, and I would love to hear what you all think!
Thanks!
Personally, I think it may depend on the chip that is being customized as well.
I've done an overlabel, which absolutely changes the sound significantly. I'd say your choice word "muffled" applies well. It also changed how the chips feel and behave in a stack. I had the feeling that the chips spin against eachother easily in stacks. Not sure I liked this, and I believe it was the leading cause of me removing the overlabel and going full murder, and inlay replacement. The chip in question here is the NYNY $1 (
THC)
I recently did an Empress Joliet overlabel of the Aurora Star frac, and the results are pretty astounding. There is definitely a change in sound but the change was very insignificant to me. I'm actually quite satisfied with an overlabel on this particular chip. They still stack well, but there is that small amount of "slippery" feeling amongst the chips in stacks, but not as bad as the NYNYs that I did.
So that is 2 different labels on 2 different
THC chips with different results. Perhaps the chip recesses were slightly different to begin with. Maybe the original label thicknesses were different to start. I imagine many chips have these differences.
I've also done full murder, inlay re/re, with
THC and
RHC and
nothing beats this. I feel this is as close to the real original feel of the chip that you can get. I find there is almost no change in feel or sound.
I still have 1 NYNY $1 left. I didn't murder it. I can't tell any difference between it or its murdered counterparts. With a laminated and textured Gear label on there, the thickness is just right. Again, YMMV depending on which chip you use.
I've also murdered Primm Valley $1s and they also sound the same as they did before I murdered them. These are RHCs.
Sorry for the long post. Wanted to share my experiences in detail. Hope it helps.