I left it at the factory stroke yesterday and liked the result. I put it on the shortest stroke today for a black and gray piece and really liked it. It's taking me some time to get used to not being able to adjust the needle hang on the fly without a hawk combo grip. I'm used to a lot of hang on the hawk which has something like a 4mm stroke. I can't hang the needle as much with the stroke turned all the way down. That's me tho, not the machine. I know I'm going to be in love with this machine In a week or so once I've really dialed it in.