so i have been using a bishop and its been killing black and grey, it was a wedding present from my best man, it was custom engraved with our wedding date and name... super awesome machine and thought nothing would replace it for my black and grey machine.... i just got carys direct drive tattoo machine and used it for the first time today. man it kills it. i tattoo extremely fast and have had problems with machines keeping up with me. this one keeps up just fine. and as much as it pains me to switch from my bishop i believe this will become my main black and grey machine... i am running it at a med stroke havent messed with a short or long stroke but as its set up now its a sweet machine. what i like is the price comparaison to many machines on the market. my co worker just picked up a spektra at double the price and sure it works fine but i will take the direct drive over it any day and its half the price!. all in all after knocking out a 3 hour piece with it today, i have no complaints. the learning curve to get it to run just how i wanted was almost non existant and im loving it! not taking away from the bishop i still think its a good machine but man to man artist to artist, the direct drive will be my main black and grey machine.