Disclaimer

I will not recommend any of the pens/mods I have never tried before, but it does not mean those are bad, I just do not know how it feel so I will skip them.

Even with the same model of the mod, there can feel different during the many factors when it was made, like the length of grip cutting, how long for each one has been spun, or even the difference of the materials from the factory.

This post will focus only on how most people think combine with my own opinion and experience, but it is possible if someone has different opinions, and that one might be you. So the best option of mod choosing is still trying it by yourself.

After some argument about how people should choose their pens/mods in penspinning, I read many opinions from many people, mix with my feeling and experience, I think I should write a guide about it

What is the first mod I should get?

One of the FAQ people asked when they start penspinning. I recommend something easy to make, easy to find materials, and cheap. If you just started penspinning, no need to pay a lot of money on the hobby you may stop at anytime. Any kind of pens or mods, or even just a normal pen you are using to write in your everyday life should be alright until you master all of the fundamental tricks, and it is not too late to find a new one after that.

Remember that there is not any specific pens or mods for beginners or pros, the ones I will recommend are just those cheap and easy to access. But if you know how to get other mods, you can go ahead too. Still not recommend to buy something expensive without knowing you will like it or not.

Unsharpened pencil is one of the greatest choices for beginners during it can be found it most places in this world. Circular barrel one works better but hexagon kind is not bad too. You may add some grip or rubber bands on both ends to have some momentum.

BICtory is one of the most recommended mods to beginners during it’s very cheap, very easy to make, and the materials are accessible in many areas. It is also writable too but you may want to remove the inktube if you worry about ink explosion when you drop it.

Kind of double-capped marker, actually it is the same with BICtory but with different materials. So it has the same advantage as BICtory but in different places you can find different pens, so it is pretty hard to specific which one you should get. Basically you just need 2 of the same markers, put the cap on both ends of 1, and may add some grip and tip for more momentum. Some examples of this kind of mods are Comssa mod, SDR-200 mod, and Rushon mod.

Some people may tell you to not make your own mod at this point, but I do not agree. Making a mod yourself may not be a must, but still important, since it allows you to modify your own weapon to fit with your spinning the most. And this is a good starting point to learn it. Your very first one may look terrible, but it is the same with learning new tricks or linkages in penspinning, it will get better when you practice more.

What is the mod I should get when I progress to higher level?

After you master all of the fundamentals, their reverses, and maybe some easy tricks like Twisted Sonic, Shadow, or Backaround, and be pretty confident that you will not stop penspinning, at least in 2-3 years, you may feel like you want some new mods

Actually, if you are still fine with the same old one you are using, you can keep it too. No need to change to the new one that you do not know you will like it or not. But if you want new ones, there is nothing wrong to change.

But before going to the mod choosing section, I think you need to know which kind of penspinner you want to be. Because different spinning work well with different kinds of mods. If you have no idea, just watch more CVs and solos, find the spinners you like and it may inspire you.

There are 2 main types of spinner, technical focus which focusing in difficulty and new materials in penspinning, and aesthetic focus which focusing in the appealing and beauty of the spinning.

Technical Spinning

Technical focus spinners are those who aim for a higher level in difficulty and materials, trying to find new tricks and linkages, and many of them also aim to participate and win in the competitions.

But even in the technical focus spinners, you can differentiate them into 2 main categories too, powertrick spinner and complex linkage spinner

Powertrick Spinner

Or powertricker, like Spinnerpeem or A13x, they’re focusing on powertricks, those fingerless continuous sequence that look powerful.

Most of powertrick spinners use heavy and long mods for better momentum and wide spinning area so they can do the hard trick easier. Some recommendations are Dr.KT, Ivan mod, BusterCYL, and Menowa* VGG, some people use thicker barrel (Emboss or Giotto Turbo Maxi) like IKUSAFUDE (Menowa*’s Emboss), Ivan Giotto, and A13x Bullet mod, and some also prefer rubber-kind barrel like Dr.BT.

Complex Linkage Spinner

Many spinners focus on the complexity of linkages, to create new and unique spinning. The notable spinners are Slofis, Kagami, Herenz, and Noel

The mods most people here using are medium weight to heavy double-sided mods, like MayuzumiTonbi (Kagami mod), COLORS mod, BSPC, ShinRa Color mod, hash Comssa, and Motsuun Pen (Meves mod), some people prefer heavier mods like Dr.KT, Ivan mod, or BusterCYL but these should be the upper boundary since too heavy mods can make many linkages harder than it should be.

G-3 mod is another choice for this kind of spinning, many linkage focus spinners also using G-3 mod too, but should focus on not too light ones. The recommendations are VAIN G*2, Itezy-3, cafca G-3, eban G-3, and G-COLORS

Aesthetic Spinning

Aesthetic focus spinners are the spinners who focus on aesthetic, beauty, appeal, and how the combo look overall. Sometimes they abandon the difficulty to make their combo look better with more appeal tricks or the tricks they can do it well.

Most of the spinners in this category use mods that have less weight so they do not need to use too much force and can focus on their finger positioning and hand movement.

RSVP MX are one of the most well-known mod pens, as well as one of the hardest to spin during how unbalanced it is. But there are many aesthetic focus spinners like eban, ayaNo, hash, iroziro, airi, or debued using its for both tradition and charm. Many people call these people VP spinners.

If you want to be another VP spinner but feel like RSVP MX is too hard to spin, you may try some of its variations with better balance like RSVP MX^2, Toro MX, Lost MX, coffeelucky MX, or just change the tip to the heavier one like Hi-Tec-C tip or Signo tip

Other well-known variation of RSVP MX is Sunburst MX, which using Pentel Sunburst or Metallic Sunburst as a barrel instead of normal RSVP, and Hi-Tec-C tip instead of HGG tip. This one has better balance but the spinning area is shorter and the barrel texture is different. Another one is Moonz MX which uses RSVP Moonz instead of normal RSVP and Pentel Hybrid Gel Roller or HGR for tip and grip instead of HGG. Moonz barrel is actually pretty much the same with normal RSVP except the barrel texture, and with heavier tip of HGR, this variation is another one that has better balance.

G-3 mod is another notable choice of the aesthetic focus spinner, many of them are half aesthetic and half linkage focus (e.g. VAIN and Mesi) since most of G-3 mods have better momentum than RSVP mods so it is easier to do harder tricks.

The recommendations are pretty much the same as I said on the complex linkage focus, but maybe it’s better to avoid the heavy ones like itezy-3. And on the opposite, light G-3 mods like Caster G-3 and Malimo G-3 are recommended too.

Comssa and Metal Comssa are another good choices, even with most of the aesthetic focus spinners use single-sided mods, that does not mean you cannot use double-sided mods for it. Especially with a normal Comssa which many VP spinners spin it sometimes. Metal Comssa is a good choice if you want something a little bit heavier.

Another double-sided mods that is pretty well-known for aesthetic spinner are Marvymarker-Rushon variations, from Miyana who is one of the best Marvymarker spinners. You can try the normal Marvymarker mod (double-capped Marvymarker with a Signo tip inside each cap), Skymask’s version (using Rushon cap instead of Marvy cap), Miyana’s version (like Skymask’s but with g-spec and HGG tip instead of Signo tip), or if you prefer Rushon barrel, try Nekura’s Rushon.

Keep in mind that there are not only these 2 types of penspinner, but much more like Wipers&Infinity specialists (e.g. Beige, Mind, ippei), 2-Hands spinners (e.g. Laku, oZone, snow), or even the spinners who can make combos in many area like i.suk, Menowa*, or Supawit. If you have no idea which pens/mods you should get, you can start from seeing which kind of mods your idol is using too.

Readymade mods, are they bad?

If you feel like you do not want to make a mod by yourself, you may look into this choice. But before answering it, you need to know there are 2 types of them, the typical mods made by other people and the factory-made.

For the typical mods made by other people, it is just the same mod with other people make it for you. You may get the one that looks better if the modder or store you buy it from has great skill in modding, but it will not be much different from making it yourself. The only notable difference should be the price since it is more expensive to ask other people to make it for you.

And for the factory-made, they come with many brands. The most notable one is Zhigao or ZG from China, and this one also has a lot of models of the spinning pen they are selling. For v15 and v16 that a lot of people know because it is sold all over the world, like in Amazon and other online stores, these two are relatively bad during their short spinning area and too thin diameter compared to the very heavy weight. I have tried some other models too, most of them are not so bad, but still far from saying they are good.

But not all of the factory-made spinning pens are bad, there are some pretty good too. My favorites are ZW-1003, the clear barrel type of San3C’s ZW series, and SpinPro from PSH. This two has decent weight, pretty heavy, with nice spinning area, should be good for powertricks and technical spinning.

But as I said above, penspinners should know how to make a mod by yourself, even though there are some decent readymade but if you buy it and do not feel happy with it, you can adjust it to suit with your spinning later too.

Thank you for reading this long article, I want to remind you again that this post is only for how most people think, mixing with my own preference. But mod choice is very personal so if you have different taste of mod, you do not need to follow this guide. And do not forget to practice regularly. A proper mod can make you progress faster, but it is not a magical tool that can make you get better in no time, so if you do not practice, nothing can help you get better.