so ive been trying to get back into CW after maybe a 15 year break and i picked up a used Bencher paddle and hooked it to my K3 internal keyer and honestly the dits and dahs just sound... off? like not crisp. i know my fist was never great but this sounds worse than i remember. been practicing with the built in sidetone and something about the spacing between characters feels wrong but i cant put my finger on it exactly. been running around 15-16 wpm which is slower than i used to operate but i figured id work back up gradually.

is this a keyer weight setting thing? i messed with the weight adjustment a little but honestly i dont fully understand what that does. or could it be the paddle tension/gap? the paddle feels a little loose maybe, the previous owner might have had it set different from what im used to. just wondering if anyone else went through this kind of re-learning thing and what helped

yeah the weight adjustment can really mess you up if its not set right. basically it changes the ratio of the dit length to the spacing between elements -- if its too heavy the dits start bleeding into each other and everything sounds mushy like you're describing. on most rigs default weight is 50 which is supposed to be neutral but some people prefer 45-48 for a cleaner sound especially at slower speeds. worth setting it back to 50 and starting from there.

the paddle gap is a big deal too. a lot of used paddles get set up for someone elses hands and preferences. the Bencher is pretty adjustable so id look up the adjustment procedure and start fresh -- snug but not tight on the contacts, maybe a business card width of gap to start and go from there. takes a bit of fiddling but once its dialed in for you it makes a huge difference. and honestly at 15 wpm the muscle memory stuff takes a few weeks to come back, dont get discouraged

oh man i went through the exact same thing last year coming back after about 8 years away. mine turned out to be the keyer speed was right but my iambic mode was set to mode B and i kept getting extra dits at the end of characters without realizing it. switched to mode A and suddenly things cleaned up a lot. might not be your issue but worth checking what mode your K3 is set to if you havent already