Parts / ASAs

Aftermarket ASAs

The Ion aftermarket for ASAs, drop forwards, and micro regulators turned out to be a lot bigger than a quick look online suggests — most of it just never got well catalogued, and it's scattered across brands that folded or closed years ago. Almost everything below is legacy/NOS territory now rather than something you can simply order new.

Don't confuse the ASA (Air source adapter) with the vertical adapter. The ASA is the separate piece that bolts to the bottom of the grip frame with two 1/8" hex screws and mounts the tank. The vertical adapter — where the regulator threads in — is built into the grip frame itself and isn't something you swap out here. See Regulator & ASA for the full breakdown of both.

Stock ASA

A standard duckbill-style ASA, bolted on rather than threaded — that's why it's just two screws to remove. Standard 10-32 hole spacing (0.75" between holes), which is also why the aftermarket options below aren't Ion-exclusive products — they're universal duckbill/dovetail ASAs that happen to fit.

Aftermarket ASAs

Currently sold Discontinued Unclear / not confirmed

2K5 On/Off ASA — Dust Black Custom Products (CP) Mine — photos pending. CP's 2K5 is the dovetail-mount on/off ASA in their lineup (as opposed to the bolt-on Direct Mount line below) — System Bleed venting, near-zero-resistance turning action. Verified directly: ANSXtreme currently lists the 2K5 Dovetail line genuinely in stock with a working add-to-cart, despite CP's closure — this is residual stock, not ongoing production, so treat it as a "get it while it lasts" situation rather than a stable, restockable source.
2K5 On/Off ASA — Gloss Black Custom Products (CP) Mine — photos pending, and this one needs extra scrutiny: every "Gloss Black" CP on/off ASA listing found at retail is titled Pro Mini, CP's smaller/lighter dovetail successor to the 2K5 — not 2K5 itself. Could be a 2K5 in a finish that just isn't well-documented online, or could be a Pro Mini that's been misremembered as 2K5 — the two are easy to mix up without a side-by-side size comparison. Worth measuring against a confirmed 2K5 once photos are in.
2K5 On/Off ASA — Gloss Blue Custom Products (CP) Mine — photos pending, same caveat as the Gloss Black 2K5 above: every "Gloss Blue" CP on/off ASA listing found at retail is titled Pro Mini, not 2K5. Worth a size check against a confirmed 2K5 once photos arrive.
Direct Mount Mini On/Off ASA — Chrome Custom Products (CP) Mine — photos pending, and the color name here needs a second look: no retailer lists a "Chrome" Direct Mount Mini specifically — the line's documented shiny finishes are "Gloss Silver" and "Black Polished" instead. Could be either of those under a more casual name, or a genuine but poorly-documented finish — worth comparing directly against reference photos of both once my own photos are in.
Direct Mount Mini On/Off ASA — Dust Black Custom Products (CP) Mine — photos pending. CP's Direct Mount Mini bolts straight to the grip frame with no rail needed (unlike the dovetail-mount 2K5/Pro Mini above) — a smaller, lighter redesign of CP's original Direct Mount ASA. Confirmed as a real, separately-sold SKU (Fearless Paintball carried this exact listing, now out of stock).
Direct Mount Mini On/Off ASA — Dust Silver Custom Products (CP) Mine — photos pending. Same Direct Mount Mini body as the Dust Black entry above, in CP's matte silver finish — the best-attested of the three Direct Mount Mini colorways I own, confirmed under this exact name at both Amazon and Fearless Paintball (both now sold out).
On/Off ASA — Gloss Black (1st generation?) Custom Products (CP) Mine — photos pending. CP's on/off ASA was reportedly their best-selling product; Gloss Black is a standard finish across the line. My own "1st generation" note — distinguished by a knurled knob — couldn't be confirmed against any CP catalog or manual. Later/2K5-era listings do consistently market a "smooth-turning" knob as an improvement, which is circumstantial support, but knurled knobs are common across many brands' ASAs generally and don't reliably date a CP part on their own. Treating "1st generation" as my own working label rather than a confirmed manufacturer designation unless I have independent evidence, like a date-stamped part.
On/Off Bottomline Dovetail ASA Shocktech Mine — photos pending. A dovetail-mount bottomline ASA with an integrated on/off valve; ANSgear's own listing for this exact product is filed in their discontinued "Paintball Graveyard." Shocktech as a brand has since re-launched (shocktechusa.com) and currently sells a conceptually similar on/off-ASA-with-drop, but at a different spec — not confirmed to be the same part, so treating mine as the original, now-discontinued SKU.
On/Off ASA Smart Parts Mine — photos pending. Smart Parts' own factory on/off ASA option (part numbers VLVDTA200BLK/SLV), a dovetail-mount block with a quarter-turn valve for venting line air without breaking down the tank — distinct from the plain stock duckbill ASA above. Worth noting: the parts diagrams this SKU turns up on are for the Eos, Shocker NXT/SFT03, and Epiphany, not the Ion by name specifically — it's dovetail-compatible with the whole family including the Ion, but check whether your unit is boxed or stamped for one of those siblings rather than "Ion." Smart Parts itself folded in 2010; this is NOS/used-market only.
Bottomline ASA Taso Mine — photos pending. Taso (The Adventure Sport Outfitters) made a duckbill-style bottomline ASA that's a direct swap for the Ion's own stock duckbill ASA, sold in Black, Silver, and Chrome. Taso stopped producing new parts years ago, so this is existing/NOS stock rather than an active product line.
Eazy Turn On/Off ASA Trinity Included a degas system, lifetime warranty from Trinity Paintball, and fit "all 2-hole standard markers" — which covers the Ion's standard duckbill mount. Confirmed discontinued, no current retailer stock found — ANSgear's own listing is filed in their "Paintball Graveyard."
Generic duckbill on/off ASA Various (MasterSconi and similar) Unbranded aluminum duckbill ASAs built to the same standard 10-32, 0.75" hole spacing the Ion uses — cheap and functional, but no maker reputation or warranty behind them the way there is with a name brand. An eBay search for these terms keeps turning up results, consistent with "currently sold," but no single specific listing is stable enough to link to directly — no link included for that reason.

On/off matters more than brand. The stock ASA has no shutoff valve of its own — the marker's regulator handles pressure, not the ASA. An on/off ASA like the ones above just adds a quick-purge convenience for degassing without fully unscrewing the tank; it doesn't replace anything about how the marker regulates air.

Aftermarket Drop Forwards

A drop forward relocates the ASA — and the tank with it — forward and/or down from the grip frame, freeing up hand clearance around a larger tank. It's a different upgrade than the on/off ASAs above: a drop forward is a mounting adapter, not a valve. Most drop forwards pair with a separate on/off ASA or bottomline bolted to the drop's own rail, rather than including on/off functionality themselves.

Currently sold Discontinued Unclear / not confirmed

Drop Forward — Micro Razor — Gloss Black Custom Products (CP) Mine — photos pending. CP's compact drop forward — 1.3" down / 2" forward, the smallest CP drop that still lets you screw a tank on and off. "Gloss Black" is CP's polished-anodize finish, distinct from their matte "Dust Black." Verified directly: ANSXtreme currently lists this exact SKU with a working add-to-cart, "Usually Ships in 24 Hours," despite CP's closure — residual stock, not ongoing production.
Drop Forward — Razor — Gloss Blue Custom Products (CP) Mine — photos pending, and worth a close look: the standard Razor (2" down / 3" forward, inline screw holes) is a genuinely different part from CP's Spyder-specific "Spyder Razor" (offset holes, different frame-mount geometry) — and "Gloss Blue" turned up more readily attached to the Spyder version in search results than the standard one. Ion frames use inline holes like the standard Razor, not Spyder's offset pattern, so worth confirming the mounting-hole layout on the physical part before captioning it as the plain Razor.
Flame Drop Forward — Black Custom Products (CP) Mine — photos pending. The genuine CP original (distinct from the unbranded "Flame-style" copy above) — 2" down / 3" forward, two inline mounting holes (explicitly does not fit Spyder frames, which is the easiest visual tell versus the Spyder variant). ANSgear's own listing is filed in their discontinued "Paintball Graveyard" — the linked page is the Chrome colorway specifically (a Black-specific listing wasn't separately found), but the whole line is confirmed discontinued there.
Lightning Drop Forward — Chrome Custom Products (CP) Mine — photos pending, and the finish name needs a second look: every documented Lightning color list found (Black, Blue, Purple, Red, Green, Pewter, Silver, Yellow, Nickel, plus Dust variants) includes "Nickel" as the bright/shiny option, not "Chrome" — Chrome is well-documented for CP's Flame and Micro Razor lines instead, not Lightning. Possible this is a genuine but under-documented Lightning finish, or a Nickel piece being described as "Chrome" by eye — worth comparing the actual drop-forward shape too, since Lightning has a notably longer throw (2.5" down / 5" forward) than Flame or Micro Razor.
Drop Forward (original) Dye Precision Mine — photos pending. Dye's full-size drop forward — a longer offset than the Mini above, same standard dovetail mount. Currently sold out everywhere checked; Dye's current catalog has moved on to a different on/off system (SLAP) for modern markers rather than the classic drop-forward form, so this one isn't coming back into production.
Mini Drop Forward Dye Precision Mine — photos pending. Dye's compact drop forward, roughly 1.5" of forward throw, mounts to any standard dovetail rail. A genuinely separate SKU from the full-size "Drop Forward" below, not just a smaller listing of the same part — confirmed as two distinct product pages at multiple retailers, both currently sold out.
Bullet Drop Forward Psycho Ballistics Mine — photos pending. A heavily-milled drop forward with an integrated on/off ASA for screw-in tanks, sold in Blue, Chrome, and Green historically. E-Paintball's own listing files it under Discontinued Items — that's the source actually verified directly (a claim that this same listing exists in ANSgear's "Paintball Graveyard" specifically couldn't be re-confirmed; only the Psycho Ballistics marker itself was found there, not this drop forward). E-Paintball is a dormant store, so this is a reference link, not confirmed current stock. One thing worth confirming against the physical part: at least one owner report describes this model's dovetail as reversed and a non-standard width, meaning the on/off half may not swap onto a standard rail the way most of the other drop forwards on this page do.
Drop Forward (unidentified) Shocktech Mine — a second Shocktech drop forward, model not yet identified at all. Confirmed models in Shocktech's numbered lineup for comparison once photos arrive: #0 ("Back Drop," for large .45 N2 tanks, keeps the tank back rather than forward), #1 (~0.5" forward, tournament-favorite), and #2 (Style 1). There's also a separate Tippmann A5-specific sub-line — worth checking the part for "A5" or "Tippmann" markings, since those aren't interchangeable with the generic Ion-compatible line.
Drop Forward #3 or #5, Style 2 Shocktech Mine — photos pending; the exact model needs narrowing down. Shocktech's drop-forward lineup uses two independent labels: a number (0, 1, 2, 3, 5) for how far forward the tank moves, and a "Style" for a cosmetic/structural body redesign. Both a "#3 Style 2" and "#5 Style 2" are real, separately-catalogued SKUs — the one confirmed visual tell for genuine Style 2 parts is a milled "ST" logo cut into the body. No published measurements distinguish #3 from #5 specifically, so this will need a direct look at the part, or a measurement against the marker, once photos are in.
S-Rail ("mini rail") Smart Parts Mine — photos pending. Smart Parts' factory name for this is the "S-Rail," not "mini rail" — a short dovetail-to-dovetail block that mounts a bottomline ASA (or the Max-Flo Micro regulator below) close to the grip frame with minimal offset, for players who don't want a full-length drop. Confirmed via Smart Parts' own Max-Flo Micro manual, which lists the S-Rail as part of that kit. NOS/used-market only now.
Flame-style Drop Forward (unbranded) Unbranded (Custom Products Flame design) Mine — photos pending. My own shorthand for this was "Clone Custom Products Flame," but "Clone" isn't an actual paintball brand — no manufacturer by that name turned up anywhere. The Flame shape itself is a genuine Custom Products (CP) design (now discontinued, CP closed in early 2026), but the exact CP shape has also been widely copied and sold unbranded by other sellers for years. If my part carries no CP stamping, it's most likely one of these unbranded copies — which, unlike the genuine CP original, may still be in production and purchasable new from generic aftermarket sellers. Worth checking for a maker's mark once photos are in.

Micro Regulators

Not a drop forward or an ASA swap — these mount via a small dovetail rail (like Smart Parts' own S-Rail above) and thread a compact, pre-set regulator into the air line between the tank and the marker.

Currently sold Discontinued Unclear / not confirmed

Max-Flo Micro Smart Parts Mine — photos pending. A compact, rebuildable preset tank regulator (750–800 psi output, non-adjustable) confirmed via Smart Parts' own factory manual — front and rear body halves, inline on/off knob, small gauge, inline filter, and a burst disc. Ships with — and mounts via — the S-Rail above, connecting to the marker by macroline rather than threading directly into the frame; it's not a drop-forward or grip-frame swap. Sold in 3000 psi and 4500 psi versions that aren't interchangeable. NOS/used-market only now — E-Paintball's own listing (filed under Discontinued Items) is a reference link, not confirmed current stock, since that store is dormant.