Hi there, welcome to the forum,
First of all, there is definately a small amount of play in the system before the drive even counts because in theory as you change up a gear the geartrain is wanting to overtake you in order to catch up with the rest of the drivetrain but that isnt a mechanically proven concept, but electrical tape wound around the cush drives doesnt sound right, aslong as you have changed that that's basically all you can do
with my XJ, it always had a bit of a clunk into first, a lot of it is due to your perception on selecting a gear, you wait until the revs are at a certain point before selecting that gear, within a month of riding that bike on a regular basis you WILL know when/where that bike wants a gear or when/where you shouldnt be changing gear