I’m very new to the mechanical keyboard community, though I’ve owned a couple keyboards in the past, this is my first mechanical keyboard. After some research I bought keycaps and a lubing kit from Amazon in my quest to make it sound like the keyboards in those Youtube videos. I think it turned out pretty well but I suppose I would just like to know what people with more experience than me think about this keyboard. (sorry for terrible picture I really don’t have a good camera)
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Hello and welcome to KeebTalk - if you like the keeb, it’s a success!
This is a great place to ask around for tips to get the results you’re looking for - and what you’re looking for is really what it’s all about at the end of the day. I say at very minimum you got some practical tuning experience and now have a much better keyboard than you did when you started - all of which I’d call a good start, indeed.
If you find yourself with any questions now or later, you’re in the right place.
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I want to dampen the spacebar sound a little bit more because it sort of sounds and feels like its slamming down, any tips?
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Definitely! There are a handful of things you can do to dampen a space bar. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but should be plenty to get you started:
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Keycap o-rings: if you don’t mind reduced travel, this is a really easy way to take the edge off of a harsh space bar; simply slip an o-ring around the center stem (and maybe the side ones depending on whether or not your stabilizers will accommodate them) and re-mount the cap. You can get a whole bag of these for pretty cheap and worse case, it’s just about the easiest to un-do mod out there.
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QMX clips: kind of like o-rings, but not. These clip-onto switches and similarly reduce travel - but unlike o-rings which only dampen the downstroke, these dampen the up-stroke, too.
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Dampened switch: another option is to swap the switch under the space bar for one with built-in dampening; silent switches. Some are mushy and quiet, but some retain a bit of firmness along with a “thud” sound - TTCs and Kailhs being some of the latter.
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Un-clipped stabilizer stems: most stabs these days are just flat at the bottom, but go back more than a couple years and you’ll see little legs on the bottom of the stems - these are plastic leaf spring dampeners. Most enthusiasts clip them off for consistency with the other keys, but they’re there for a reason: they do take the edge off those wider keys. If in doubt, just about any set of Cherry stabs will have these on the stems.
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Padding under stabilizer stems: the band-aid mod, but taken further; placing a small bit of padding under the stabilizer stem can also really help take the edge off. Lots of vendors sell little kits of these pre-cut, but it’s also not too hard to cut your own from some thin adhesive foam.
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NuPhy’s Ghost Bar: a relatively recent product that exists for this very purpose; it’s a space bar with built-in dampening. Essentially, the center stem is a silicone insert that absorbs a lot of the harsh vibes without introducing as much mush as an o-ring, silent switch, or stabilizer padding might.
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Thanks a bunch! I’ll take some of these into consideration.
Firstly, welcome.
This community is quite diverse so you may get different opinions - some people like all sorts of stuff as long as it’s keyboards, some will only respond if they see a gold plated PCB in a tungsten vanadium case, hand-engraved by dwarves from Moria.
For what it’s worth, my opinion is that you have discovered the most fun part of the hobby (spelled H O B B Y, pronounced obsession). That is to say, taking whatever board you have and improving it using your skill and creativity.
I got started in keebs with a GK61 and while I have acquired other boards that I like better, I still have it and it’s been improved many times over the past years. I still use it as a testbed for switches that I’m dubious about.
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Thanks for the feedback!
Hey welcome to KT man! Like Mark said there are all types in this hobby, but don’t let anyone tell you the board is not good for whatever reason. Ultimately the only thing that matters is if you are happy with it. Now this possibly could be where you fall down the rabbit hole & get into more high end customs. Although if you are happy with that & not interested in higher end customs that’s also valid. Overall I think you went about it the right way. Much better to start off with something budget friendly. That way you can see if the hobby is something that’ll keep your interest & get some practice at modding a keyboard up. Now if you decide to get something more expensive you’ll have a much better ideal of what you’re getting into & already have experience modding so you’ll be a lot more confident with that stuff also.
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