What are your keycap and keyboard combos that you just can’t break up? What’s the Thelma and Louise of your collection? Your peanut butter and jelly? Your Hanna and Barbera?
For me, it would be silver ano. and JTK Hyperfuse. Hyperfuse has some great colors, but the alphas seem to pop the best with a neutral ano. like silver. I think as long as I have this set, it has to sit on the board.
What a great idea for a thread; this has come up in conversation for me at least twice in the past week.
This is probably my most “locked-in” board right now:
I test switches with this Portico, but I don’t really ever see using another keyset on it. Cyber looks awesome on this board, PBT Taro looks perfect. (In my opinion, of course.) It’s also functionally suitable for a tester keeb, being made of PBT.
Or maybe it’s this one:
KBD67L Transparent (smoky grey) case & GMK Prepress.
There’s a slight chance I’ll move to the solid grey case whenever it comes in, but probably not; it would have to compliment the set even better than this one does. I use this keeb at my prepress day job - and sometimes at home, too.
I’ve also settled on TTC Silent Bluish White switches, grey Equalz V3 stabs, the R2 bluetooth PCB, and the R1 polycarb plate for this more or less final permutation.
I’m also finding this combo really hard to quit:
KBD67L Transparent Purple case & GMK Mecha-01. Low-key this is probably the most choice keeb I have assembled right now.
It’s got a KBD67 MKII V3 PCB, GMK screw-in stabs tuned with XHT-BDZ & 205g0, an FR4 plate from Hypekeyboards.ca, and green TTC Wilds. Like with the grey one, there’s a slim chance I’ll swap this dark purple translucent case for the bright violet one when it arrives, but probably not. Same for the purple polycarb plate and GoPolar purp stabs; they fit thematically and aesthetically… but will they be this good?
I’ve approached this keeb two or three times to switch something out and stopped - it’s… nearly perfect. Perhaps it’s best not to disturb such a gestalt; that’s actually why I built the blacked-out keeb the other night. I was just going to swap this keeb into the black case and keys, but decided I’d rather build a whole new one from my literal drawer-full of KBD67 parts than mess with this one.
Last one, I promise. For now. I might change this one at some point, but I include it here because I’ve definitely experienced that, “man, I don’t know if I ever want to change this” feeling with this keeb:
KBD67 v3 grey anodized aluminum case & GMK Phantom.
I also have a brass plate on this, which I also think compliments the set. I could sooner see sticking with the same or very similar colors, but moving to a keeb with a more refined execution. I love my KBD67 v3, but that middle seam comes across as an after-thought, and in my mind, this set deserves the best. There’s a chance I’ll stumble on some color that somehow compliments this set better than a neutral grey-silver, but I’m not seeing it.
This has tan Wilds in it, and I’m not in any hurry to swap them out. IIRC this one has the MKII V2 PCB from R1 as well as the factory hand-tuned Cherry (GMK?) stabs from R1. No recording of this one in its current form yet.
Aside: I made the mistake of using this keeb during winter weather and zapped it with ESD; it survived, but the RGB LED under Caps Lock got fried. I count myself lucky on that one.
The Portico is more or less my daily and as my primary tester, it definitely sees the most use - but that may also somewhat disqualify it from being locked-in, depending on your perspective.
It’s also the only one on my list that isn’t a third-generation KBD67. Here’s a final-form family photo of those:
Last one, I promise.
I lied, but not on purpose. Added some sound recordings to make up for it.
How could I forget this one from just the other day? Totally didn’t plan it this way, but I now have a hard time imagining separating this pair:
Buger.work BBOX60 C64 case & MCR Horseman (kit B)
My first (second, and third) thought for this keeb was to put an all-dark-brown set on it, like breadbin C64s had - but this looks so much cooler than I expected it to. In its box, the orange-brown was only kind of appealing to me, but on this keeb… man, I love it.
The TTC Frozen Silents also work great in the build, and I’m thinking this is where they live now. Being linear they are a nice nod to the Breadbin’s Mitsumis, while being about a thousand times more smooth and pleasant to any given sense. Far from silent, but the sound is pleasantly dampened.
It gives me this nostalgic feeling for an idealized version of the 70s, or more specifically, a retro-future that has its aesthetic. OG Star Wars, maybe - but with like, shag carpet, man.
Incidentally, there’s a sticker of Chewwy as a wookie on the bottom of this.
I’m going with the transparent KBD67L and IFK’s Apple WoB. It reminds me of the old iMac G3. Good times.
The Leaf60 was my first real GB/custom keyboard. I’ve tried a lot of boards and layouts since then but keep coming back to this one. I built it with Roselios and they have worn in very nicely. I’ve also tried a number of keysets on this but always go back to r1 of pbt Heavy Industry. SA violet on cream was nice for a time but I like the texture on the pbt more than the ultra slick feel of SA. In the end the yellow on Heavy Industry works really well with the brass plate showing through the polycarb imo.