Hello,
A good friend of mines dog has gone missing. Last spotted on Spring Ash Dr. in Washington Township. His name is Ouzo and is a Silken Windhound. He is very friendly. If you see them or know where they might be please message me or reply to this post So I can let his owner know.
Board: Womier WD75 V2
Keycaps: Hyekit PBT Keycaps,137 Keys Magic Theme
Switches: Outemu Silent Lemon V3
Deskmat: green pu leather with cork backing
Mouse: Redragon ki1ng 4k pro
Story time:
My last board was a Phantom TKL with Otemu Silent Grays and cheap knock off XDA PBT keycaps while quiet, it had a ping that no amount of lube seemed to get rid of. I am unsure if this was the board, the switches or both. But I really wanted a 75% compact and well I thought if I spend 8 hours a day typing on this I should get something a bit nicer than what I had…
Having gotten into keyboards during the start of covid and building a preonic for my SO and getting a prebuilt for myself. I started looking at building a keyboard for my self as the preonic my SO used (XDA keycaps that I am unsure what the name was and Gazzew Boba U4 switches) was so much better than my board. Then a close friend got a Redragon (ANTONIUM MCK745 PRO Wireless) I was floored when I tried that board. This was so much better than the old prebuilds from 6 years ago. It sounded good, felt nice, and it was cheap.
So I went shopping. I had a few requirements, pre installed foam, 82 key 75% layout, pre installed foam, hotswap, prelubed stabilizers, and VIA/QMK. I quickly ran across the WD75 but passed it up as it was tray mounted I thought it would be too loud. So I kept searching, and so many of the 75% boards were missing keys, or had knobs and screens that I didn’t want. But besides being tray mound the WD75 checked all my boxes so I got it anyway. I knew in advance I would be swapping the switches and keycaps. So I had already done my research (Thank you ClickandThock on youtube) for your very thorough videos.I picked the quietest, lightest mid bump tactile I could find. It's basically my old Silent Grays but tetter in every way. Quieter, smoother, better bump and the bump is still just before the actuation point with a good bit of pre travel. Basically a linear but with a slight bit of feedback when you hit the actuation point if you need to be precise about a key press.
I also picked out some Dye-sub PBT WOB MOA profile keycaps as I wanted something with a smaller top than XDA and without decorative legends. Which wont get here for another month. Apparently WOB keycaps with a uniform profile are incredibly hard to find, especially if you want large centered legends. So I tossed on a set my SO had several years ago as my old PBT keycaps were finally starting to shine after 6 years of use. The temp set is “Hyekit PBT Keycaps,137 Keys Magic Theme” I don’t think they are a copy of anyone else’s design, I wasn't able to find anything else like them either at the time or now. Purple and magic isn’t really my thing but they look really nice on it. But I’m going to be taking this on business trips so something a bit less pegan would be nice around the work place. I’ll probably use this again in another build though. I quite like them.
Review:
This is by far the best board I have ever used. It’s quiet, but not silent. Louder than I would think it would be given the switches, this is likely because it’s tray mounted, and wood resonates. However the foam and switches (and likely wood) are doing something. Each key press results in a muffled but deep thock and a quiet but satisfying clack with no ping, with one exception. The spacebar produces a slight ping, but it’s not loud and distracting. I could likely fix it with more lube, but it’s kind of grown on me. I absolutely recommend wood to anyone wanting a deeper sounding board, I’m sold.
The feel is also very nice. Being tray mount and wood, this board is much stiffer than most other boards I have used. This stiffness mixed with the switches produces a very nice bottom out that is neither stiff nor squishy. It's hard to describe as it’s still firm but not a hard stop. Which is important as the switches themselves have a very low actuation force, and it is very easy to bottom them out while typing. The board is heavy and will not flex at all. If there is any unevenness on your desk you are going to have a wobbly board. Good news it is not going to move once you place it down the rubber feet and weight are doing their jobs.
A note on the board before I changed anything. It came with Womeir’s POM linear switches, and Poly Green Transparent keycaps in the MDA profile. I use the Colemak-DH layout and didn’t really even try to type on it before switching it to a uniform keycap. However, I did play with it for a bit. It had a deep loud thocky sound and was quite smooth. If you are wanting to be heard, like liners, and the color green, you would probably be happy with it as is. Out of the Box it was worse than my friend’s Redragon though in my opinion.
Not sure If I should call this a build or a review, but I’m impressed so far.
Board: Womier WD75 V2
Keycaps: Hyekit PBT Keycaps,137 Keys Magic Theme
Switches: Outemu Silent Lemon V3
Story time:
My last board was a Phantom TKL with Otemu Silent Grays and cheap knock off XDA PBT keycaps while quiet, it had a ping that no amount of lube seemed to get rid of. I am unsure if this was the board, the switches or both. But I really wanted a 75% compact and well I thought if I spend 8 hours a day typing on this I should get something a bit nicer than what I had…
Having gotten into keyboards during the start of covid and building a preonic for my SO and getting a prebuilt for myself. I started looking at building a keyboard for my self as the preonic my SO used (XDA keycaps that I am unsure what the name was and Gazzew Boba U4 switches) was so much better than my board. Then a close friend got a Redragon (ANTONIUM MCK745 PRO Wireless) I was floored when I tried that board. This was so much better than the old prebuilds from 6 years ago. It sounded good, felt nice, and it was cheap.
So I went shopping. I had a few requirements, pre installed foam, 82 key 75% layout, pre installed foam, hotswap, prelubed stabilizers, and VIA/QMK. I quickly ran across the WD75 but passed it up as it was tray mounted I thought it would be too loud. So I kept searching, and so many of the 75% boards were missing keys, or had knobs and screens that I didn’t want. But besides being tray mound the WD75 checked all my boxes so I got it anyway.
I knew in advance I would be swapping the switches and keycaps. So I had already done my research (Thank you u/ClickandThock on youtube) for your very thorough videos.I picked the quietest, lightest mid bump tactile I could find. It's basically my old Silent Grays but tetter in every way. Quieter, smoother, better bump and the bump is still just before the actuation point with a good bit of pre travel. Basically a linear but with a slight bit of feedback when you hit the actuation point if you need to be precise about a key press.
I also picked out some Dye-sub PBT WOB MOA profile keycaps as I wanted something with a smaller top than XDA and without decorative legends. Which wont get here for another month. Apparently WOB keycaps with a uniform profile are incredibly hard to find, especially if you want large centered legends. So I tossed on a set my SO had several years ago as my old PBT keycaps were finally starting to shine after 6 years of use. The temp set is “Hyekit PBT Keycaps,137 Keys Magic Theme” I don’t think they are a copy of anyone else’s design, I wasn't able to find anything else like them either at the time or now. Purple and magic isn’t really my thing but they look really nice on it. But I’m going to be taking this on business trips so something a bit less pegan would be nice around the work place. I’ll probably use this again in another build though. I quite like them.
Review:
This is by far the best board I have ever used. It’s quiet, but not silent. Louder than I would think it would be given the switches, this is likely because it’s tray mounted, and wood resonates. However the foam and switches (and likely wood) are doing something. Each key press results in a muffled but deep thock and a quiet but satisfying clack with no ping, with one exception. The spacebar produces a slight ping, but it’s not loud and distracting. I could likely fix it with more lube, but it’s kind of grown on me. I absolutely recommend wood to anyone wanting a deeper sounding board, I’m sold.
The feel is also very nice. Being tray mount and wood, this board is much stiffer than most other boards I have used. This stiffness mixed with the switches produces a very nice bottom out that is neither stiff nor squishy. It's hard to describe as it’s still firm but not a hard stop. Which is important as the switches themselves have a very low actuation force, and it is very easy to bottom them out while typing.
The board is heavy and will not flex at all. If there is any unevenness on your desk you are going to have a wobbly board. Good news it is not going to move once you place it down the rubber feet and weight are doing their jobs.
A note on the board before I changed anything. It came with Womeir’s POM linear switches, and Poly Green Transparent keycaps in the MDA profile. I use the Colemak-DH layout and didn’t really even try to type on it before switching it to a uniform keycap. However, I did play with it for a bit. It had a deep loud thocky sound and was quite smooth. If you are wanting to be heard, like liners, and the color green, you would probably be happy with it as is. Out of the Box it was worse than my friend’s Redragon though in my opinion.
This my new to me rebuilt Squire Telecaster. My friend had to move across country and she couldn't take it with her.
I'm not a guitar player, but I do play Irish banjo and do my own luthering on them.
So I went to work on the tele. checked the nut and frets everything was level and the nut action was good but the frets and nut slots were fought so I polished them.
The bridge wasn't straight so I filled an redrilled it. Then did a setup on it with Ernie Ball rock-'n'-roll 8s.
Ripped the cheap electronics and pickups out and replaced them Bootstrap Palo Duro pickups, A250k fender/CTS pots, .47 cap, treble bleed, and an Oak grisby 4 way switch. All connected together with fabric push back wire. Which is a dream to work with I highly recommend it.
Thinking of adding a pearloid guard but not sure about it.
It feels good for what's basically a $100 guitar if I don't count my time.
Also this is Ivy. She is a Silken Windhound and is very confused about why I would disturb her slumber with a funny looking wood board.
I'm tired I'll learn to play it tomorrow.
Getting a free tele working again. Figured might as well get decent pickups if I'm going to bother with redoing the electronics anyway.
