This is a bit of a strange request, and also probably a long shot, but: would anyone within a couple hour drive of Connecticut own a Beam Spring keyboard from @Ellipse / modelfkeyboards.com, and be up for letting me drive over and try it out? Or, barring that, does anyone know of an upcoming meetup where I’d find one?
Every time I remember this awesome project exists and an order window is open I come so close to pulling the trigger on something, but I just find it a little hard to drop $300+ on a keyboard with a switch iteration that I’ve never yet felt for myself. Everything about it seems awesome, I just wish I could try it!
Hello, project coordinator here. Glad you are looking at beam spring keyboards! Not sure if a quick try is the most helpful approach if you’re serious about getting one of these great old style boards. Probably most of those who get a beamspring have never tried one before and will get used to the sound and feel.
Spending a short time trying it out probably won’t give you a good assessment. The reason this keyboard feels great to type on is precisely because of the high quality components, much of which is metal, and how it is best for comfort with long typing sessions; you wouldn’t see the most salient benefits after a short try.
Reminds me of the Pepsi Challenge from many years ago. If I remember correctly, when an academic study was done to evaluate the veracity of this challenge, most folks preferred a sip of Pepsi but overwhelmingly preferred Coke once they drank the full contents of each can.
Plus you could always resell the board later, as a number of folks have done through mechmarket and eBay. This is true for any board. But here’s some proof: these new Model F and beam springs are costly boards as you mention. If there were so many folks who didn’t end up liking them, wouldn’t they want to sell them to recoup their investment? So few people end up reselling these keyboards that from my tracking, more than 97% of the 7,000 keyboards shipped since 2019 have never been resold. They are truly Buy It For Life.
Oops, didn’t reply to you in my last comment so here goes again.
You know, your headquarters in Garden City are not that far from me. Do you allow in person visits? ; )
I hear what you’re saying. The best things in life are an acquired taste. But that doesn’t mean that I’m guaranteed to like everything that is an acquired taste. There are a few simple dealbreakers that only take a moment to notice. In this case, one of the things I have in mind is: switch weighting. In my experience, this really does just have to be right for the individual, much more so than sound etc.
I do not, sorry, but again, the best way to see if you like these boards is to use them for a month or so, then decide what to do with them. You can’t accurately trial them by spending less than a day with the board. The weighting is quite similar to many mechanical keyboards, I think around 45 to 55g. The typing is so good and unique on these IBM style boards that many so-called dealbreakers like keyboard volume, size, and weight end up not mattering compared to the typing experience after trying it for a while.
There was a recent reddit post where someone was showing off their new beamspring. Looks like they had to wait for more than 3 years, but looking at the production updates I would guess that it would be less now that they’ve cleared the factory. No hint as to where the OP is located in that post, though. Here is the manual that describes some of the quirks of the project.
Count me among those who think it’s the very rare product indeed that doesn’t benefit at least somewhat from a “test drive,” so best of luck with tracking one down, though it seems like it may be a challenge for now.
I didn’t know he was active here, but glad to see. I own 2 model F keyboard from him. I plan to pick up an SSK model at some point.
If you’re interested in a vintage piece of tech with modern convenience of support and repairability, I would highly recommend picking one up. It will last a lifetime and I’m quite sure you could get a good price for it if you decide it’s not for you.
In fact, I plan to purchase a beam spring at some point. Maybe we can make a deal where you pick one out we both like and I will pay you back if you don’t like it.
That’s very kind of you to offer. If I did resell it there would of course be a bit of a discount compared to the original price, so perhaps we could make it a win-win in that sense.