Spacebar Sound Uneven

Hey’all! I’m completely new to all this and just finished my first build over the weekend. It’s the Blade65 from KBD Fans. I’m using KTT Roses and PBT Cherry Milkshake on top. To me the majority of keys sound good but I’m really unhappy about the spacebar.

The stabilizers I’ve put in are the ones that come with the board. As you hopefully can hear in the recording as well the spacebar sounds a bit too hollow, especially when I tap it lightly. To my ears its more noticeable on the right side of the bar vs. the left.

I wanted to get y’all’s opinion on it before I open that puppy up again. Do you think this can be helped with with better lubing or is there something else going on? I’ve used dielectric grease for the stabilizer wires and 205G0 for the housings and stems. They sounded a tad more hollow so I tuned it using a syringe and more 205G0 before I closed it up.

Your help is much appreciated :slight_smile:

Sounds rattly on both sides to be honest, right side is just more rattly than the other.

They also sound like you didn’t use any lube on them, are those the KBDFans PC transparent stabs?

My KBD67 Lite came with them, and while ticking is hard to get rid of with them, they don’t get this bad like in your video, and ideally your aim should be clean sound without any sort of rattle or tick.

Maybe try using more dielectric grease on them, try looking up one of the popular tutorial videos on YT to get an idea on the amount of lube you should apply.

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Thanks for your quick response @Cloud983 :slight_smile: Very much appreciated. Yeah I was trying to stick close to what Alexotos shows in his video “How to mod stabilizers”. But I deffo tried to stick to the advice of rather applying less and eventually adding more later on. I should have tested more before putting the whole keeb together. I just got to excited I guess ;D

Those are the stabs which came with the board. I’ve used the adhesive washers + as recommended in different videos I’ve clipped of the little hooks on the bottom of the stems too.

Well if adding more lube didn’t work, besides re-doing the stabs again properly, maybe those stabilizers are just bad.

Different stabilizers have different degress of tolerances that affects rattling and ticking.

Those could be genuine Cherry stabilizers, which are not bad, but not ideal, or could be some generic ones that are bad.

I’d try re-doing them to make sure and if not, you could try ordering better ones, the latest hyped ones are TX stabs or Staebies, I’ve yet to try them so I can’t give an opinion.

Thanks again @Cloud983, sounds like a plan. Have you had a chance to try out Durock Screw-In Stabilisers V2? I’ve heard them being mentioned in different keeb Twitch streams.

What happens when you remove the switch top, does it still sound uniformly rattly?

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The Durock V2 would be a significant improvement over what you sent.

I use similar stabs and they work mostly fine, aside for some ticking sometimes.

From what I’ve seen TX Stabs and Staebies go for the same price as the Durock V2 and are considered much better.

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Thanks for your reply @ajoflo :slight_smile: Why would this change the rattly sound of the stabs? I’m down to testing it as soon as I have some free time. Just trying to understand why this would / could help.

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Coolio! Thanks @Cloud983! Found a site that has both the TX and Staebies in stock. Will deffo grab a bunch of those :slight_smile:

It wouldn’t, but it would eliminate the possibility that the center press rattle I heard isn’t from the switch slider unnecessarily colliding with the top housing due to a bit of spacebar warpage. If the rattle persists, then you know it’s either a bent wire or more lube is needed to properly insulate the wire within the stab stem.

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Ahhhh I see! Thanks a lot for the tip and the explanation. I make sure to try this too.

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Hi @MrKeeby just had your same issue on my Feker IK75: solved it after redoing the plumber’s mod (as the first try was too much, making the stab itself a little stiff) and straightened a little more my spacebar keycap with hot water (and putting a couple of binders on it as weight), which was a little curve.
Gave a look at spacebar’ stab wire too, but it was already OK.

Since I had remove it from keeb, took the chance to re-lube a little the stabs again and now it’s definitely better.