I thought about that, and on the boards that I could swap switches I did. I don’t really have a ton of switches to try though
On the CW60 I tried a few long poles like baby raccoons, ws morandi, bsun bcp, haimus, and some others but none of them really clicked and felt awkward, I tried some normal poles like tangies or alpacas and I thought that felt better but sort of boring and didn’t sound all that nice. The lunar probes I actually wasn’t that big of a fan in other builds but trying it in the cw was a really nice match. I still think the keypress is still a bit too abrupt but I like the general bottoming out feel more in the cw than I did in other builds, and it feels more lively without awkward. One of the problems I had with the CW is that it just felt a bit too muted in typing experience, like overly dampened where it was kinda just not engaging to type on, but the lunar probes were one of the few switches I had on hand that I thought helped to remove that. Also a nice sound as well as a plus. I also found that I liked pbt caps more with it than abs interestingly, don’t know why, made the board feel and sound more solid, typically I end up liking abs more.
For the nazare, for being an oring mount, it doesn’t really feel like one, it’s sort of in the middle between a higher hardness oring and an isolated mount. That being said, unfortunately it’s not the best of both, I think it doesn’t have the dullness/stiffness of an isolated mount but also doesn’t have the bounce and liveliness of an oring mount, but it is consistent like an oring mount. It actually sits a bit loose in the case by design but you can’t really feel that when typing like you can with the angel for example (which is a good thing). This kinda led to a lot of switches feeling somewhat kinda more similar and not really one standout over another. This is with the alu and not cf plate btw. I do think that long poles work decently well in there, but eventually settled on sp star meteor v2 which I think are a nice lighter switch for that build that made it reasonably pleasant and also was a nice clackier switch in sound since I found that deeper more muted switches just sounded dull in the build. I haven’t tried any tactiles in this one though, so that might be the next step, maybe it will come alive more there. But I am still happy with the result with the stars.
I have only tried the nixies in the derivative, but I did specifically want a bit heavier switch with more scratch and nuance to the keypress and sound and they deliver on that front, I genuinely do think I’d like this more if there was something like a black or nixie in both feel and sound with a lighter weighting, but I should just spring swap at that point lol. I do want to do a build with long pole switches, I think those would work well. It’s just that I should really give things more time before messing around with it, and I hate desoldering lol. So this one is on me yes, I have a feeling like other switches might make me more favorable on it (though on other non 60 builds I really do like a well tuned mx black). I was surprised there wasn’t as big of a difference between 35a and 50a oring, while 35a was a bit softer it wasn’t really more bouncy and wasn’t that big of a change, and it also didn’t sound as nice as well, 50a was just more my preference. I did try I think a 70a and that was a bit too much and didn’t really do anything for the sound either, so 50a was the way to go. I’ll have to try top and leaf and see how I feel about that. I think I might have soured a bit on leafspring mounts but I’ll get over that bias and see how it is lol. Right now the deriviative does have the characteristics I appreciate about oring mount, it is nice, and the more I use it the more I like it, but I do think it’s limited by the switches I picked. I do think that vs the typ60 it feels less lively, it’s not as bouncy and the vibration characteristics are more traditional whereas the vibration of the keypress on the typ60 feels more unique and more satisfying to me (it almost has more of an immediate “slap” with a quick trail off whereas the jjw is more the traditional sort of vibration you’d expect from an oring board, not as extreme as something like a plateless oring f1 though which I also enjoy lol)
For the angel I found that linears weren’t really my jam and that it felt more interesting with tactiles (although I only tried a few switches just to check since desoldering sucks lol), the original build is with bolsa corsa and I think that’s a nice match (remind me of more tactile zaku actually, but maybe that’s just the plate doing it’s thing and making it feel more tactile than it is). I like it as is, so I don’t want to dick around with it too much lol
The typ60 was just such a good match with the haimu that other switches didn’t really compare for me. I tried a few, and I didn’t really look back lol
So some notes on the heavy grail, these are going to be longer, but here’s my opinion with just going from stock classic to stock grail:
I think I overall like it, but it’s not exactly like an hhkb, and I’ll get to why. Firstly though I’ll say I’ve tried various hhkb modding and case swaps to try and make an improved hhkb, but it always ended up compromising feel too much for my tastes or it just became something else in a different direction of an hhkb. I finally caved on the norbauer solution because it was his last run of them and it actually looked like there was effort made to improve upon the hhkb design while keeping it in spirit feel wise.
In reality, I think it retains most of the feel of the hhkb, but does deviate in a few main areas:
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First thing you notice is that it’s a firmer bottom out, even if you keep the screws a bit looser on the gasket, it’s just going to be a stiffer experience compared to the feel of a stock hhkb. This does make it a bit less bouncy feeling than the hhkb which means it is a slight bit less crisp feeling and a bit more fatiguing over longer periods of time. I think this makes it feel less bubbly in feel almost, but that’s also likely due to the second reason as well.
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The tolerances for the plate are tighter, and it also seemingly has a slight bit less vertical travel. This makes it feel more taught and smooth than the stock hhkb, but it also means that it’s not as snappy and defined tactility. It almost feels like a middleground between the unsilenced and silenced versions. The unsilenced almost has a bit of travel at the very top where it’s not in contact with the dome fully so you could slightly pull up on the key and it would just barely go up a bit more, this sort of helped it pop up more in feel, meanwhile the type s feels like at top of keystroke that it’s already pushing down on the domes a bit to where the keypress feels a bit more binary and has less pop to it when it snaps back up. The grail leans closer to the unsilenced but doesn’t have the extra travel, so I think this limits how poppy it can feel, if it was maybe half a mm more travel length I think it would be perfect. But it’s still good, so it’s a change I’m willing to live with for now, I might try and adjust this later on by changing how tightly I screw in the PCB to the plate to slightly lower the domes. For wobble, the grail also sits inbetween the two with the unsilenced having a bit more keywobble and side to side movement within the plate whereas the type s almost feels like it has a more airtight seal and almost a bit more scratch. The grail has it where you get that more almost airtight feeling but not the scratch, so also totally fine with this change in specific
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The typing angle feels a bit different, it doesn’t feel as natural as the hhkb, I don’t know the differences off the top of my head, but it’s not drastic, but noticeable. Again also something I can live with, it’s not radically different and while it does make the spacebar a bit more uncomfortable to use since it feels like it’s a bit higher in front height, that’s not something I’d knock it for, it’s still fairly like the height and curve of the hhkb
Overall, I like the feel, I think it’s sort of a nice balance between everything, it’s not as engaging as the hhkb in typing experience, but I do actually type a bit faster on it if it says anything, and I think overall it’s a nice sidegrade maybe slight upgrade depending on preferences. I’ll give it more time to wear in and fine tune the build, I have a feeling with a bit more work this will become my ultimate daily driver over a stock hhkb
Build is an obvious win so I’ll skip over that. Sound wise, I think it’s also an improvement to me. I think it sounds less plasticy and thin vs a stock unsilenced. I don’t think it sounds as good as stock silenced, but I prefer unsilenced in feel and aren’t going to silence this build, so this is more a definite win for me. It’s a bit more roomy without feeling hollow, you can hear more of the dome, and it’s not as loud clack, a bit more muted in comparison.
I haven’t tried aftermarket domes, I do have some various des domes and others that I should try, but every other time I’ve messed around with modding I end up just going back to the stock hhkb domes, especially if they’re aged lol. I don’t like lubed topre.
