Is WASD Keyboards my only option - custom mech KB

[Doobeedoo]

Ok so I'm thinking getting a new KB soon and while there are many very good options out there in more premium price points from known brands, neither ticks all of my boxes. And for a price, might as well look into custom ones then no.

Anyway, I was looking into various sites, offering variety of KBs, many semi-custom though, or those with limited layout, size, switch, etc. I don't necessarily plan to get individual custom components to build it myself, even so from what I was looking some things I couldn't find or was not sure if compatible and could be pricey.

 

So looked though few websites that offer online builder and really only WASD Keyboards seem to suit me, they do offer pretty much almost everything that I want:

- ISO layout (now I do use ANSI but it's not even native for my language, I'm just used to it, I hate the Enter key shape and large shift, but still feel ISO is better and got extra key by shift for a bind in game)

- TKL (don't want anything smaller, doesn't really save space and I need my keys, it's a keyboard)

- Cherry MX Silver Speed

- can actually choose my own alphanumeric language keycaps (Croatian) - I feel this is neat, even though rarely I'd look at keys, still if I'm already getting a custom

- white backlight - this would also be nice to have since I'm already getting a custom one, in general I'm in room with a light, but would still want that option to turn on LEDs if need

 

My few concerns are though;

- are default keycaps PBT since KB doesn't have backlight only their CODE KBs that you can't customize, I don't see the needed individual ISO layout keycaps too

- is there literally no backlight option for their KB build, I don't see it, only on finished KBs

- final is shipping price is insane sadly but they do offer the most what I seek, if I could get confirmation on some of things, maybe I could absorb that shipping cost in the end.

 

Once configured on their site it comes to $195 KB alone. They offer few shipping options from 60-150$ -_-

 

So that's that, I guess potential alternative would be if I could get all this separate and build it but still price to not be astronomical that'd be great.

[person123456789]

22 minutes ago, Doobeedoo said:

Ok so I'm thinking getting a new KB soon and while there are many very good options out there in more premium price points from known brands, neither ticks all of my boxes. And for a price, might as well look into custom ones then no.

Anyway, I was looking into various sites, offering variety of KBs, many semi-custom though, or those with limited layout, size, switch, etc. I don't necessarily plan to get individual custom components to build it myself, even so from what I was looking some things I couldn't find or was not sure if compatible and could be pricey.

 

So looked though few websites that offer online builder and really only WASD Keyboards seem to suit me, they do offer pretty much almost everything that I want:

- ISO layout (now I do use ANSI but it's not even native for my language, I'm just used to it, I hate the Enter key shape and large shift, but still feel ISO is better and got extra key by shift for a bind in game)

- TKL (don't want anything smaller, doesn't really save space and I need my keys, it's a keyboard)

- Cherry MX Silver Speed

- can actually choose my own alphanumeric language keycaps (Croatian) - I feel this is neat, even though rarely I'd look at keys, still if I'm already getting a custom

- white backlight - this would also be nice to have since I'm already getting a custom one, in general I'm in room with a light, but would still want that option to turn on LEDs if need

 

My few concerns are though;

- are default keycaps PBT since KB doesn't have backlight only their CODE KBs that you can't customize, I don't see the needed individual ISO layout keycaps too

- is there literally no backlight option for their KB build, I don't see it, only on finished KBs

- final is shipping price is insane sadly but they do offer the most what I seek, if I could get confirmation on some of things, maybe I could absorb that shipping cost in the end.

 

Once configured on their site it comes to $195 KB alone. They offer few shipping options from 60-150$ -_-

 

So that's that, I guess potential alternative would be if I could get all this separate and build it but still price to not be astronomical that'd be great.

keychron q3

[DarthBaggins]

KBDFans, NovelKeys_, CannonKeys, etc - most of my suggestions are for more custom options.

[Doobeedoo]

18 minutes ago, person123456789 said:

keychron q3

I saw them, not really a fan, they sound odd and keycaps look weird. Don't want Gateron switches. Also still they only have barebones ISO board.

[person123456789]

1 minute ago, Doobeedoo said:

I saw them, not really a fan, they sound odd and keycaps look weird. Don't want Gateron switches. Also still they only have barebones ISO board.

no, get the barebones iso, put in your desired switches and add croatian keycaps

[Doobeedoo]

3 minutes ago, person123456789 said:

no, get the barebones iso, put in your desired switches and add croatian keycaps

Right, it's $164/174 though. Still having a tough time finding keycaps though. Still checking other mentioned sites too.

[Doobeedoo]

33 minutes ago, DarthBaggins said:

KBDFans, NovelKeys_, CannonKeys, etc - most of my suggestions are for more custom options.

I did check these out, sadly too many ANSI layouts and small sub TKL sizes. Will try to dig more though.

[Doobeedoo]

I also checked Drop too, but no options I look.

I'll check more everywhere, if I can't find all the puzzles to put together, I'll just decide if I'll go with WASD keyboards or not.

[OhioYJ]

3 hours ago, Doobeedoo said:

- final is shipping price is insane sadly but they do offer the most what I seek

If it makes you feel any better, I've ordered from them twice now, getting ready to be a third time. My oldest WASD keyboard is 9 years old, and still works perfect. My first WASD one on top (including 9 year old key caps), and a V3 board:

 

 

I did replace my V3 keycaps, with a different set, again from WASD:

 

They aren't cheap, but their boards have worked well for me. Their customer support has also been great (no problems for me, but they have been quick to answer questions, and have completed my custom requests).

 

As a heads up they do sales every so often. 4th of July, V3 boards were 30% off I believe. So every so often around holidays you can pick them up slightly cheaper if you want to try and wait.

[fenrir0wulf]

Well that's funny, it seems we both came to the same conclusion lol.

 

I also have seen the same problems as you did with the other keyboards makers. Even though I use a gaming keyboard right now (Corsair Strafe Stealth), I want to switch to an ISO keyboard and there just isn't many options. I'm in Quebec, Canada, and even if my native language is French, I seem to be one of the few who just doesn't like the CFR (French Canadian) layout and uses CMS (Canadian Multilingual) instead. Both are ISO, and while CFR is easy to find here, CMS is literally non existent (no really, I don't think any physical CMS keyboards were made past the CSA prototype in the early 90s) which means I'll need to make my own legends. And the only maker that I've found who can do that without having to pay absurd 1000$+ prices is WASD.

And while I'm at it making my own legends, I might as well make it as cool as I want and make a full Futhark keyboard just because I think it's cool.

[divito]

Given what you've laid out as your ideals, the biggest roadblock in your list to me, is the keycaps. I'm not too familiar with other languages (outside of the typical ones in the mech space), and good MX options for non-English are typically hard to come by, and the styles and options get niche and expensive very quickly. Add on to that, ISO is also uncommon, and that makes it worse.

For me, I loathe ISO, don't care about backlighting, and have been using blank keycaps for years. But that being said, I think if I was in your shoes, I would get something like this, buy the switches from wherever they'll be cheapest for you (including shipping), and then at least get a PBT ISO keycap set to at least be functional. Then as you keep looking around, maybe something will pop up that you can switch to in the future, or maybe you decide to do a custom ABS set to get the legends the way you want them.

But this option at least gets you:
- ISO

- TKL

- Any switch type (and hot-swappable for future changes)

- RGB
- Then whatever keycaps you want (PBT, Croatian, etc)

Edit - Failing that, Max Keyboards actually has a Croatian legend option if you build a keyboard through their website. They however, don't offer a TKL ISO keyboard option, nor do they have switch options really.

But, if you were to buy the barebone GMMK, you can also do a custom TKL ISO backlight keycap set through Max Keyboards (it's still only ABS) - and while they don't list Croatian as one of the options for that set, you can upload your own design or probably just mention in the comments that you'd want Croatian. Given they have the file for their other keycap option, I don't imagine it'd be a problem for them.

[Doobeedoo]

9 hours ago, divito said:

Given what you've laid out as your ideals, the biggest roadblock in your list to me, is the keycaps. I'm not too familiar with other languages (outside of the typical ones in the mech space), and good MX options for non-English are typically hard to come by, and the styles and options get niche and expensive very quickly. Add on to that, ISO is also uncommon, and that makes it worse.

For me, I loathe ISO, don't care about backlighting, and have been using blank keycaps for years. But that being said, I think if I was in your shoes, I would get something like this, buy the switches from wherever they'll be cheapest for you (including shipping), and then at least get a PBT ISO keycap set to at least be functional. Then as you keep looking around, maybe something will pop up that you can switch to in the future, or maybe you decide to do a custom ABS set to get the legends the way you want them.

But this option at least gets you:
- ISO

- TKL

- Any switch type (and hot-swappable for future changes)

- RGB
- Then whatever keycaps you want (PBT, Croatian, etc)

Edit - Failing that, Max Keyboards actually has a Croatian legend option if you build a keyboard through their website. They however, don't offer a TKL ISO keyboard option, nor do they have switch options really.

But, if you were to buy the barebone GMMK, you can also do a custom TKL ISO backlight keycap set through Max Keyboards (it's still only ABS) - and while they don't list Croatian as one of the options for that set, you can upload your own design or probably just mention in the comments that you'd want Croatian. Given they have the file for their other keycap option, I don't imagine it'd be a problem for them.

Yeah, I guess the keycaps, the my language thing was just a neat thing when I saw they offered it. Though, they're not PBT from what I can tell or if so not for illumination then, which would be another nice to have. Also WASD keyboards base board is not hot swappable as well it seems from what I can tell.

The GMMK barebones seems a solid option yes, get switches, some keycaps and maybe down the line one I'd like. Also, the ABS ones aside, is there PBT custom legends key for order? Too expensive?

Either way, I'll think about it, have few options so far.

[divito]

2 hours ago, Doobeedoo said:

Yeah, I guess the keycaps, the my language thing was just a neat thing when I saw they offered it. Though, they're not PBT from what I can tell or if so not for illumination then, which would be another nice to have. Also WASD keyboards base board is not hot swappable as well it seems from what I can tell.

Custom configurators online (like WASD or Max Keyboards) are almost always ABS. However, one of the Max Keyboard options with their ABS does allow backlight through if you wanted to ask for Croatian legends to at least get part of the way to your ideal keyboard.

2 hours ago, Doobeedoo said:

Also, the ABS ones aside, is there PBT custom legends key for order? Too expensive?

Pretty much too expensive. That's why group buys are a thing, just to spread cost and even then, it's still a bit pricey depending on the options you need.

PMK used to offer custom orders even for PBT, but they were expensive, and I'm not sure if they still do one-offs like that. The only other site I've seen that does custom PBT to order, is here. But it doesn't look like they offer an ISO option. 

[Doobeedoo]

9 minutes ago, divito said:

Custom configurators online (like WASD or Max Keyboards) are almost always ABS. However, one of the Max Keyboard options with their ABS does allow backlight through if you wanted to ask for Croatian legends to at least get part of the way to your ideal keyboard.

Pretty much too expensive. That's why group buys are a thing, just to spread cost and even then, it's still a bit pricey depending on the options you need.

PMK used to offer custom orders even for PBT, but they were expensive, and I'm not sure if they still do one-offs like that. The only other site I've seen that does custom PBT to order, is here. But it doesn't look like they offer an ISO option. 

Yeah kinda odd having configurator and not having PBT though, since already offering custom. 

But oh well, got some options I guess. I'll eventually decide what I'll go for. 

[OhioYJ]

11 hours ago, Doobeedoo said:

Also WASD keyboards base board is not hot swappable as well it seems from what I can tell.

WASD standard keyboards are not hot-swappable. They sell hot-swappable versions. However I'm not sure they sell an ISO version in hot-swap?

[Doobeedoo]

35 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

WASD standard keyboards are not hot-swappable. They sell hot-swappable versions. However I'm not sure they sell an ISO version in hot-swap?

I guess this one maybe https://www.wasdkeyboards.com/wasd-v3-88-key-iso-barebones-mechanical-keyboard.html

But yeah, still odd to me that ABS is even a thing over PBT especially with configurators though.

[OhioYJ]

9 hours ago, Doobeedoo said:

I guess this one maybe https://www.wasdkeyboards.com/wasd-v3-88-key-iso-barebones-mechanical-keyboard.html

But yeah, still odd to me that ABS is even a thing over PBT especially with configurators though.

 

No, the hotswap one specifically say hotswap. Like this one.  I don't see an ISO option though, just full size, and the 87 key versions? 

 

They sell other key caps, you may reach out to them and see if you can get something different. With all my orders now Ive just placed special instructions (I wouldn't recommend doing that necessarily) in notes area (IIRC) for things I couldn't do in the configurator, and they did it for me.  They might have a way of dealing with custom requests like that. 

[Doobeedoo]

1 hour ago, OhioYJ said:

 

No, the hotswap one specifically say hotswap. Like this one.  I don't see an ISO option though, just full size, and the 87 key versions? 

 

They sell other key caps, you may reach out to them and see if you can get something different. With all my orders now Ive just placed special instructions (I wouldn't recommend doing that necessarily) in notes area (IIRC) for things I couldn't do in the configurator, and they did it for me.  They might have a way of dealing with custom requests like that. 

Ah, right. Though still a full keyboard not barebones, also no switch offer in that one for price in the end. No illumination for potential futureproof. I guess there's that GMMK option for me too. As from what I've heard from WASD keyboards on their forums, lately they did say they're working on new features for future, but still that they're not offering custom backlit and PBT keycaps.

It seems those together are not as popular or on top of PBT and backlit, being customized option seems very expensive for smaller number of users. I just find it rather interesting that the only think, part of KB that is not even electrical or mechanical but just plastic it self has kinda least options everywhere and or price.

I guess maybe in the future one day but yeah, who knows maybe even go with GMMK since it offers ISO layout, backlit, hot-swap options and for start go with whatever PBT keys, maybe blank even.

[OhioYJ]

26 minutes ago, Doobeedoo said:

Ah, right. Though still a full keyboard not barebones, also no switch offer in that one for price in the end. 

They have barebones options.  I believe they sell DIY kits on their IIRC in both styles now. 

 

I think the problem with the "custom" keys is how they are created. They can't print keys that would work with backlit keyboards. So you would lose the customizability.  

 

I know the other company I originally looked at had backlit keyboards, but just had standard key caps, and they were coated, meaning the coating and legends could wear off. My WASD keys eventually got shiney over the years but everything was the same color and nothing lost the legends / labels.

 

It does suck though, as you are finding out what it seems like many of us do. Nothing is quite perfect, we end up settling in one way or another. 

[Doobeedoo]

17 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

They have barebones options.  I believe they sell DIY kits on their IIRC in both styles now. 

 

I think the problem with the "custom" keys is how they are created. They can't print keys that would work with backlit keyboards. So you would lose the customizability.  

 

I know the other company I originally looked at had backlit keyboards, but just had standard key caps, and they were coated, meaning the coating and legends could wear off. My WASD keys eventually got shiney over the years but everything was the same color and nothing lost the legends / labels.

 

It does suck though, as you are finding out what it seems like many of us do. Nothing is quite perfect, we end up settling in one way or another. 

Yeah actually I did saw it, though pricey vs GMMK one no, since I can't actually completely build it there, might as well get whatever cheaper barebones one is out there. 

 

Right, I don't know exact way how various keys are made, especially like PBT backlit ones, like they can't print them huh, so different manufacture process.

 

But yeah that is true, nothing is perfect, still decent options I guess. I'm aware some are more niche and really very region/country specific but oh well it is what it is.