Matias Clicks

baK1 · March 6

hello, is anyone here familiar with Alps keyboards?

i got this Monterey K108 with White SKCM like a year ago from my colleague as a parting gift. the thing sounds absolutely superb, even if it's a bit plasticky for a vintage board.

the switches were really fuckin scratchy. i spent a good while cleaning all of the top housing and slider for it to be usable. i wanted to try wax modding the switches, but i think they're beyond saving, so i thought it'd make much more sense to just desolder the switches and put on something new

im thinking of saving up and getting some NOS SKCM Whites off ebay, but i gotta wait for my mate in the US to come home & smuggle the thing, because directly shipping things from the US to where i live (SEA) is like 3x of jeff bezos's net worth.

either that, or i can just get matias clicks, which is readily available here, and faaar cheaper for some reason. but i don't know if it sounds good enough to replace these whites. if anyone ever used matias clicks, plz share ur thoughts

Volbet · March 8

The clicky option from Matias are fine. They won't be as good as real Alps NOS White, Blue or Orange, but they'll do in a pinch.

I use them in a Bardorf keyboard and have been perfectly happy with them.

They reason they aren't as good as real Alps, is because the Matias design is based on the later, cheaper simplified Alps switches. While they're generally more reliable than older Alps designs, they aren't as satisfying to type on.