Orange Alps clicky mod moral dilemma

raptorzoz · 15 Aug 2018, 15:11

Hi guys, I will spend the next months planning and building my first ever custom keyboard. This after impulse buying Orange Alps from the GB hosted by novelkeys, which I have heard much praise surrounding (from amongst others chyrosran22.) I have heard that the oranges are the best tactile switches out there so I am ready to use them as is, but I am clicky guy (from my limited experience) and have considered click modding them. There is only one slight problem. I don't know whether it is an ethical decision to make seeing as the Alps are no longer in production and therefore in limited supply. I have thought about possibly buying other switches just to harvest the clickleaf (possibly from matias or from black alps) what do you guys think?

fohat · 15 Aug 2018, 17:07

Orange Alps are very nice. Use them for a while and you might well like them as-is.

//gainsborough · 15 Aug 2018, 17:12

I have done this before and from my experience I can say that, while the mod is good, the result is not as nice as early skcm white alps nor blue alps. If you are a clicky switch person you should see if you like white alps first before click modding oranges or spending money on blue alps.

Definitely try them out first though as fohat says - you might really like them. Also keep in mind black alps are also tactile, not clicky.

andrewjoy · 15 Aug 2018, 17:53

I converted a few switches on one of my AEKs to click and its not bad.

Honestly there are more alps out there excluding the super rare stuff than you would think. Just go wild on it. Its not like your killing a board to do it that could be used by someone.

raptorzoz · 16 Aug 2018, 17:06

fohat wrote: ↑Orange Alps are very nice. Use them for a while and you might well like them as-is.

Ok thank you very much, I'll do that, like I said, I've got very limited experience with different switches. The only mechanical keyboard which I own is one with cherry reds which I frequently mistype on due to the light actuation force. it`ll be an interesting journey!

raptorzoz · 16 Aug 2018, 17:10

//gainsborough wrote: ↑I have done this before and from my experience I can say that, while the mod is good, the result is not as nice as early skcm white alps nor blue alps. If you are a clicky switch person you should see if you like white alps first before click modding oranges or spending money on blue alps.

Definitely try them out first though as fohat says - you might really like them. Also keep in mind black alps are also tactile, not clicky.

Oh yeah your right they are, but they are very common and not very popular so I would've clickmodded the leaf in them and then transplanted them into the oranges. and yes you are right if i absolutely need clicky alps I could try and find blues considering they would be cool to have either way. where would look to find blue alps? (for future reference)

raptorzoz · 16 Aug 2018, 17:14

andrewjoy wrote: ↑I converted a few switches on one of my AEKs to click and its not bad.

Honestly there are more alps out there excluding the super rare stuff than you would think. Just go wild on it. Its not like your killing a board to do it that could be used by someone.

considering I have about 6 leftover keys (in case any of them are duds), I could always clickmod one of the extras and see if its worth it compared to having the original orange switches. and yeah you might be right Alps was really big back then and if apple used the orange alps they can't be that rare. thank you for the advice andrew!

abrahamstechnology · 16 Aug 2018, 17:21

What about blue Tai-Hao Alps clones? They are still in production and around $0.40 each, I haven't tried them out yet, but I purchased a bunch to use in my AT-101 project. From videos and other users here they seem to sound nicer than Matias Clicks.

raptorzoz · 16 Aug 2018, 17:35

abrahamstechnology wrote: ↑What about blue Tai-Hao Alps clones? They are still in production and around $0.40 each, I haven't tried them out yet, but I purchased a bunch to use in my AT-101 project. From videos and other users here they seem to sound nicer than Matias Clicks.

I had never heard about those, but I am Intrigued, have you tried actual blue Alps, and are you planning on doing a review yourself? I'll check them out (even though this will definitely be an orange alps build.)

seebart · 17 Aug 2018, 16:03

fohat wrote: ↑Orange Alps are very nice. Use them for a while and you might well like them as-is.

Agreed.

abrahamstechnology · 18 Aug 2018, 03:47

raptorzoz wrote: ↑
abrahamstechnology wrote: ↑What about blue Tai-Hao Alps clones? They are still in production and around $0.40 each, I haven't tried them out yet, but I purchased a bunch to use in my AT-101 project. From videos and other users here they seem to sound nicer than Matias Clicks.
I had never heard about those, but I am Intrigued, have you tried actual blue Alps, and are you planning on doing a review yourself? I'll check them out (even though this will definitely be an orange alps build.)

No, unfortunately I'm very new to Alps. I did try clickmodding the AT101's black Alps and doing a test type with some keycaps from my Tandy 200 (another project on hold) Once I'm done with my AT-101 refit hopefully I'll have a better idea of how good the Tai-Haos are. I may even get some assorted Alps off of Ebay and put them in the f-keys just for fun.