Zenith ZKB-2 (Alps SKCL Yellows)

[nac5605]

Another eBay purchase. Very expensive but overall I like it. I was sorta bummed out at first that it didn't come with greens, but I've found that I like yellows and don't think their weighting is particularly overpowering for me.





Build quality is stellar as a surprise to nobody I'm sure. The stabs on mine came lubricated, and I doubt that it was from the previous owner. Seemed like it hadn't been cleaned in ages.

There was a situation for me where the standoff on the inside of the case snapped off while the keyboard was still closed, so I couldn't actually get the screw out until I used a nail-pry-thingummy to push the broken standoff up against the underside of the top case so the screw could turn in the thread. Sadly I scratched the paint around the screwhole pretty badly, it was basically pristine before that

[keycap]

Yellows are great. Really I think the whole first gen SKCM/SKCL being better than all the newer stuff is a bit overblown.. Condition matters far more than anything. I'll take a clean white alps board over a dirty blue alps board any day of the week.
At least you scratched it under the case! You might be able to color match the paint and get something similar and simply touch it up. Worst comes to worst, you can mask off the labels and paint the whole bottom plate. (Or go through the trouble of removing the labels and reattaching them)

[nac5605]

Yellows are great. Really I think the whole first gen SKCM/SKCL being better than all the newer stuff is a bit overblown.. Condition matters far more than anything. I'll take a clean white alps board over a dirty blue alps board any day of the week.
At least you scratched it under the case! You might be able to color match the paint and get something similar and simply touch it up. Worst comes to worst, you can mask off the labels and paint the whole bottom plate. (Or go through the trouble of removing the labels and reattaching them)

Apparently, SKCL Greens are lighter than Yellows. These are a great weighting for me, they feel slightly heavier than my neo80 with HMX Hyacinth V2s.
The scratch is only on the underside of the keyboard, so I'm not too worried about it.

[nac5605]

Yellows are great. Really I think the whole first gen SKCM/SKCL being better than all the newer stuff is a bit overblown.. Condition matters far more than anything. I'll take a clean white alps board over a dirty blue alps board any day of the week.
At least you scratched it under the case! You might be able to color match the paint and get something similar and simply touch it up. Worst comes to worst, you can mask off the labels and paint the whole bottom plate. (Or go through the trouble of removing the labels and reattaching them)

Apparently, SKCL Greens are lighter than Yellows. These are a great weighting for me, they feel slightly heavier than my neo80 with HMX Hyacinth V2s.
The scratch is only on the underside of the keyboard, so I'm not too worried about it.

[nac5605]

Yellows are great. Really I think the whole first gen SKCM/SKCL being better than all the newer stuff is a bit overblown.. Condition matters far more than anything. I'll take a clean white alps board over a dirty blue alps board any day of the week.
At least you scratched it under the case! You might be able to color match the paint and get something similar and simply touch it up. Worst comes to worst, you can mask off the labels and paint the whole bottom plate. (Or go through the trouble of removing the labels and reattaching them)

Apparently, SKCL Greens are lighter than Yellows. These are a great weighting for me, they feel slightly heavier than my neo80 with HMX Hyacinth V2s.
The scratch is only on the underside of the keyboard, so I'm not too worried about it.

[phinix]

So nice!
How expensive are these?