Concern about getting a version that whistles was the main reason I went with a standard HHKB. It's discouraging that keyboards made as late as July of this year are still exhibiting the issue. While the standard Topre switch sounds cool, I think it was proving a bit too loud for my co-workers so I went ahead and dental banded it. So far, this is proving to be an ideal situation. The keyboard is much quieter, yet IMO it sounds even better than the Type-S with an at worst minimal loss of feel.
I can understand why some wouldn't want to go down this road, but the mod wasn't that difficult to do. The worst part was sliding the bands over the plungers without the bands getting twisted, which wasn't easy considering I have stubby, fat fingers. All in all, the process took about 90 minutes, including removing and replacing the keycaps.
I have a couple tips for those who want to tackle this job:
1) When removing the caps, place them in a container or on a table in the order that they appear on the keyboard. This is more critical if you have blank caps since the HHKB uses several different profiles. It makes reassembly go that much quicker.
2) Use caution when removing and replacing the ribbon cable that connects the two PCBs. It takes a bit of jolt to get the cable out, but putting it back was a bit harder. I used a gentle squeeze of some needle-nose pliers to make sure it was secure.
3) When popping out the plungers (I used the blunt end of a small screwdriver), you will hear a snap and tiny pieces of plastic may spill onto your work surface. This small bit of damage has no impact on the ability to put the slides back in place or on the overall performance of the keyboard.
4) The screws holding the main PCB to the case are all the same size, so you don't need to worry about putting them back in a specific order.
5) When you've put everything back together, plug the keyboard in and test it before putting the caps back on. There's a chance something might have shifted and the springs and/or domes might not be sitting properly. This was not an issue when I modded by HHKB, but I've read about it happening to others.
As a reference,
these were the bands I used. I'm very pleased with the results. Love the sound, love the feel, my bank account is happier versus buying a Type-S, and it doesn't whistle at all (and no need for a "break in" period that could potentially go away much later).
