[IC] GMK Maestro - February 12 to March 14, 2021 - GB page live!

[HungHingDaiLo]

Group buy starts February 12, 2021!
GB page Live

Hi all! Welcome to IC for GMK Maestro, inspired by my love for vintage classic/grand piano and classical music primarily composed by all-time famous maestros such as J.S. Bach.



TX66 by TX Keyboards

Colors



Primary colors for this set are GMK Stock colors WS4 and CR. Accent color will be RAL Ochre Yellow to resemble gold.



Maestro base kit, Golden Accents kit on TX-CP V2 Keyboard by TX Keyboards

Vendors
GMK Maestro is expected to run at Q1 (February) 2021, with vendors from all around the world:

ConUS: Txkeyboards US
Canada: Deskhero
UK: protoTypist.net
EU: Candykeys
China & Rest of Asia: zFrontier
South East Asia: iLumKB
South Korea: SWAGKEYS (Previously: GEONWorks)
Oceania: DailyClack

All vendors are set for now

The Kits

Base Kit
US$135 / £120GBP / ¥939.00 / KRW163,000 / AU$194 / €128
Maestro's base kit offers compatibility for 60% and up, while including minimal 40s support (R2 1.75 backspace, R3 1.25 tab, R3 1.5 enter), Alice-layout support (Extra B, split bars).



Novelties
US$60 / £53GBP / ¥400.00 / KRW73,000 / AU$86 / €58
Minimalist musical pictograms that are universally used on music sheets. Featuring music symbols for  macro keys (R1-R4) and modifiers novelties.



Golden Accents
US$35 / £31GBP / ¥232.00 / KRW42,000 / AU$50 / €34
Gold accents to add elegance to your keyboard setup, inspired by grand musical instruments that have gold accent that symbolizes luxury and beauty.



Deskmats - $20 ea.
Prelude, Cadenza & (?/TBA)
Update October 19, 2020: Announcing Collab for another deskmat design, by 1stGarden. Will reveal once the artwork is close to being finished.



Deskmat Design #1: Prelude



Deskmat Design #2: Cadenza - Art by Paula Amelia



Deskmat Design #3: Crescendo - Art by 1stGarden

RAMA
Brass with Gold polished PVD finish



Quarter Note - US$56
£50GBP / ¥385.00 / KRW68,000 / AU$80 / €59



Half Note - US$56
£50GBP / ¥385.00 / KRW68,000 / AU$80 / €59



Maestro Enter - US$68
£61GBP / ¥465.00 / KRW83,000 / AU$97.14 / €67

SALVUN
Will announce here once I have visuals, stay tuned!

Maestro x Louis/ILUMKB Nutcracker
Pricing will be around ~US$42



Artisan Collabs
Latrialum
Artkey Universe

Deskmat Collab
1stGarden



ZeusWorks x Maestro Collab
Happy to announce that ZeusWorks has jumped in for collab. FREE SHIPPING for first 2 orders on the cables!




Charue Design x Maestro Collab - Sunsetter Keyboard
Happy to announce that Charue Design joined collab. More info of collab project coming soon. Keyboard renders: https://imgur.com/a/n8Uds30



YCP Keyboards x Maestro Collab - Keyboard Sleeve
Happy to announce that ycpkeyboards.id joined collab. These beautiful sleeves will be available to pre-order when GB starts at Feb 12!

Price: US$25. Preorder link here




Covers one keyboard with layout of: 40%,60%,65%,75%,TKL,Fullsize,CP,Alice,1800. Accepting custom sizes!
Specs:
- 3 layered fabrics: Water repellant canvas, thick fabric, soft inner fabric
- Inside pocket

Kit Renders



Maestro base kit, novelties and golden accent on J-01 keyboard case by Jae ProtoTypist



Vanquish65 by GeonWorks





Sunsetter by Charue Design



M011Y by TheKeyCompany - Renders by hark



Lewis by MasterWorks Design



TX84-SE by TX Keyboards

More

TKC 1800 by TheKeyCompany



TGR Alice by yuktsi - Render by Bachoo



U-80A by Rama



YAS62 v2 by ycpkeyboards.id



Nemui by Bachoo - Render by Bachoo





Paragon75 by r00dy

---Click for more renders!-----

Other Collabs
Keebnerd is my choice for apparel collaboration! Will post pic as soon as design is finalized.

IC Form & Discord Link
Kindly fill the ic form here: https://forms.gle/XMxL4CLWruBNe8FN6 - Form has been closed, thank you all!

Or, join in Discord: https://discord.gg/V4GFUKM

Pricing Table
Thanks, PWade3!

	TX Keyboards (US)	Deskhero (CA)	Proto[Typist] (UK*)	Candykeys (EU*)	SWAGKEYS (KR*)
Base Kit	$135.00	TBA	£120.00	€128	₩163,000
Novelties	$60.00	TBA	£53.00	€58	₩73,000
Golden Accents	$34.99	TBA	£31.00	€34	₩42,000
	Daily Clack (OCE)	zFrontier CN (CN)	zFrontier EN	iLUMKB (SEA)
Base Kit	AU$194	¥939.00	$160.00	SG$193
Novelties	AU$86	¥400.00	$66.00	SG$86
Golden Accents	AU$50	¥232.00	$38.00	SG$50

*VAT included

Special Thanks
Too many, Prior to this IC launch I have been helped here and there with kittings, suggestions, and feedbacks from this community, especially: konstantin (for his knowledge of kittings), Jeff/Langelandia (for his support when I checked upon 'similarity' opinions to his design GMK Café), *tom (designer of GMK Deep Navy) for his interest and his valuable advice on kitting and many more whom I thank for (also Emir for reminding me that I prefer OG cherry icon mods), 40s keyboard community altogether for assisting me through the kitting process.

Also and again, Thank you very much to you / everyone here for making this happen!

Keycapsets Page
Keycapsets.com

Shoutout to keycapsets.com for providing great info for us about upcoming/ongoing keysets!

Signature
Kindly show your support by attaching this forum banner:

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[url=https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=108795.0][img width=302 height=120]https://imgur.com/YO4rIoq.png[/img][/url]

[HungHingDaiLo]

To-do List

• Vendors - Finding lead vendor and other region vendors: Done
• Feedback - Gathering: Done
• Artisans - Waiting for GB Date: Done
• Deskmat - Waiting for Commissioned art to be done
• Date & Pricing - Done for kits and RAMA, deskmats. Waiting for cables and artisan collabs.

Changelog

09.28.2020 - Create Initial IC post, provide IC form link
09.29.2020 - Added new renders (Vanquish by GEONworks), added ZeusCables as collaboration
09.30.2020 - Set a more realistic GB date, to February 2021 the earliest.
10.02.2020 - Kit update v.001

Base Kit Changes v1:
- Removed '@, #~ keys
- Adding R1 1u F13 key (modifier color)
- Changed R4 1.5u Code to Super

Novelty changes (thanks to dvorcol):
- Added more R4 compatibility
- Added common time symbol (1u, 1.25u) for Fn novelty.

Accent changes:
- Added R1 golden legend F13 key
- Added R4 golden arrow cluster key

Obscure changes/brainstorming:
- Added Lower and Raise key
- Added 1u '" modifier key
- Changed the R3 1u icon mod of tab to ^ (picture is wrong. R2 tab showing ^. It will still be a regular tab icon mod)
- Removed 3u convex bar

Will update again in couple weeks or earlier.

10.03.2020 - Report first week IC result

10.05.2020 - Deskmat #2 teaser sketch
10.05.2020 - Listed protoTypist.net as European vendor
10.07.2020 - Glad to have TXkeyboards US as lead & US vendor[/url])
10.09.2020 - Keebnerd.com apparel collaboration announced.
10.14.2020 - Collab updates, new renders & deskmat revision/deskmat 2 announcement (gallery: https://imgur.com/a/dwfcaHn)
10.16.2020 - Collab with Charue Design - w/ renders

10.19.2020 - Collab 1stGarden for third deskmat design
10.29.2020 - GEON Works as South Korea vendor
11.07.2020 - Huge update on kits, added more renders
11.11.2020 - Collab with Salvun
11.18.2020 - RAMA Brass with Gold polished PVD finish reveal!

12.14.2020 - GEON Works has conceded as proxy and referred me to SWAGKEY as South Korea vendor and I approved!
12.30.2020 - Candykeys as EU vendor

2021!
01.14.2021 - Overhaul, New Kittings:

January 14, 2021 - Overhaul: Brand New Kitting - Pricing Very Soon!

A bit of an update before price reveal: I have received 1st round quotation from GMK on previous kit (the one you're seeing on the first page) and the 2nd round of quotation for new kitting, which involved the removal of Obscure kit and Spacebars kit, solely due to:
- 40s kit might not be able to reach 100 MoQ
- Two Child kits (Spacebars and Golden Accents) at 250 MoQ restriction from GMK might be hard to achieve. We (me and my lead vendor) decided to just offer one kit that has 250MoQ, which is the (new) Golden Accents Kit.

We tend to take the route of the newest kitting, that involves:

• Expanding the Base kit; Adding minimal 40s support and minibars for Alice-layout, much influenced by the inputs from kitting experts and 40s community altogether
• Removing Obscure and Spacebars kit
• Novelty kit remain unchanged

This is how the newest base kit look like:

Added: R2 1.75 backspace, R3 1.5 Enter, R4 1.25 Tab keys for minimal 40s support, R4 convex minibars (1x 2u, 1x 2.25u, 1x 2.75u) for Alice-layout support.

Also the newest Golden Accents kit (250 MoQ):

Added: Accent color 6.25u and 7u convex spacebars.

What's removed from the previous base kit:

Again, Obscure kit and Spacebars kit are removed due to the newest base kit compatibility list. The total number of kits are now 3 (three), which are:

• Base Kit
• (Golden)Accents kit
• Novelties kit (No changes)

tl/dr These kits will no longer be offered:

Obscure



Spacebars




Questions, inputs/suggestions? Please leave your comment here or you can DM me personally. Here are probably the most common question regarding the kitting changes:

Q: What is the price difference between the newest base kit vs previous base kit?
A: Around 5 dollars, give or take.

Q: Will 6u spacebar and the rest of minibars from previous spacebars set be included somewhere?
A: Unfortunately, no. This is due to 2x 250 MoQ that concerned me and my vendor. I can only suggest you to look for previous/future GMK sets that also use GMK WS4 stock color if you must need to have/obtain these uncommon sized spacebars. Hint: Other set that are going to GB soon also uses the same RAL color as this set, so you might wanna check it out.

Q: What is the price of the previous Obscure kit?
A: I can't tell you the exact price but it is around USD $47 to 49 MSRP at 100 kits MoQ.

[itsundone]

This is awesome, looking forward to it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rezachman]

Definitely In

[goddream]

ne pp novelty avail..

[Emir]

good

[zedbraxmen]

Will learn the way of the ISO for that G clef enter.
What do you think of incorporating the black piano key on white for alphas as a kit? I think if seen as a whole row, it'll look like a piano.

[hiddensong]

Yes. I had a long paragraph written but wasn't looking and when I was almost finished I looked up to see I hadn't typed a single word. All that gut emotion gone. Oh well. I like this. Please list color ident numbers. Pantone or PAL or GMK base. It would be nice to know (unless I missed it....then my bad). [edited] - yup, I missed it. Right there at the very beginning.

[are2dcrz]

Great design, can’t wait

[ttom]

Very nice, glad to see this in IC

[konstantin]

Very nice!

ne pp novelty avail..

+1

[atlanticise]

So clean! So classy! +1 vote for thatppguy! 

[Nonnegaard]

There have been many piano themed sets, but this is by far the best.

[VXQN]

If you'd have described this set to me, I wouldn't have been interested, but it looks fantastic. Great work.

[Blastoise]

This is for all the musicians. Thank you for pulling this together!

[basboo]

calming combo ! love this

[Kinesiologist]

perfect, this is music to my ears

[VellFlamm]

Form sent. I'm very looking forward to buying this.

[QuaintSafe]

Nice and simple

[KetchyKech]

This simply looks amazing-- I filled out the interest check form and noted that i would love an off-centered 6u in one of the sets. It seemed to be offered in the more expensive #2 obscure set mentioned in the form, if so -- I'd go for that! 7V by gok offers that layout option and most recently, the Adelie keyboard -- so there might be some interest there! 

[asciisii]

Love it, cool novelties

[EpicN]

very nice

[depletedvespene]

Very interesting concept. I really like the novelties and the OYoB accents.

With that said, please review the following items on the base kit:

- Consider the inclusion of an F13 key.

- Consider the inclusion of the Alice B key.

- It strikes me as odd that the alternative R3 Ctrl key is icon only, while the normal Ctrl mods are text only.

- Your support for English (US) over ISO, terminal style, is correct (R4 <> and R3 \|), but the support for English UK over ISO is too incomplete (only the two R3 keys is present, '@ and #~, while R4 \| and all the R1 keys are missing). You need to review this and determine whether to actually support English (UK) or not.

[HungHingDaiLo]

Thank you all for the generous compliments!

Very nice!

ne pp novelty avail..

+1

I personally considered this but pp sounds so wrong for non-musicians.

Very interesting concept. I really like the novelties and the OYoB accents.

With that said, please review the following items on the base kit:

- Consider the inclusion of an F13 key.

- Consider the inclusion of the Alice B key.

- It strikes me as odd that the alternative R3 Ctrl key is icon only, while the normal Ctrl mods are text only.

- Your support for English (US) over ISO, terminal style, is correct (R4 <> and R3 \|), but the support for English UK over ISO is too incomplete (only the two R3 keys is present, '@ and #~, while R4 \| and all the R1 keys are missing). You need to review this and determine whether to actually support English (UK) or not.

Noted & thank you! Will strongly consider F13 inclusion. Not sure if I were to include Alice's B on the base kit without split bars. I thought they were inseparable.

For UK ISO support, I totally agree about the incompleteness, and I think I will remove English (UK) support (konstantin addressed this as well).

[surreal19]

love this! def gonna join

[HungHingDaiLo]

Update 09.29.2020

• Added new renders (Vanquish by GEONworks)
• ZeusCables collaboration announcement

[konstantin]

- It strikes me as odd that the alternative R3 Ctrl key is icon only, while the normal Ctrl mods are text only.

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=107383.msg2930291#msg2930291

[CastleKeyboards]

What a great idea for a keycap set! Good luck with the IC

[Clay333]

Wow! This is excellent. I don't have any connection to pianos or classical music but the set itself looks incredible and will become an instant classic.

[forevermadrigal]

Fantastic set. Please consider changing the r4 1.5 code key to FN. Otherwise, this is must buy

[HungHingDaiLo]

Fantastic set. Please consider changing the r4 1.5 code key to FN. Otherwise, this is must buy

Considered. Between Super or Fn

[konstantin]

Fantastic set. Please consider changing the r4 1.5 code key to FN. Otherwise, this is must buy

Code is a generic legend that can work both as an OS key (Super) for Mac / OG HHKB bottom row users, and as a 1.5u Fn key for WKL users. Imo it should stay.

[forevermadrigal]

Fantastic set. Please consider changing the r4 1.5 code key to FN. Otherwise, this is must buy

Code is a generic legend that can work both as an OS key (Super) for Mac / OG HHKB bottom row users, and as a 1.5u Fn key for WKL users. Imo it should stay.

It kinda clashes with 1.25 fn. Doesn't look consistent.

[konstantin]

It kinda clashes with 1.25 fn. Doesn't look consistent.

And exactly which keyboard would use 1.5u Code and 1.25u Fn simultaneously?

[BirgusLatro]

Very nice set!

[forevermadrigal]

It kinda clashes with 1.25 fn. Doesn't look consistent.

And exactly which keyboard would use 1.5u Code and 1.25u Fn simultaneously?

I never said both are used at the same time. I said it clashes with the consistency of the set

[Bachoo]

classy, aesthetic - i'm in love

[Fredrollinhigh]

This set is very classy , when you look into it in more details on the modifier it show how much time put on to this.

[HungHingDaiLo]

Update 09.30.2020

• Revised the estimated GB launch to February 2021

[Poesjuh]

Hi HungDingDaiLo, check your pm's here in GH if you can

[konstantin]

I never said both are used at the same time. I said it clashes with the consistency of the set

Sorry, but that argument is a non-starter. GMK legends are already full of inconsistencies like that to begin with. And I also disagree with you, I don't think it clashes with Fn at all.

[ddrfraser1]

Very attractive. Will likely get the base kit. good job.

[UberB]

Keycaps look absolutely beautiful!

For the first deskmat, is it possible to get the bass clef in there? It's a bit strange seeing the Prelude in C major but missing a note.

[forevermadrigal]

I never said both are used at the same time. I said it clashes with the consistency of the set

Sorry, but that argument is a non-starter. GMK legends are already full of inconsistencies like that to begin with. And I also disagree with you, I don't think it clashes with Fn at all.

Looks like we'll have to agree to disagree we'll see how OP feels

[gilbert]

clean!

[Blastoise]

This is the perfect set for musicians. All in for this.

[Hyphen]

Filled out the IC! I'm leaning towards picking this set up as of right now. The only thing I would like to add to the set is that the second deskmat be a bit more minimal/less busy.

[peachie]

as a lifelong musician this is perhaps one of my favorite kit concepts yet. my favorite is the novelty grand staff caps to double bar enter key, so clever and cute!!

this will be a an absolute MUST buy for me, I didn't think I could ever love a monochrome kit so much!

[Cubic // esc lab]

Art.

[pupper125]

good

^