Author Topic: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps  (Read 7357 times)

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Offline Versaknight

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[GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« on: Wed, 13 April 2022, 10:59:17 »
Hello thoccers,

I wanted an alps keyset for my custom so I have been in communication with taihao to expand their kitting to fit both modern and older vintage boards. They have agreed to do a GB run for 2 colourways: Vintage and WOB.  I initially just wanted to do a small run for the sgmk community but I noticed a lot of interest from international buyers so I have gotten the help of Hex keyboards to be a vendor for this groupbuy. Without further ado, here is the kitting:
 




Here are the details:
Group Buy Dates: Apr 15, 2022 - May 6, 2022

Pricing - $71 SGD (roughly 52 USD) (Shipped from Singapore)

LINK : https://hexkeyboards.com/products/taihao-cubic-alps-doubleshot-keycaps


Things to note:

1) These are taihao alps keycaps so they are thin doubleshot ABS keycaps as shown below:


2) Stabs: All the stabilized keys are going to be ALPS mount EXCEPT the spacebars and the BAE (The iso and ansi enters will be alps).
The 6.25u Spacebar is only going to support mx mount stabilizers while the 7u Alps will support both alps and costar (as shown in the above picture). The BAE is as shown below:


3) The control alt and shift will be coloured red, blue and green respectively in the vintage set as a homage to vintage alps boards that had this.


4) These are cubic profile and not cherry so please note the difference.

5) The lead time from taihao is expected to be 6 weeks after the groupbuy ends (so you'll have to add a couple of weeks more after to ship to singapore and then your location).

6) This is expected to be in-stock on taihao's website at a later date (price unconfirmed) so there will be other chances to buy it as well.

7) There are no renders since these are basic colours and I do not have the time or money to get someone to make custom models for cubic profile.


DESKMATS

None.



I hope that keycaps arent a limiting factor to people who want to try alps and alps style switches on customs.







« Last Edit: Sat, 16 April 2022, 07:28:52 by Versaknight »

Offline suicidal_orange

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #1 on: Fri, 15 April 2022, 07:27:17 »
Approval bump :)
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Offline Ensaum

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #2 on: Fri, 15 April 2022, 08:28:08 »
Oh man. I wish you had gone with cherry stabs for all the stabilized caps :( This would have been an insta buy for me if you had.

Offline Rob27shred

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #3 on: Fri, 15 April 2022, 10:03:10 »
Oh man. I wish you had gone with cherry stabs for all the stabilized caps :( This would have been an insta buy for me if you had.

While I agree with you I can see how it's a tough call to go one way or the other with stabs mounts on modern ALPS sets. Use traditional ALPS mount stabs & they need harvested from a board, use MX mount stabs & you're basically locked into a custom ALPS build to use the caps with. I am very happy to see that at least on the 7u space they give the option for both mounts. Gonna grab a set of these & will report back on how they are.

Offline nu_types

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #4 on: Fri, 15 April 2022, 12:43:44 »
Oh man. I wish you had gone with cherry stabs for all the stabilized caps :( This would have been an insta buy for me if you had.

While I agree with you I can see how it's a tough call to go one way or the other with stabs mounts on modern ALPS sets. Use traditional ALPS mount stabs & they need harvested from a board, use MX mount stabs & you're basically locked into a custom ALPS build to use the caps with. I am very happy to see that at least on the 7u space they give the option for both mounts. Gonna grab a set of these & will report back on how they are.

Matias alps mount stabs are readily available. You don't necessarily have to harvest them from an old board.

Offline Rob27shred

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #5 on: Fri, 15 April 2022, 13:42:45 »
Oh man. I wish you had gone with cherry stabs for all the stabilized caps :( This would have been an insta buy for me if you had.

While I agree with you I can see how it's a tough call to go one way or the other with stabs mounts on modern ALPS sets. Use traditional ALPS mount stabs & they need harvested from a board, use MX mount stabs & you're basically locked into a custom ALPS build to use the caps with. I am very happy to see that at least on the 7u space they give the option for both mounts. Gonna grab a set of these & will report back on how they are.

Matias alps mount stabs are readily available. You don't necessarily have to harvest them from an old board.

Oh yeah, very true! Forgot all about Matias stabs & I just got some not too long ago..... LOL!

Offline ankit

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #6 on: Sat, 16 April 2022, 01:59:09 »
very based
collection:
More
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Offline Cipulot

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #7 on: Sat, 16 April 2022, 09:12:19 »
Incredibly BASED  :thumb:

Offline linell

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #8 on: Sat, 16 April 2022, 20:09:52 »
Versa my beloved
bro this a **** set, just be thankful you even getting 1 base running fr

Offline MIGHTY CHICKEN

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #9 on: Sat, 16 April 2022, 22:00:42 »
Extra based

Offline cest73

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #10 on: Wed, 08 June 2022, 04:24:09 »
Is that spacing for the 7U space confirmed to work with vintage Costar stabilized Alps keyboards?

Can't seem to read if it is 55 mm or 57 mm from here?

I would highly appreciate an extensive WoB Alps set like that and would quite likely buy one - possibly from their web store.

Will it ever be released as Tom Cat colorway too? at least the modifiers (bottom and top most rows)?

Offline ALOHAKB

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #11 on: Thu, 09 June 2022, 02:53:32 »
Ha ha, few people use this now. You can see that you love it.

Offline rpiguy9907

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #12 on: Thu, 07 July 2022, 10:11:17 »
Any updates on these? When will they ship?

Offline cgbuen

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #13 on: Thu, 07 July 2022, 14:45:43 »
Is that spacing for the 7U space confirmed to work with vintage Costar stabilized Alps keyboards?

Can't seem to read if it is 55 mm or 57 mm from here?

I would highly appreciate an extensive WoB Alps set like that and would quite likely buy one - possibly from their web store.

Will it ever be released as Tom Cat colorway too? at least the modifiers (bottom and top most rows)?

I found a closeup pic of the mock file that shows 55mm spacing for the 7u MX-style stabilizers:



This is really particularly bad if you intend to use MX-style PCB-mount stabilizers (e.g. Cherry, TX, Durock, C3, Staebies, etc.) with modern Alps PCBs that have those cutouts. Here are some Alps spacebars I own that show the issue:




I'm hoping this is addressed in some capacity since I got in on 2x black and 2x vintage sets, but I'm not really confident given that I haven't received any helpful response when I wrote about this concern in the Hex Keyboards Discord back in late May.

Not sure I can comment on vintage stabilizers (other than the design showing 49mm spacing for those square insert cutouts).

A couple of other concerns, too: 1) the mocks have some super glaring mistakes that I hope are just mistakes [e.g. the Shift sizing notes are all super wrong for their proportions], and 2) the vintage kit also has only has mod-colored top row 1u \| - no alpha-colored version.

Offline cest73

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #14 on: Thu, 07 July 2022, 15:58:33 »
Totally understand Your concern!
Moreover it troubles me too...

Your shift row observation is right it should be:

2.25U, 2U, 1.75U and 1.25U
also i like to see 1.5U back space  :thumb: maybe a medium ass enter too and we'd be half way there for the Zenith Z150 key set?

Offline rpiguy9907

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #15 on: Tue, 09 August 2022, 14:34:18 »
Any update on this? It has been a lot longer than 6 weeks after May 6th...

Anyone know if Versaknight is active anywhere else? Hasn't been here since June.
« Last Edit: Tue, 09 August 2022, 14:48:18 by rpiguy9907 »

Offline The Pig

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #16 on: Thu, 11 August 2022, 08:52:14 »
Any update on this? It has been a lot longer than 6 weeks after May 6th...

Anyone know if Versaknight is active anywhere else? Hasn't been here since June.

They were delayed 2-3 weeks according to Versa at the end of July, so still more waiting.

Offline Versaknight

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #17 on: Fri, 26 August 2022, 05:11:45 »
They have been shipped from taihao and are currently on route to Singapore

Offline rpiguy9907

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Re: [GB] Tai-Hao White on Black and Vintage Alps
« Reply #18 on: Mon, 12 September 2022, 14:37:57 »
Not sure I can comment on vintage stabilizers (other than the design showing 49mm spacing for those square insert cutouts).

A couple of other concerns, too: 1) the mocks have some super glaring mistakes that I hope are just mistakes [e.g. the Shift sizing notes are all super wrong for their proportions], and 2) the vintage kit also has only has mod-colored top row 1u \| - no alpha-colored version.

Can confirm that 7u stabilizers use 55mm spacing, and so are not compatible with standard MX 7u stabs. My sets arrived yesterday.

https://imgur.com/a/rPpqqoq