Alright. Mine arrived today. There are some points that bothered me, and a dent that I have to discuss with TriangleLab. Without further ado, here are pictures and some of the details regarding my package:
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The plate seems to be darker than the color I had initially expect. Frankly, it's not too bad for me. And switches seem to fit alright. Switch-top opening is always a nice feature. The anodization is not as even as I would expect from a $300 kit.
The part that annoyed me was whoever packed the package decided to tape the plastic bags containing screws, blockers, etc ONTO the plate, which caused the adhesive to stay on the plate. I had to treat my plate with heat (blow-dryer) and some alcohol to remove the adhesive. It's just extra work that is unnecessary.---
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The case top is in good condition. Again, darker anodization than I anticipated, but I actually enjoy this tone of green.
Minor detail: the bottom side of the top case has burn marks around the screw holes. Not a huge deal since the plate still fits onto the top case, but just an aesthetic blemish.
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Weight is in decent shape. There are some
markings (fingerprints, other) that I cannot remove with regular wiping materials. It might need additional polishing, but since this is an inner weight, it does not bother me very much. The AL1 engraving does not look as elegant due to the font of choice. You need to press on the weight to be able to screw it onto the bottom case; it's not difficult at all, but just a note as the width of the weight is not that long.
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My biggest gripe and something I will have to speak with TriangleLab about: the dent on the back corner of the left side of the bottom case. It's not the largest dent, but it's quite apparent during inspection. I cannot fathom how QC failed to catch this. The anodization of the bottom case is fairly even (the lighting might fool you here), and it's fairly smooth. Definitely not as smooth as some boards I have seen in other custom kits (see MIRA SE, Moon, OTD, EXENT, others).
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The soldering of resistors/diodes is somewhat shoddy on the PCB. Anyhow, I used some pointed tip tweezers to test the PCB on SwitchHitter. The default layout seemed to work out alright. One thing to note, however, is that if you accidentally short a switch pin with an LED pin, you might trigger a bunch of columns and rows simultaneously! So when soldering, watch carefully that you don't cause a short between adjacent LED and switch pins. I have yet to try programming the PCB, but it passed my first test.
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Not pictured were a few little plastic zip-lock bags with screws for the case, bump-ons, an Allen key for the screws, and the WKL blockers.
That's all I have for now, as I am currently very busy with work. I will get back to more updates here later on.
I will have to speak with TriangleLab, however, about the bottom case dent, as I am quite disappointed by it. While I would still keep the board, I would not let it pass under full price. Hope this helps to any other GB participants that may be wondering what to expect. The quality of the board is very good, and its heft is quite remarkable. The anodization problems seem to be limited to the NEW (dark blue?) colorway, as the anodization on this board turned out decently well and even, despite it being darker than I anticipated from the color chip samples on the GB order form (this may be a dealbreaker for some!). I would advise most folks to consider being lenient on the inner brass weight, as it won't be visible once the board is assembled.
Let me know if you have any thoughts. TriangleLab, PM incoming.
