Adesso white Alps keyboard, $15 starting bid

[jacobolus]

The $30 BIN price seems pretty reasonable for this keyboard. Looks like a great condition “pine” white Alps board.

Keycaps are pad printed ABS, but the keyboard looks pretty sturdy (albeit maybe not as sturdy as an AEK).

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262340827814

[chyros]

I suspect they will be damped white Alps, not clicky ones. It very much looks like a rebranded AEK, but I don't think these were known to have come with dampened white Alps. An interesting find either way.

[jacobolus]

This is clicky white Alps, no damping. These are “pine” switches:


I have typed on a a very similar if not identical keyboard before. Clicky white Alps for sure.

This is not a rebranded anything. It is however a keyboard made around the same time as the AEK / AEK II (early 1990s), and intended to be used with Macintosh computers.

[khronokrator]

Like jacobulus, I have a very similar if not identical SIIG Apple keyboard, probably from later years. It had upside-down "bamboo" switches which I'm pretty sure were not SKBMs, but could've been the last models of complicated white Alps before Simplifieds came into play.

In any case, it was definitely clicky, not damped.

[ander]

This has been sold.

[jacobolus]

There’s a similar (probably the same OEM) "Cutting Edge" branded board up for $30 + shipping: http://www.ebay.com/itm/262343213417

That’s not really the best deal, but I’m mentioning it because this square rainbow "not apple logo" is amazing:

[khronokrator]

I was the one who ended up buying the Adesso, primarily to use as a source of SKCM Alps for transplant projects. It's almost in NIB condition; no dirt inside the board at all and the switches are absolutely pristine.

Key-feel wise, it doesn't feel as good as my circa 1989 Silitek, which I'm sort of using as my "high water mark" in terms of White Alps quality comparisons (further proof that even pine SKCM White Alps degraded in build quality over time). Also, like a lot of the switches on my FK-9000, it seems all the switches on this board ended up being installed upside down.

I saw that Redmaus over on DT is selling another one of these "off-brand Mac boards", and it seems to have the same issue:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/139873007@N03/25909536740/in/album-72157666671854845/lightbox/

The Adesso looks exactly the same: upside-down pine Alps.

I also have a SIIGTouch Mac board (again purchased for parts) which has upside-down bamboo White Alps. Seems to be something of an endemic installation style for the manufacturer(s), no?