If you’ve been following my videos for a while, you’ll have noticed that I use Stock
Gateron Yellows for every single one of my builds.
Definitely an odd choice since some of the keyboards I look at are incredibly expensive
and no other person would use em.
In this video, I’ll go through my reasons for doing that, the advantages as well as
the downsides.
I covered this in comments and PMs and livechats, but it'll be useful to have a dedicated video
that I can point back to whenever somebody asks again.
When it comes to custom mechanical keyboards and how I review them, we're really splitting
hairs.
If an outsider tried a custom keyboard side by side with a gaming keyboard, would they
notice an appreciable difference?
They might notice something but they're probably going to say it's not worth the hundreds of
dollars in price difference.
This issue can persist in people who own customs as well.
When given an entry keyboard with very nice switches versus a high-end one with very bad
switches, people would likely say that the former is the better experience.
This is because I think switches make a much bigger impact on the overall feel and sound
of a keyboard than any element of the board itself.
So in order to judge a keyboard, rather than the switches, I need to control that variable.
Stock Gateron Yellows have a couple properties that are of interest.
Let me address each one of them.
First, they’re Gateron.
While they’ve been raised above authentic Cherry switches, they’re still regarded
to be in the lower end.
If I tell you I’m going to build the $500 HBCP with Gateron switches, you’re probably
going to cringe.
My reason for picking these is precisely for cost, or rather value.
I think Gateron Yellows are definitely smooth enough to be not annoying, while staying at
a reasonable cost of about 24 cents per switch from Novelkeys.
I’m not going to claim that they’re the best switch around or anything because the
difference between these and some Durock L2s I got are actually noticeable.
But those are more than double the cost which would add up quickly for the 36 keyboards
that I have at the time of writing.
The second advantage to using Gateron is availability.
While Gateron switches go through alterations, they are most likely going to come back in
stock.
Meanwhile, all of the hype JWK recolors might be a one and done solution that won’t come
back.
Sure you can claim that the colors don’t do anything, but why bother taking the chance?
I bought thousands of these black bottom milky top Gateron Yellows from Novelkeys, but if
i run out in the future, I can be reasonably certain that there won’t be a significant
change in experience for any new switches.
So that answers the question why Gateron Yellow specifically.
Next question is why stock?
An enthusiast build of a keyboard that costs hundreds of dollars is going to use lubed
switches, and it’s not like I never lube either.
Boards that have already been reviewed, and are unlikely to be referenced in the future,
are built with lubed switches.
But for testing, I don’t think they are appropriate -- yet.
My first point is that lubing techniques between builders vary wildly.
From what I’ve felt at Keycon, a lot of you like making slow motion switches, but
I apply a very light coat.
With these different applications comes different feels and sounds, and I don’t think it’s
very valuable to you since you’re probably not going to replicate my exact lubing style,
so your expectations might be inappropriately set.
At least with stock switches, you’re more likely to be able to reproduce my findings.
The second thing is consistency at the individual level.
I like applying a thin coat, but am I confident that I’ll be able to do it consistently
across the thousands of switches?
Maybe I can, but I don’t think it’s worth taking the chance.
If I build one keyboard with a light application, and then a month later a different keyboard
with a slightly heavier application, I’ll have no real way to know.
And whatever switch difference I feel, I might attribute to the keyboard.
This may be improved with some kind of lube applicator that applies the exact same coat
every single time.
I think something like this is going to come to market at some point, but until then, no
lube.
The last point is the varying states of lubed switches.
When you start using lubed switches, the lube is going to move around and distribute inside
the switch.
Depending on the location of the installed switch, it might get more or less use.
For example, the F9 key might get a couple presses for every hundred A key presses.
The problem also applies to keyboards that I might use more or less of.
Am I supposed to keep a timer for every keyboard?
You could argue that I already have this problem with breaking switches in.
A Stock Gateron Yellow pressed a million times is probably going to feel different from a
fresh one.
And while that definitely is an uncontrolled variable, I assert and assume that the difference
between a broken-in switch and a fresh one is going to be smaller than the difference
between lube applications.
Yes maybe old Cherry switches from office boards that got used 8 hours a day for 20
years might feel different, but the oldest build in my collection is most likely not
even a year old and it probably gets typed on for a couple hours every other week.
I don’t think my usage is wearing down any of these switches to an appreciable degree.
Another attribute of the switch is that it’s linear.
I actually prefer light tactiles a little more than linears but I chose Yellows because
I thought tactiles would hide some of the different keyboard feels just as a clicky
could hide rattly stabs.
This was personally confirmed recently when I tried some Kailh Polia switches in the Vega.
It was incredibly difficult to pinpoint the vibrations that I felt when testing with Gateron
Yellows.
Along the same vein, the Gateron Yellow spring for me is just the perfect weight and characteristic
to test bottom out feels.
Not so light that I’d be smashing into the plate, but not so heavy that I would never
bottom out.
So these are the reasons that I use stock Gateron Yellows for my tests.
By the time I’m almost done with a script, I’ll have used the board with them for up
to a couple weeks.
There are some downsides though.
Just as a clicky switch can sometimes hide rattly stabs, unlubed switches can hide the
more subtle sound characteristics of a board.
For example, my E6.5 video claimed that there was no appreciable difference when using gummyworm,
but because my switches were so loud, I don’t know if that was an appropriate conclusion
to draw.
This is definitely a shortcoming of this methodology and here’s how I’ve addressed it.
I’ll make about 90% of the way through a script and then switch over to my one set
of lubed Gateron Yellows.
This then helps me finish out the sound section of the review.
As for the sound test, now that I’ve been asserting that they should not be used to
come to purchasing decisions, I have the freedom to just go ahead and use the lubed switches.
I’ll address my beef with sound tests in a separate video, or even a series of videos.
In short, you should not listen to a Vega sound test, and then say “Vegas sound good”
or “Vegas sound bad”.
Anyway, my latest D65 video was the first to do a sound test with lubed switches in
a long while, and I’ll be going ahead with it for the foreseeable future.
The other con doesn’t actually impact you at all but I don’t really like using stock
Gateron Yellows.
Yes it’s plenty good for daily use, but having tried better stuff, and you know, preferring
tactiles, it puts a bit of a damper on my enthusiasm for new keyboards.
But I guess that comes with the territory.
In closing, I think using stock Gateron Yellows helps me feel much more confident about the
conclusions I reach with a board.
It's not representative of how it’s likely going to be built, but I think there’s
value in being able to control variables in such a subjective hobby.
In the far future, I’d like to try and quantify some of the feels but until then, this is
the best I’ve got.