Sorry, just never loved rain so much before.
Anyway, today we have an awesome build courtesy of my friends at keyboardtreehouse.com, and
this is the Verne by Zambumon.
Really simple packaging, with a good amount of foam, and just the keyboard, but it does
the job.
The case comes assembled, and really the only other thing in the package is the PCB, which
is inside the case, so we gotta take it apart to get it, and it’s held together by a bunch
of hex cap screws.
So yeh, the PCB just sits nicely inside sandwiched by two pieces of bubble wrap.
Not the most beautiful packaging, but everything came perfectly fine, so I can’t fault it.
The plate is also held in by the exact same screws, so that’s cool, you can’t mix
them up.
And as we can see, the plate is screwed to the top aluminium piece, meaning that we have
a top mount design.
This in theory provides a more consistent and even feel, as well as sound, as the mounting
points are not scattered underneath the PCB.
Here’s the top aluminium piece.
Good chunk of alu, with pretty thick walls actually.
There’s a bit of cosmetic damage, but it is on the inside, and somewhat common to see,
so it’s all good.
There’s also some long protrusions to help with positioning, but it’s not a gasket
mount board or anything, so it will screw together just fine anyway.
Here’s the bottom aluminium piece.
We have the recesses for those protrusions on the top piece, and the finish on this piece
is pretty much perfect.
There’s hardly anything milled out on the inside, being nearly just a flat surface,
because the top piece takes up most of the space.
The USB C extension PCB sits even lower, which is a feature of the board.
Wilba’s done this on a bunch of boards, and it really just gives the keyboard designer
much more flexibility on where to put the port, and we’ll talk a bit more about that
later.
The plate is made from brass, and has a nice sandblasted finish that many customs seem
to be going with these days.
Has that extra little bit of weight because it is brass, and the finish on most of these
sandblasted plates I’ve seen have all been really good, and this is no exception.
And we can also tell that it has a completely fixed layout.
Alrighty, here’s the WT80-A Verne PCB designed by Wilba.
Beautiful PCB from him as you’d expect.
There are 2 layouts of the board available, being the Modern and Classic, so the PCB itself
doesn’t have a crazy bottom row or other options for the other keys.
It supports MX style keyswitches, and through hole LEDs if you want some backlighting, but
we won’t be installing any.
For the stabs, we decided to try out the C3 stabilisers for ourselves.
Comes in a nice box which is a first.
Probably not necessary, but it’s nice.
I picked them up from a friend and there were two packs in the box, which I didn’t know.
But each pack comes with a 6.25u and 7u wire.
And even an Allen key for the screws.
Even the stabiliser world is a crazy one these days, with the GMK retooling a while back
making everyone look elsewhere.
The Durock stabs have been very popular, but are pretty pricey.
These C3 ones are nearly like half the price, but so far the general consensus hasn’t
been the most positive.
But yeh, as said, we’ll see for ourselves.
I did the usual band aid mod with fabric bandaids to soften the bottom out, and lubed them with
dielectric grease.
The wires do clip in pretty solidly.
One of the issues with Durock stabs have been that the wires do have the potential to pop
out.
Normally I don’t record this, but I let it run this time.
And it took me like nearly 20 minutes just for stabs.
Always a pain fiddling with the tiny screws and washers.
Oh and these are pretty cool because they’re available in a bunch of colours.
The switches we have for this build are Alpacas that we got from Prime Keyboards, and are
a Durock linear switch.
So many switches coming out from different manufacturers as well.
And right now, Durock linears are known to be smooth, and they do feel really great in
stock form.
But I also lubed them with Christo MCG 111.
And this was seriously just super easy to solder.
It has a completely 100% fixed layout.
So you cannot go wrong with switch placements at all.
And the switches weren’t overly difficult to put in, even though they are also 5 pin.
One thing I did notice just watching the video back.
The stabiliser cutouts are very precise because of this.
So there’s not much space around them, so if your stabiliser wire does pop out, it does
look kind of tough to be able to pop them back in with something thin.
Didn’t happen to me, but yeh.
Being a very simplistic and clean design, it’s so straight forward to put back together,
as it was to take apart.
No gaskets, no fine aligning of any sorts.
There’s no extra weight for the bottom, all we gotta do is screw the plate to the
top piece, and then plug in the USB C extension, and screw the whole thing together.
So easy, and really enjoyable actually, in I guess a weird kind of way, I just appreciate
the simplicity.
They called the blue version Nautilus blue, so it would go well with those keycaps, which
Zambumon of course designed, but this absolutely calls for GMK Striker, which he also did.
Blue would probably be a good word to describe this board.
Very blue.
Very nice.
I love singular colour builds like this.
I did it with my Singa V3 and GMK Jamon which was an all red build, and this is basically
the opposite of that.
The blue anodisation on the top piece looks fantastic.
It’s very even, the blue colour looks stunning in my opinion, and it feels awesome.
Although the bottom piece doesn’t fair as well as the top.
So the colours aren’t perfectly matched, which is fine to be honest, and it’s a lot
to expect perfection.
I know that it is very difficult to get a perfect match with all the variables, but
the colours are close enough and look great.
But disregarding that, the finish isn’t as nice as the top.
So on the sides we can see faint lines running through horizontally.
And on the bottom it isn’t the most even finish, which is especially difficult to hide
because of the large surface area.
There’s also really small dents around the bottom piece that you can only really see
up close and in proper lighting.
But honestly nothing to go crazy about, and the finish overall is sweet, and blue is just
such a striking colour.
I’m loving the shape of the case.
From the top down view it’s a simple TKL with sizeable bezels, with the forehead being
a bit taller.
And it features quite big fillets giving it a really soft and rounded look, but it’s
not as rounded as like the Fox Orange boards.
Looking at the side profile and I’ve been told it has a 6 degree incline.
I honestly thought it was less, and it also did look quite thin to me, but that’s just
the curved edges making it look so.
Just takes away the blockiness.
And it has that classic cut towards the back, but again, with them curves.
An interesting thing I noticed with this board is that you can tip it if you push firmly
towards the top.
Had no effect whatsoever in actual use, but I’m not sure if I’ve experienced that
with other mechs, and it is sturdy on the desk.
It’s also a really easy keyboard to pick up and move around which has become something
that I’ve come to appreciate more and more overtime.
It’s not an overly heavy keyboard coming in at around 2.18 kilograms, but still has
that nice heft.
On the rear we have that nice curved butt, which slims down the back.
And hiding here is the USB C port.
I did read this on the product page, and honestly haven’t paid much attention to this on other
boards.
So the USB C extension allows the port to sit much lower than if it were on the PCB
itself.
Therefore the cable can sit much closer to the table, which I personally find really
cool.
I don’t use coiled cables, so that’s a different story, but normally with straight
cables it kind of floats in the air and goes down onto the table, so not parallel.
Also casts shadows in video and photos.
This however looks much cleaner in my opinion.
We chucked in Alpacas which are a Durock linear with 62g springs.
In stock form they already feel quite smooth, perhaps because they are still fresh moulds
and all.
But you can’t really go wrong with lubing to get that extra buttery feeling and to improve
acoustics.
Because they don’t sound amazing stock.
Awesome typing experience.
The switches are amazing.
Personally the smoothest board I’ve typed on, but that’s just going off an assortment
of lubed Gat boards . I have been experimenting with these housings and different stems which
looks very promising, but haven’t built a full board like this.
But yeh, very smooth.
It’s difficult to have all of them feel exactly the same, with the lubing as well,
so there is some scratch, but some of these have hardly any friction or scratch, even
off axis.
Comparing to my lubed Gateron Ink Yellows, these are far beyond those, even though they’re
not regarded to be that sort of switch.
And comparing to lubed Gateron Ink Blacks, and Gat Yellows, these are again a touch smoother.
It’s just the sound that isn’t as deep as said Gateron Ink Blacks, and probably retooled
MX Blacks and those kind of switches, but the lube helps a little with that.
But the top out is quite sharp.
And the wobble is absolutely fine.
The board itself provides a nice even and solid typing experience.The bottom out feels
dense but not too harsh at all.
The stabilisers are decent.
Again, they are affordable, I have no rattle on mine, which is good.
They’re not as smooth as Durock stabs, but I don’t think they’ll have the pop out
potential that those do.
So for the price, I mean no rattle is good for me.
The keyboard is fully prommably via QMK and also VIA.
VIA being awesome, and unbelievably easy to use.
And that’s the Verne by Zambumon.
Something a little different, but at the same time simple and classy.
The rounded edges on this makes the board, giving it an overall soft look which I do
like to see once in a while.
This was a really easy build to put together, nothing complicated about it, and it shows
and works perfectly.
And I guess it’s a personal thing if you like that.
There’s no extra flair with a weight or engraving or whatever, but it expresses itself
beautifully with the colour and shape in my opinion.
I do really appreciate its weight though.
It’s still heavy, but light enough to be moved around easily.
And well, I am a sucker for tenkeyless boards as well.
Just a traditional, classic look.
And thanks again to keyboardtreehouse.com for letting me build this board.
I’ll chuck their link in the description if you wanna check
it out.