Hello! I just bought a GMMK2, what keycaps do you reccomend?
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Whichever ones you like, it’s entirely down to preference.
But any recommendations? I am new to the keyboard community and I do not know what keycaps are good or bad.
Well that’s hard to say, because we don’t know if you have preference to certain themes/colors or if you just don’t care about things like that.
Ok, also what does GPBT mean?
Just their naming for the keycaps. The two common materials for keycaps are ABS and PBT. The GPBT keycaps are PBT material.
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Ohhhhh, Thank youuu!
PBT tend to have a deeper sound sometimes. If you get cheap keycaps, they will sound cheap. If you get pricer keycaps, like GMK, they will sound more premium. But colors are preference, same with thestyles
So are PBT premium？
Not really, there are good and bad of both PBT and ABS. The “premium” and “quality” is going to be more on the manufacturer of the keycaps more than anything.
This might help.
Edit: take the price argument with a grain of salt. There are some very, very good PBT keycap sets from reputable vendors that are extremely affordable in the grand scheme of things. GMK uses ABS plastic, and they are generally up there in price and group buys.
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@Jzff PBT tends to be higher quality there’s also different profiles the most common usually being cherry.
It is also common to have to wait for specific keycaps to drop and to pay a premium price. The most notable of these brands are GMK and ePBT.
Glorious always has some decently priced keycaps that are in stock year-round.
Pending on your budget you could check something like aliexpress or amazon just make sure you get keys that fit your layout. Otherwise, you’ll likely be waiting and or paying a decent chunk for a set that suits your fancy.
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Thank you everyone for helping me!
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Hey @Jzff, welcome to the Guild and the money pit that is custom keyboards!
If you’re new to the hobby, I’ll drop some resources here that might help answer a few questions.
Switch and Click is a great content creator and has a video that does a good job of explaining the difference between ABS and PBT keycaps.
Going along with keycaps, I will provide a link that provides a bit of information on the different types of keycap profiles. Different profiles tend to have their own unique height, shape, and row variation. I’m bringing this up because I made an “oops” purchase when I first got into the hobby, and I’d hate for anyone else to do the same.
Lastly, is a link that does a good job of explaining the differences between the three types of switches: linear, tactile, and clicky. If you don’t have much experience with different switches, most distributors sell sample packs that come with one switch of several different types.
How to Choose the Perfect Mechanical Keyboard Switches? – Vissles
Please don’t hesitate to ask questions, the majority of the community are more than happy to help.
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Looks like my guild mates have beat me to the punch here. Like @SentientTD said though it mostly comes down to preference and @8-Bit_Bootcamp has a great selection there for the basics of Keycaps and Switch’s which is a great starting point for anyone new.
Just to add a little knowledge to my post for you, GMK stands for Gunther, Meinhardt, and Kredler (The last names of the original founders of the company) a German company (aka German Made Key’s) that makes high end Doubleshot ABS keycap set’s and they are considered some of the best and most expensive keycap’s among keyboard enthusiasts.
Also, again like @SentientTD has said, there are other reputable companies out there that make great keycap sets as well, and they don’t necessarily have to be ABS keycaps to be good keycaps they can be PBT and be a good keycap set also
P.S. Welcome @Jzff Glad to have you as part of the Guild
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Again, thank you for everyone for helping me out. I didn’t expect so many people to help me and now I think I have a better understanding of this.
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Absolutely, that is exactly what we are here for to support and help one another
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As you explore I’m sure more questions will arise. Keep asking. No stupid questions here. We all were new at one point.
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