Availability Question

[Valaire]

I'm a little late to the game with mechanical keyboards. I'm interested in only a TKL model. My home keyboard usage is about 70% games, 20% work, 10% other, so I was looking at MX Red switches, because even for my non-gaming tasks, I'm not typing out long reports or anything. While I understand that everyone has different preferences for different switches, I'm willing to just buy a particular switch and see if it works for me, because I don't have regular access to try out keyboards at a store.

Budget isn't an issue, and while backlighting isn't really that important to me, the Ducky Shine 2 seems like a solid keyboard to get. However, I'm having a lot of trouble finding it in stock--am I missing some obvious source for mechanical keyboards like this?

Mechanicalkeyboards.com, Amazon, and Newegg don't seem to ever have it in stock. In particular, I'd like the Ducky Shine 2 w/ White LED TKL w/ MX Reds.

So 3 questions:

1. Is this in stock somewhere at a reputable vendor?
2. Is this keyboard and its config recommended?
3. I've heard talk of 'o-ring mods'. Is this something I should look into, and is there a vendor that will install them for me for a fee? I'm lazy.

Thanks.

 

[Valaire]

I have found the answer to #1, it seems the Shine 3 is going on sale in July and that is why the Shine 2 are OOS. Guess I'll wait til July/August and grab one.

 

[Skull_Angel]

1. not sure on when they will restock or get the new batch of Shine 3s, but a Mechanicalkeyboards.com rep. does keep in touch with the community here.

2. as far as quality backlit goes, Ducky are highly regarded alongside Deck, Deck is pretty restrictive with their options though.

3. The o-ring mod is simple to do and can be very helpful for noise reduction for people getting into Cherry MX switches. I would suggest buying a bag of dental/braces rubber-bands from a general store instead though; most of the o-rings I've bought online aimed at being used for this mod have all deteriorate quite quickly (esp. if you try to transfer them), but the dental bands have worked out quite well and are very cheap for enough to use on several boards.

I do suggest getting/making a wire-type cap puller for removing keycaps though, they put the plastic ring pullers to shame for ease of use and won't damage the coating on backlit key caps.