switchbox.studio

Lorde

Strong Dampened Tactile

  • Stem:
  • Spring:
  • Top:
  • Bottom:
  • Films:
  • Lube:
  • Silent Box Brown
  • Box Royal
  • Box Silent/Cream
  • Box Royal
  • As Needed
  • 205g0
 
Taxonomic name:

Box Royal Bottom & Spring w/ Silent Box Brown Top & Stem; Lubed

The name was an obvious choice, because after this mod, they will never be Royals. eyyy

TL;DR: Genuinely closer to clicky than silent, but enjoys the other benefits of dampening. Very crisp, snappy tactility. Cherry profile North-facing compatibility.

The idea for these came from two different places. More generally, I’ve seen conversations musing about dampened clicky switches, and more specifically a friend of mine totally new to mechanicals has been trying switches and mentioned how much he loved the crisp kind of tactility that clicky switches had, but that the noise would drive him nuts. And so—the search for dampened pseudo-clikies was on.

While I’ve seen plenty of lamentation about the Box tactiles’ propensity for producing clicking sounds depending on their age / use / other factors, this switch brings it out as much as possible and relies on it as a less loud but still plenty audible alternative to discrete, purposeful noise-making mechanisms. Since the click itself is caused by overcoming the negative-style tactile bump of the slider, it’s naturally synced with both tactility and actuation.

It's a mutt, but I love it.

The sound isn’t too different from that of a normal Box Royal, except there’s only the click of the leaf / pusher / slider-cam interaction - no bottom-out clack or top-out rattle. The click itself is a bit more sharp with the SBB stem vs the original Royal, as well.

These are some weird bois, but if you’ve been curious about dampened clickies, Lordes are an easy to reproduce take on the theme.

As a side note - I’d originally intended to use Crystal Royal bottoms for this switch because they look great and have 5 pins, but found that they lacked the snappy tactile edge I wanted for this frankenswitch. They may still be a great choice for you, though - as they're still pretty tactile, and to me, do enjoy a more solid bottom-out feel. They're also more RGB-friendly with their clear plastic.