Sweat. Why Sweat? I chose that word because sometimes I adore all alliteration. Truthfully many people start sweating before even obtaining a custom keyboard. For many who are new to the scene, the research and planning can be quite daunting. When you start researching into custom keyboards, you’ll start sweating over the keyboard angle. You'll start worrying if you know how to solder or not. You'll bemoan your varied choices when it comes to colors. You'll fret over layouts and you'll lose sleep over potential switch modifications. Never before has there been such a plethora of choices. With so many choices, how's one to choose? It's simple. Go with what you want. If you want a simple handwired board that you can proudly exclaim is yours and unique to you, go for it. While many might not treat it as such, in theory it's as custom as any fancy aluminum custom out there because it's tailored to you. If you want to explore the world of switch modding to find the best feel for you, you might head that direction in the custom scene. Possibly you want a custom keyboard tailored to meet your exact desires. This mentality is how so many custom projects started. A designer simply wanted a layout, or look that wasn't available to them, so they created it. So as you sweat about what you want, start researching. You may eventually go down the rabbit hole of wondering about anodization quality, color options, layouts, switch lubing, matching artisans, and matching key sets. Sweating bullets might not stop there if your GB runner decides to not give constant updates, is constantly sick, or even pulls an Ivan or Team Redline on you.

Finding group buys, interest checks, and information on upcoming products isn't the easiest. Combing through /r/mk, /r/mechmarket, GH's IC and GB forums are the most precise way to look through most of the information. Top Clack does try to help with our weekly shows as well as the Weekly News section of our website. In recent years the depth of the custom keyboard world has grown and expanded, but making friends is another way to help keep up with what's happening. Try not to sweat it though; just go at your own pace. There will always be key sets, keyboards, or GBs that you have missed because of when you joined, but just think of all the awesome possibilities ahead.