[TRADED] Zenith Z-150 AT

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Go-Kart

19 Jun 2022, 18:16

Even with this board's stunning good looks, rarity and excellent build quality, it upsets me say that it doesn't do it for me in terms of key feel and sound. It was at the top of my list for so long. I love the layout too! Alas, I'll only keep a keyboard I actually use, I'm not a collector in that regard; I've decided to let this one go.
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What am I after in exchange? Who knows! Make me an offer. I have a good few keyboards but there's many I haven't even tried, etc., so I really am open to any offers; new, vintage, big and silly, compact, Alps, Topre, whatever.

So, about this Z-150. As you can see, it's the AT variant and is in great condition. The quality of the caps on this is the highest I've experienced. Green Alps are in good condition as the board has been well looked after by me, and the previous owner. I can't claim to know how close they are to stock feel as I have almost no experience with this switch outside of this board, but they feel good. They ain't Apex Pro smooth, but what is!? I wax boiled the top-housings and sliders of all but the LED populated switches and couldn't tell the difference between the stock and waxed switches. This again indicates that the switches were already in decent condition. The chassis isn't in perfect condition, but you can see that it's pretty tidy overall. The only thing on this board that isn't original is the num pad "./del" switch. It was damaged in transit when the original owner brought it back from the States. I desoldered the damaged switch and replaced it with a Yellow Alps plate and housing. I swapped out the slider for the original Green one.
The board works a treat over PS2. I haven't it with my Soarer's as that's currently programmed for my Model F. It's well reported that the old XT/AT Zeniths won't always play nice with converters, so that's something to bear in mind if you haven't got native PS2 on your system. The only thing I can point that detracts from this Z-150's condition is that one of the stabiliser plate clips for left shift is damaged. Easily replaced, I just don't have the spares; though, it doesn't actually seem to effect the typing experience - I just thought I should mention it. I greased the stabs with dielectric grease so they all sound great - particularly the massoosive space bar.
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Anyway, great board, just not for me. Shouldn't be too hard to find it a new home. Any questions, please just ask.

*TRADED*
Last edited by Go-Kart on 07 Aug 2022, 14:10, edited 1 time in total.

TomTrev

19 Jun 2022, 22:24

PM.

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Go-Kart

01 Jul 2022, 08:51

Still up for grabs.

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Muirium
µ

01 Jul 2022, 20:39

As the mysterious previous owner of this keyboard, let me give a little history on this one. I bought it in 2015 in my original haul from The Legendary Cindy of Electronics Plus, Texas. Ah the salad days! It likely spent most of its productive life in the Lone Star State, as many of my other keyboards from her were marked as hardware belonging to Texan school districts and state government. This one flew over to Scotland with my IBM model F AT, which roughed it up a bit over the Atlantic and broke one of those numpad keys off. Gokart has done a really nice job fixing that with the original cap and a direct replacement vintage switch. Greatly improved!

Here’s a pic from 2015 of it along with my original Cindy haul (and my Elitekeyboards Realforce 87U) laid out at my brother’s lair in California. The Zenith’s up at the top.

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You can just imagine how epic it was getting all these guys at once!

Here’s another one:

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This keyboard testing Mr. Interface’s Alps to MX adapters.

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Go-Kart

02 Jul 2022, 11:25

Ah, so this came all the way from Texas? Excellent. Looks like anachronism's AEK, too? Quite a selection!

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Muirium
µ

02 Jul 2022, 11:59

Correct. I had a couple of AEKs, both via Cindy, and he wound up with both of them. As I recall, one has El Paso Independent School District marked prominently on the base! :D

The SSK remains on my desk, with a proper set of caps now. It's my good one. I've another, with a blue label, which wants either a bolt mod or a Model F upgrade.
Spoiler:
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TNT

05 Jul 2022, 12:46

PM'd

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Go-Kart

07 Aug 2022, 14:10

Closed.

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