Ducky Shine 6
The Ducky Shine 6, while first in my catalog, was not my first foray into Mechanical Keyboards. That award belongs to much-dated Corsair STRAFE RGB. However, the Ducky Shine 6 was still the first I bought with my own money, and it caught my eye for the fact that a lot of people were gravitating towards it for a combination of Ducky and MechanicalKeyboards.com sponsoring or flat-out sending boards to streamers in the mid- to late-2010s, and it had a very minimal look compared to that of all the gaudy, gamery boards from the likes of Corsair and Razer. I had originally ordered a full black one, but because of an error in their stock, I was instead given (with prior clearance) the White-Gold version by MechanicalKeyboards, which helped further set it apart from the STRAFE.
Design/Aesthetics
While the Ducky Shine 6 still uses RGB LEDs in its design, including a rather sleek side window for lighting, it still maintained a much simpler but stylish design from what was offered off the shelf at the time. Towards the rear of the side profile as well are two cut-outs that allow for the attachment of a mouse bungie, but this never found use as the last thing I want to ever do at my desk is restrict my mouse movement, so it remained as a slight sore sight for the eyes, but nothing egregious. The rear of the board also uses a finned design which I can think of no functional reason other than to arbitrarily add more surface area to make it look more expensive. Similar to the mouse bungie hole, it’s not egregious, but it does add something to break up the monotony of a rectangular case. The White-Gold version also includes a painted-gold plate, but I am honestly very ambivalent whether I like it or not. This version of the Ducky Shine 6 also includes a novelty spacebar designed for the Year of the Rooster (2017).
Typing Experience
As with most consumer boards prior to the rise in popularity of different mounting styles, the Ducky Shine 6 uses a tray mount design with RGB Cherry MX switches and OEM keycaps. This lends the sound and feel to be hardly different to all the competitors at the time: A sound that is sharp yet thin and plasticky, with a stiff typing feel that only lends give in the fact that the chassis is made of cheap plastic. Fortunately, the keycaps are made of the generic mid-2010s shinethrough OEM PBT keycaps, which without multiple years of use lend themselves well to general use with a decent texture while being basically impossible to wear down due to the nature of the double-shot injection molding method. It did eventually wear down simply because I was only needing one board in my life, so I wasn’t swapping out my daily driver every day like I do now. Obviously trends have improved since the release of this board where even a junky board from Amazon can provide a more interesting sound and feel, but I still feel that it’s worth having at least one or two of these overwhelmingly average boards from what I’d consider the puberty phase of mechanical keyboards (~2010-2020) just to see how innocent we were once upon a time.
| Ducky Shine 6 |
|---|
 |
| Case Material • Injection Molded ABS Plastic |
| Plate • Gold-painted Stainless Steel* |
| Mount • Tray Mount |
| Included Parts • Cherry MX Red RGB Switches • Cherry Plate Mount Stabilizers • Ducky OEM Double-Shot PBT Keycaps |
| Cost • $159.00 |
| Release Date • 2016 |
Software and Firmware
It’s been a fair moment since I’ve touched this keyboard, but to my recollection, the Ducky Software was unremarkable at best, still functioning but not being a total necessity, as instead opting to do everything from software and screwing you over if you can’t install proprietary software on any random computer, they also made the keyboard’s firmware capable of controlling all these variables from the board itself, from key assignment and macros to RGB selection, even going so far as to have a custom mode where you get an effectively 5-bit palate (10 values of Red, Green, and Blue, plus Black [off]) that you can place any color you want anywhere on the board. Was this old news even at the time of the board? Absolutely. Is it still neat that it pulled it off with completely on-board programming? For sure. It’s incredibly archaic by today’s standards where we have QMK to thank for being as close to a “universal firmware” as we’ll ever get, but it’s still a neat relic of its time, especially with how unreasonably fast its RGB effects could be made for some reason:
Assembly
As this is the first article among a sea of articles that will come out regarding my keyboard collection, I really want to make one thing clear: I absolutely despite clip-on cases. While the case is partially secured by screws, including one hidden under the warranty sticker which probably doesn’t matter by this point, the cases are also held closed by a handful of clips around the perimeter of the case, meaning a thin object is needed to separate the top and bottom cases, like magnetic cards (would recommend something more dispensable like an arcade card) or a proper prying tool that you can get from the likes of iFixit. Regardless, I think it’s this design feature that chases most people off from custom boards, thinking they’re afraid to break it when in reality, it’s these anti-repair designs that might as well be designed to be taken apart once and never put back in place properly that literally nobody in the customs portion of the hobby uses, because it is such a painful process- mentally and physically- that yields no better security than a few screws offer. This is but one of my several mechanical keyboard hills I will die on. Yes, this case is a clip-on case. I hate it.
Overview
It’s a keyboard. It’s not necessarily special on its own merit, but it does hold a special place in my heart for being my first self-bought keyboard. It’s incredibly janky by today’s standards, but it does still have a unique design among my collection and is a fun reflection on what used to be.
This article is not sponsored or compensated for in any way. This article falls under Fair Use and adheres to the Copyrights of the mentioned brands. Any mistakes, feedback or clarifications may be directed to askme@cheesemanfuu.com.
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