[georges zaslavsky]

Hi everyone

I have asked myself numerous times wether I should buy a Visconti or not. Sure these pens have a nice celluloid and nice decoration but the reliability of their filling systems, the misalignement of the feed with the nib and the ok to average nib performance of visconti nibs have always stopped me to buy one. I tried several Viscontis but perhaps the ones I tried were not the best ones. I also want to know what is the quality of Visconti after sales service in Europe.

I am highly thinking of a wall street and/or of an opera master. So if you can help me and convince me of Visconti positive experience it may help me in my future purchases decisions.

thanking you in advance

best regards

georges

[PatientType]

Well, I have two Visconti pens, a Van Gogh and a limited edition Amigdala. The nibs are extra ordinarily smooth and the flow from the feeds have been problem free. I've been very happy with mine. I can't comment on the service in that mine have needed none. Before making those purchases I watched posts on FPN and I'd seen overwhelmingly positive pen reviews and posts.

This post has been edited by PatientType: 07 November 2009 - 08:23 AM

[georges zaslavsky]

PatientType, on 07 November 2009 - 08:22 AM, said:

Well, I have two Visconti pens, a Van Gogh and a limited edition Amigdala. The nibs are extra ordinarily smooth and the flow from the feeds have been problem free. I've been very happy with mine. I can't comment on the service in that mine have needed none. Before making those purchases I watched posts on FPN and I'd seen overwhelmingly positive pen reviews and posts.

For me my benchmarks in term of italian nibs are Omas and Nettuno which are flexible and buttery smooth, I tried a Visconti Opera Club as well, Van Gogh Midi, Van Gogh Maxi and several Divinas and several limited editions but the nibs were far to be enamoring.I however tried a wall street the last week which seemed to be a tad better than the ones I tested before. It was semi firm yet smooth enough nib but not a buttery smooth nor a flexible nib like on my omas pens or on my nettuno. If I purchase a Visconti it is for buying happy not unhappy and sending it to repair.

This post has been edited by georges zaslavsky: 07 November 2009 - 08:40 AM

[Aysedasi]

I have to say it's one of those pens I never bother to look at. Yes, some of them are very pretty, but the prices are out of my league. I often find myself thinking - what is it about this make of pens which enables them to command prices like this?

[FrankB]

All of my Visconti pens are great writers and have been trouble free. However, all of my Viscontis are older models. Once they started using metal sections, I stopped buying. Those current production pens without metal sections are quite pricey, so, again, I have not bought any. Here in the U.S., Visconti repair service is supposedly notoriously slow. I have never used it since, as I said, my Viscontis have been problem free.

[Ghost Plane]

I have over 30 of them now. I find the 18k nibs write similar to my MB, Krone, or Conway Stewart nibs. 14k nibs are usually the smaller, stiffer ones. I can't comment on European service. I used the previous distributor's service twice from here in the States, found it took approximately 2 months, but the pens came back working, which was the important bit for me. New distributor [Cole's] I have no experience.

I can't speak to the Wall Streets as that shape doesn't work for my unusual pen hold.

Other than a feed issue on a brand new Romanica that the factory fixed in Italy and a Metropolis which had a part simply break off [cured me of my curiousity about retracting nibs], they're reliable, excellent writers. My oldest have been in use for roughly a decade. Neither of the repairs cost me anything other than postage and time away from that pen.

[offbase]

Ghost Plane, on 07 November 2009 - 06:33 AM, said:

I have over 30 of them now. I find the 18k nibs write similar to my MB, Krone, or Conway Stewart nibs. 14k nibs are usually the smaller, stiffer ones. I can't comment on European service. I used the previous distributor's service twice from here in the States, found it took approximately 2 months, but the pens came back working, which was the important bit for me. New distributor [Cole's] I have no experience.

I can't speak to the Wall Streets as that shape doesn't work for my unusual pen hold.

Other than a feed issue on a brand new Romanica that the factory fixed in Italy and a Metropolis which had a part simply break off [cured me of my curiousity about retracting nibs], they're reliable, excellent writers. My oldest have been in use for roughly a decade. Neither of the repairs cost me anything other than postage and time away from that pen.

x2. All brands will have a few bad ones, and I've had my share of bad Visconti's. But, once you have it right, you have a great all around pen. I'm down to maybe a dozen of them right now, but every one is an issue-free, beautiful, great writer.

[stevlight]

The only Visconti i have is the Visconti Nato. It is a great pen--smooth nib--great for writing may be TOO smooth for me for drawing {I like more tooth or connection to the paper, have not really drawn with it yet--may use it as a signature pen}. I got the Nato in a trade, for the clip and vacuum filling system. I do not like the new "banner" visconti clips. I think they make very high quality pens and it is worth owning at least one. If you absolutely hate it you can always sell or trade it. I would get a Visconti wallstreet LE because of the filling system and how beautiful they are but have moved more to just pens I know work for me "workhorses" and my drawing--mostly MB 149's. The Nato is the exception--it is just a cool pen!

This post has been edited by stevlight: 07 November 2009 - 01:05 PM

[georges zaslavsky]

thanks for the input everyone :) I will have to weight my decision with pro and cons it involves when purchasing my first visconti.

[bensuzuki]

I just have two of them. I find nib is OK but not the best one. I think build quality is not so good.
Are they pretty? Yes they are.

My bottome line is you need a patience and bigger love to appreciate Visconti. I can love them.
Can I recommend to anybody without precautions? Probably not.

[youstruckgold]

I have a few Viscontis, including both the Wall Street LE and Opera master demo.

Firstly I have had no issues with them at all, so can't comment on service issues.

What I can say is that they feel beautiful in the hand and I even bought a medium in the WS (because that was all that was available at the time), and couldn't believe how beautifully it wrote.

Do it. Mine are not my go-to pens in the way that my Omas are; but they are a very close second (and ahead of my Nettunos).

I don't think you can possibly regret it.

[georges zaslavsky]

I will not buy one until I have I tested it completely by myself during an hour and more if needed. I will test the nib by not applying pressure then applying pressure and then in reverted mode. I will also check with a magnifiying glass if the nib is misaligned or not as well as check if the filling system is not prone to leaking. Of course I will also check if the clip is not prone to unscrewing or breaking prematurely. There are pens on which I have a blind and total confidence among italian pens, these are the following brands: Omas, Nettuno, Stipula and Montegrappa. But with Visconti, things are not easy and they tend to be very finnicky that is why I am extra cautious with a visconti purchase.

[FrankB]

Georges wrote:

"I will not buy one until I have I tested it completely by myself during an hour and more if needed. ..."

Oh, the joys of having a B&M store available! Have fun, and good luck.

[Siv]

Well for me the joys of having a Visconti is that I have paid less than half of retail price for all the ones I own thanks to people like Bryant and others. I think you can live with the slight inconsistencies in their performance when you consider the price point. At full retail, I would never buy a Visconti (or almost any other pen for that matter).

All the Visconti I have are LEs with the 18k nib. I don't know if the 14k regular models are as good but the 18k nibs are wonderful writers.

[Ghost Plane]

The 14k are good, the 18k are fantastic! Ditto. I've never paid full price. Bryant and Scott Lee of PrahaBleu on fleabay have been major enablers in my life. Plus the Visconti rep came around locally for trunk shows and I got some deals off him before he left to go to Yafa.