If you own a MB149 please PM me as I'd like to do a little statistical test.


I would like to know: the age of your pen

If and what quality issues you have had with the pen ( none is an acceptable answer)



thanks,

K

I purchased my MB 149 in February 1998 in Hong Kong. So the age is appox. 9 Years ++
The quality & performance have been exceptional. By the way it was my 1st MB Fountain pen purchase and since last 9 years I've spend a fortune in acquring FP's.

I've 3 MB 149- all of them are fine or X-fine. One is from the late 60s and the others are from the 70s. They all write great, a nice springy nib w/ just the little "give" which makes long writing sessions so pleasurable. They all write wet, maybe a 6 on Richard's scale and as I've mentioned before, they have a little stubby character. It seems they don't like Noodler's Ink, but w/ my other favorite Aurora Black, they write wonderfully smooth. I don't take any special care other than washing in cold water q3-4 weeks, and thank God, never had to send the pen to the Service/repairs. Hence I can't comment on the quality of the MB services.
They all have some usual surface wear from regular usage, but that has given them some character and makes them my pens.
My experience w/ MB has been very +ve and I'll definitely buy another MB, probably some LE ones.

I have a 149. I purchased it from the original owner, I believe it is c. 1990s (How do you tell?).

No quality issues at all thus far, but the nib is a touch scratchier than my other MBs.

I have a 149 with a Medium nib that I bought in 1990. I've had no problems with it. It writes like a charm. The only service it's had in the last 17 years has been routine maintenance about 5 years ago when I sent it to MB to have it cleaned and get the piston lubricated (the filling knob had become hard to turn).

I have 2 now.

The first is a broad nibbed model from the late 70's - super smooth writer, fast ink flow. no problems to date

The second is the 1999 75th anniversary pen M nib - nice writer, but not as smooth or juicy as the 70's unit - no complaints though

regards
Bren

I have owned two, one new and one bought used.
The new one worked great out of the box right up to the day it was stolen.
The used was sent to Richard Binder for a nib tune up, and has worked like a champ ever since.
Sorry I can't be specific on the ages of the pens.
Both have rolled off desks onto a hardwood chair mat without permanent damage.
gary

I have a new one (medium nib), purchased just over a month ago.

It writes fairly wet with Noodler's Legal Lapis, lays down a nice line on paper that my other FPs will not tolerate (their lines turn inconsistent and thin). It is not fussy about pen orientation, starts right up, about 8/10 for smoothness. It is a very uncomplaining pen.

Scott

I have 2 149s. One is from the early 80s and the other made in the 1990s. I an using both pens a lot and so far i haven't had any issues with them regarding performance and/or quality

Nikolaos

Got mine in 92.
It's always been inked and used daily, and no problems to report.

I bought my 149 new in the box in 2000. Some of the money toward that purchase was a gift with the specification that it go for a Monty B pen. Mine has a BB nib that I had stubbed by Dillo about two (?) years ago.

I have had no quality issues at all. Although I use mine regularly, it barely has any wear marks.

I believe mine is from the late 1990s, though I'm not absolutely positive because I bought it from a large collection that Winedoc helped to sell about a year back and he couldn't find the original box, though I'm not even sure that MB boxes or instruction booklets have a date of production. So if you've only got the serial number to go on, is it possible to date it? I don't know if this is relevant for the survey, but the pen was unused when I purchased it and I've used it pretty regularly since. I've had no problems at all with it.

i have a 149 from the mid-80s. i got it with a bent nib so i had that straightened out at the montblanc shop here in the philippines. other than that, no problems, although i haven't used it much.

Acquired a 149 with B nib from a friend.....immediately noticed stained fingers.....discovered ink leak at joint between threaded area and barrel. Evaluated at MB Dallas, verified as genuine, no serial number so dated before 1990. I had tried to clean it thinking it was just dried ink (BIG MISTAKE!)

Sent to MB Hospital in Bethlehem PA for repair. returned in great shape with some replacement parts evident.

Now, used every day with MB British Racing Green ink...tried Sepia and Bordeaux but like the BRG best.

looking for 4 more 149s. so far the negatives are 15% of the total comments.

K


G 1 1 1 1 5 1 1 1 1 10 1 1 1 1 15 1 1 1 1 20 1 1
B 1 1 1 1

I purchased mine mid-90s, it has been a very good pen. Never had any trouble with it. Excellent writing pen. It is a medium nib.

JD

I have had a MB 149 for about 6 months with no problems

I bought mine a year ago. Everything fine with it; it is an F nib and writes very well. It was brand new when I purchased it.

I own two 149s, one from 1966 and another from 1977 both trouble free and very reliable.

I have received 31 'subjects' for this little experiement and have conducted it this way.

If a pen required going back to MB or to an aftermarket repair person because of problems it was counted as a bad.

This is a small sample of the total population of MB pens sold in the world but it is large enough to get an idea. If suggested I will do the calculations with some extimates of total MB 149 production to get a more accurate number.


Anyway from the 31 reports 4 of them showed problems that is a 12.9% repair rate.

That would be considered good but not excellent.

And it is interesting that the people who owned multiple MBs had positive feelings & single pen owners didn't buy a second.

So there it is a slightly more rigorous experiment with people posting to the site.


thanks to everyone who gave participated.

K

At last some hard numbers to address this subject so we can stop mutilating that long-dead horse! Thanks, Kurt. Care to increase the statistical base with other models?

Firstly, thank you for this effort. It is clearly an effort to analyze the ongoing claims from a less prejudiced perspective.

Unfortunately:
1) Unless I'm mistaken (I'm quite over-tired), the 95%CI is approximately 1% to 25%. Not very useful for any hypotheses.

2) The bigger issue, though, is that you'll find a higher percentage of satisfied MB owners in the MB forum than in the General Writing Instruments forum. This leads to a highly biased set of measurements (not necessarily biased individuals so much as their experiences, i.e. the luck of the draw). Would you mind re-taking this in the General Forum for comparison?

Once again, thank you for the effort.

I have a late 70s 149. I bought it NOS in March and I haven't had any issues with it. I noticed it is picky about ink and paper, but thats not really a problem. I dropped mine on concrete outside the second day I had it and it only had a few barely noticeable scratches.

As for 149's only, I own 2 and both are from the late 1970's early 1980's. Both have 14kt gold nibs, one is a medium and the other is a broad that was ground to an italic. Both pens write perfectly and have had no problems at all.

TNS

As I haven't reported here:
I received a new MB149 in 1994 directly from MB. MB service upgraded my new MB146 to this pen after trying to fix the 146's skipping problem three times. Th MB149 has been flawless for the past 13 years. Also, they sent me a nice 2 pen leather pen case after their second attempt.

I have two MB 149s. They both write extremely well, and they are among my favorite pens. For reasons that are not clear, one seems a little smoother than the other, but they are both excellent.

I had one cracked piston knob. I was putting on my lab coat in the parking garage and the pen was in the front pocket. I was whipping the coat on quickly, so two pens went flying out. The 149 flew about 25 feet and landed on the concrete on its end; it cracked the piston cover in half. Some might consider that a "precious resin accident", but I do not, as I think that was an excessive challenge to the pen. I think almost all pens would end up with some sort of damage in that instance (and, actually, I HAVE damaged other pens by dropping them in the parking garage). I therefore do not consider it a defect. My other pen, an OMAS, was lost forever in that incident.

Professor Denzil Dexter's experiments had similarly vague conclusions... (UK Fast Show viewrs will know).

Interesting post, but as a test: completly spurious.

I've just sent you a PM; I bought mine in 1987, new, and have had twenty years of dissatisfaction with it,including two major repair/replacement episodes. It still does not work properly; it starts with floods of ink and dries up four or five lines later. It has never had anything but MB ink in it.

I certainly will never buy another.

I have had a 149 since 1979. It leaked quite a bit. Regular trips to Montblanc over the ensuing 25 years did not seem to fix the problem. Most recently, 2005, the pen came back from Montblanc but the entire piston unit promptly unscrewed. I had it fixed again by the Pen Mechanic in the DC Metro area. Richard Binder also tweaked the nib in 2006. It skipped a bit for the years 1979-2005. With moderate pressure it would write ok, but it became really good after Richard worked on it.
It has become one of my favorite pens now that all issues have been resolved.
I also own 1 136, 1 256, 1 134, 1 642 and an assortment of the writers'series. I think Montblanc can be exceptionally good and that my old 149 was an aberration. It was a gift from an old friend or I would have gotten rid of it and bought another.

It seems that the answer to getting a bad MB to work is to avoid the MB service system and to go to an independent!

This is perhaps not surprising; there is a lot more money in selling "luxury goods" than there is in repairing them!

I have a Montblanc 149 that I bought used so I do not know the exact age. It has a plastic piston and a 14k nib so I think that is 1980's. There is an online article that I once saw and cannot find now that has a comparison of the 149 through the years. One of the examples matched my pen. If someone knows that article and will post the link I will revise the age of the pen if necessary.
and it
The pen seems well used, but far from worn out. I have used it a lot once I found the right ink for it has been great. It is a medium nib and is very wet writer with various Private Reserve and Diamine inks to the point of not being useful. I came across a stash of NOS Skrip in the yellow boxes and that has worked great. Washable Purple #82 is perfect with this pen.

In summary, no leaks, does not dry out, starts every time, and is oh so smooth. A great pen.

Len

Most users/collectors with real serieus issues with the 149 will not own or use this fountain pen anymore.

Unfortunately, I am not one of those who have had no problems with the 149.

I bought mine around 1998, so it is about 9 years old. The first problem i had was the trim: it acquired a corroded look after about 6 months. This was fixed by MB (it took 2 weeks, tho). Then i had excessive ink-flow problems. Tried everything under the sun but the problem did not let up. However, using Pelikan 4001 ink helped a little; maybe because this ink is thicker. Finally, i suspect there is a leak somewhere as ink keeps accumulating in the cap.

If i hadn't spent so much on it, i'd probably trash it right now. On the other hand, i think i'll keep it because it can be worn as 'jewelry'.

Many cheaper pens have performed better overall - but they can't be worn as 'jewelry'

I had a 1980's 149, got crazy cracks all around the viewing windows, enough to let air get into pen and make piston seal not work. Would no longer suck up ink.
In addition the "gold" rings corroded, besides this it was scratched up. Estimated cost of repair was more than the pen was worth.
However the nib 18k m, was super smooth...almost kept as a dip pen...almost

I recently bought two used 149's at the DC Supershow. One is from the early 70's, still with fine sticker on it. Writes very smooth for their F nib. Granted, much wider than the EEF of the asia persuasion, but still a fair amount of flex and can easily do detail work. Nice balance, not scratchy but not swimming in ink either.

The second is from the early 90s. Overall, really the same performance characteristics as above. I cannot tell the difference between the two.

Taken together I find myself gravitating towards that 149's and away from my 146. I certainly notice the difference when I return to my classique rollerball, which seems really small.

Overall, I like both of them very much. No service issues. However, I have had the 146 to PA twice. Both times the service people were very friendly and the service top notch, with coupons accompanying the pen on its return trip. They did not get the nib exchange right the first time. I used a suggestion from this forum and sent them a sample of the thin line I desired, and they did a great job of matching it.


Hope this helps.


Duke

I own two 149s.
They are 1 and 2 years old.
No problems or issues with the pen.

What is the statistical test? I am curious.

I have one I bought in 1998. No issues whatsoever. An excellent writer and one I've put to good use over the years and continue to do so.