Sonata music fountain pen

[miserius]

/:) Hello everyone! I am young surgeon from greece. I always enjoyed doing my best with my handwritting but it was not till the last years that I started trying out fountain pes. The pens I have used so far are basically the Rortring Art Pen series (always with the excellent Rotring brillant ink-if you've never used it try it!) Recently, I have tried to discover new fountain pens that are available with italic nibs or stub nibs as you probably call them in the States. After a thorough search I ended up with The Platinum music nib fountain pen. :bonk: :bonk: What I could tell from the descriptions was that the music nib is a unique and rare nib, supposedly designed for music score writing. It was supposed to be like a broad italic nib but with much more accented edges and a rich flow e.t.c. e.t.c. I bought it from the pengallery online store for 118US and in four days time the pen arrived from Malaysia. First impressions were really bad. The pen was packed in a cheap plastic box and the pen itself looked like the ones pharmaceutical companies give to us as small gifts for christmas. Pure plastic (as far as I can guess, not a chance to be ebonite!!!) and light as a feather. I accepted the cheap look of the pen and proceeded in trying out the magnicifent music nib! The dissapointment was more than I can describe. The nib produced a plain broad line no matter what inclination you used. The quality of the malaysian ink was horrible too. I felt such an idiot. I tried to grind the nib myself but since it has two fissures instead of one, the result was even more dissapointing. All in all I spent 150US for a cheap looking and bad writing pen.

Could anyone that has used a Rotring calligraphy pen 1.1/ 1.5 or a Scheaffer analogue, advice me what kind of pen should I look after for a next purchase?

What about stipula's italic nibs 1.1/ 1.3 ? Or my only chance is a cumstom-ground nib from one of the online stores?

Looking forward to hearing from you guys and ladies.

Sorry for my "unnatural" english - hope it was not all greek to you!!!

[J-F-O]

Hi Miserious,

 

All is not lost.

 

First thing is to put this on the side of experience. You did learn that you are looking for a certain quality and a certain performance from the nib.

 

May I suggest you take a look at Richard Binders web site. He has worked on many of my pens.

 

http://www.richardspens.com/

 

He can recommend a type of nib and pen that will better suited to your needs. He may even be able to do something with your existing pen.

 

It may cost you more but you will be much happier.

 

Best regards

 

J.F.

[HyperCamper]

May I add "Welcome!" to that?

[Rique]

Wow! This pen has been in my wish list for a long time; I´ve got other Platinum pens, and I always found them of excellent quality. Now, I think I´d better try one out, before I buy online...

I am intrigued when you say the line has the same width, no matter what the "inclination" you gave to the pen. How is it possible? Isn´t the nib a flat one? You should get some line variation, even if the nib is bad. What about the ink? Have you tried the pen with a better one?

If you´d like to try another italic for a very reasonable price, you could perhaps try a Lamy Safari, or a Alstar, with an italic nib (1.1 or 1.5 mm). These nibs are excellent (I think there´s a review at the pen review forum). Actually, they come with the Lamy Joy (a calligraphy long-bodied pen, like the Rotring Art Pen), but you can always swap nibs and bodies.

 

regards,

Rique

 

PS: Welcome aboard!

Edited September 30, 2006 by Rique

[tankahn]

If you are talking about the Maestro Black Music Nib Pen then my experience is completely difference from yours. The box it came with is disappointing and cheap. But not the pen. Typical of Japanese fountain pens, there are nothing flashy about it but it should not be construed as cheap. The nib comes with twin tines and is therefore a very wet pen. The sailor music nib which I also have is drier and I love both of them. Oh dear! I think you have ruined a perfectly good pen by grinding it.

http://www.parkvillepen.com/sitebuilder/images/maestro-414x415.jpg

Edited September 30, 2006 by tankahn

[antoniosz]

Γειά σου πατρίδα!... Καλως ήρθες στο FPN!

 

Regarding the music nib - I am sorry for your bad experience with this pen.

Usually people are rather satisfied with the music nibs, but I believe that one gets much better results by buying

a broad and doing customization by one of the nibmeisters.

My experience with Japanese pens is that around $100 retail, will not get you much of pen with a 14K/18K nib

(see Namiki Falcon, Presidential Platinum etc.). To get a nice celluloid you need to pay a bit more.

 

Your pen by the way is not totally lost unless you went too far with grinding.

A nibmeister might be able to fix it, for $30-40.

I know it feels awful since you have already spent enough but sometimes that is the way we learn.

 

Here at FPN, you came to the right place for advise. There are many experts on pens, caligraphy, inks etc.

So you are doing the right thing, before you spend more money, asking around here.

Give a little bit more detail of your preferences (size, visual, nib, value etc.) and there will be many people to help you.

 

There are many other options, from the inexpensive Lamys (which you can find in Greece), some Watermans and Parkers

(which offer nib exchange and can get you stubs, italic etc.). There is an ongoing sale on Sheaffer Legacy pens on e-bay.

There are the Pelikans with customized nibs by Binder. The Stipulas are nice (Wimg is an expert), but a bit more

expensive - just stay away from the Duettos. And there is the Marketplace where many interesting pens show up. And then there are nice vintage pens.

 

Just be cautious, FPs are highly addictive. Once you know what to buy and how/where to buy, you never end up having just one.

I had 5 pens as a graduate student in 1990, I had 30 pens in 2000 and now just dont ask ...

 

Feel free to contact me backchannel if you prefer to write in Greek.

 

Χαιρετώ,

 

Αντώνης Ζ.

 

PS> At least in Greece you have the chance to visit several stores and see and try at least the european pens..

Edited September 30, 2006 by antoniosz

[fjf]

If you could show an amplified picture of the nib, maybe people here can give some advise as how to repair the post-grinding disaster...I did try to smooth a couple of pelikan nibs that ended up not usable...I had to send them to Dillon to fix You sometimes learn by trial and error.

[Nikolaos]

Kalispera Patrida,

 

sorry to hear about your experience with the platinum pen, but i would like to welcome you to the fountain pen network I am sure will be getting the right information about what you need. As for the pen i think the performance can be modified to suit your needs.

 

Once again welcome

Filika

Nikolaos

[meanwhile]

Have you tried asking for your money back, on the grounds this doesn't fit with what is normally meant by a music nib? Pengallery have a reasonable reputation, I think.

[kissing]

I'm sorry that you were disappointed with the music nib. Perhaps you just need to get used to the nib? Specialised nibs such as music nibs or italic nibs are not usually easy to write with from day 1. Also, just because a pen is made of light material doesnt mean its a poor quality product. These pens were designed for composers and musicians who write very rapid scores of music. This is probably the reason behind the light weight of the pen.

 

Here is a previous review of the Platinum music nibs. Perhaps this may help you see some good things about the pen you bought

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...=12423&hl=music

 

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d138/leighpod/koi1.jpg

 

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d138/leighpod/koireview.jpg

[jd50ae]

Hello Miserious

 

Very sorry to here about you troubles, and surprised.

 

I have a Platinum #3776 and it is a wonderful pen. Smooth and wet, writes a great line with no start up at all.

 

I bought most of my Pilot, Sailor and Platinum pens from "engeika" on eBay. Can't complain about any transaction I have had, they have always been positive.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

I must say that I had a completely different experience. All of the Platinum music nibbed pens I have written with were very smooth and I would not hesitate to recommend them. The music nib is generally smoother than the Artpen 1.5 or Joy nib.

 

The variation is such that when you pull the pen down across the paper, the line is thick and when you pull the pen from side to side, then it is thinner. There is no variation based on the inclination.

 

If you do not like this pen, I must say that the Artpen or Joy are not nearly as good. If you think the plastic of the Platinum is cheap the plastic of the Artpen 1.5 is seeming even cheaper. (I really like my Artpen though--I don't think it is cheap.)

 

Do try some good Platinum ink. Platinum ink is good ink if it is fresh.

 

I don't currently own a Platinum music pen, but I could get you one if you are in the US and Canada.

 

Dillon

Edited November 10, 2006 by Dillo