Ink Review : Diamine Bach (Music Collection)

[namrehsnoom]

Ink Review : Diamine Bach (Music Collection)

 

 

Pen: Lamy AL-star, M-nib

Paper: Rhodia N°16 notepad 90 gsm

 

 

Leipzig, a late afternoon in November 1726

“I have left the busy city for a quiet walk in the woods. It’s cold and dark and somber – the gloomy mood intensified by the dark brown towering oaks that resemble an open-air cathedral. This setting inspires my muse. I hear in my mind a grand baroque piece commemorating the Death of Christ, ideally suited for a performance in my beloved St Thomas Church (Thomaskirche). I think I will name it the Matthäeus-Passion.”

In 2015 Diamine released the Music Collection, a set of 10 subdued ink colours named after well-known composers. In this review, we take a look at Bach. After the above introduction, you're sure to remember that this is a dark-brown ink.

Diamine Bach is a dark-brown ink, which to my eye is close to a true brown, with very little red in the undertones. This is also evident from the chromatography. Bach is a well lubricated ink with excellent contrast to the paper. An ink that easily tolerates even the finest nibs. With broader nibs, it starts to show some really nice subdued shading, without too much contrast between the light and darker parts of the text. Nicely done!

The ink behaved perfectly on all the papers I tested – with only a touch of bleed-through on the notoriously bad Moleskine paper. Drying times are mostly in the 10-15 second range, but tend to increase on more glossy paper (all with M-nib). The ink’s look & feel is fairly consistent across paper types, and the result looks good on both white and more yellow paper. The ink has no water resistance to speak of – even short exposure to water will obliterate your writing. Technically a very good ink, but for some reason it fails to speak to me. I tried to like it… but nope… didn’t work. I’m sure though that there are others out there that will appreciate this incarnation of brown.

Inkxperiment – Heron at a Pond

I’ve recently started to experiment with ink drawings, keeping things simple and more-or-less abstract. I find it to be a fun extension of the hobby, and have found single-ink drawings a nice challenge. It also gives you an idea of what the ink is capable of in a more artistic setting. For this drawing I used 90 gsm sketch paper. I used a piece of cardboard dipped in ink to create the background together with the trees. For the pond I applied ink with a dip pen, and used a water brush to spread it out. I then added in the heron and the rest of the plants. The end result gives you a good idea of the colour span that Bach is capable of (which is limited – Bach is more at home as a writing ink).

Conclusion

Diamine Bach is a nice dark-brown writing ink that works well with any combination of nib and paper. The ink has a limited colour range though, which makes it less suited for drawing. Also of note is its complete lack of water resistance. Bach is technically an excellent ink, but I find it hard to get excited about it. A decent ink, but – for me personally – not a keeper.

My overall score : B

 

 

Technical test results on Rhodia N°16 notepad paper using a Lamy Safari

 

 

[lapis]

Beautiful review of a beautiful ink. As you suggest -- or actually you sort of said so -- this brown is a great brown insamuch as it's full of many undertones. Not just red but then not simply green, either. What a perfect fit to Bach... and all that on the 25th of December! Thank you so much for this present!! (I have almost used up my own small bottle.)

[The Good Captain]

Great review of an ink that I have, but haven't used much.

Forgive the pun but perhaps I was afraid of its byte...

[Jan2016]

Thank you for another great review!

I enjoy the music of Bach very much.

This ink i like a lot, but I am not totally objective....

I do not have a bottle of it but considering the description of deAtramentis, Ebony would be the same.

I will try to make a review of Ebony on short notice.

[Chrissy]

Thank you for this detailed and excellent review as always. I love the chroma test for Diamine Bach.

[Jan2016]

The chromo confirms my suspicion:

 

There IS a connection between Bach and Batman....

[Brandywine]

The chromo confirms my suspicion:

 

There IS a connection between Bach and Batman....

 

Bachman?

[Jan2016]

[RockingLR]

wow absolutely stunning ink! i may have to try a bottle soon.

Posted 26 December 2017 - 23:50

Jan2016, on 26 Dec 2017 - 05:25, said:

The chromo confirms my suspicion:

 

There IS a connection between Bach and Batman....

 

Bachman?

 

[ashutoshthakur]

Great review

[Chrissy]

I would be very interested to know what size you make your paper strips?

 

They look like the perfect size - width and depth - and it's something I try to achieve but regularly fail to do. Yours always look really 'classy' the way they all line up.

 

I can see that you put all of the strips together then upload them as one image, which I assume is a Photoshop treatment? I have already plagierised this idea in order to only have one image to upload.

[Jan2016]

BTW this is probably the same ink if you do not like the name Bach :-)

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/331126-deatramentis-ebony-compact-review/?p=3973454

[Chrissy]

BTW this is probably the same ink if you do not like the name Bach :-)

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/331126-deatramentis-ebony-compact-review/?p=3973454

 

I don't think it is. It's not at all similar. DeA Ebony is a taupe/sepia shade.

 

Bach and Mozart seem to be quite similar to each other though.

[namrehsnoom]

I would be very interested to know what size you make your paper strips?

 

They look like the perfect size - width and depth - and it's something I try to achieve but regularly fail to do. Yours always look really 'classy' the way they all line up.

 

I can see that you put all of the strips together then upload them as one image, which I assume is a Photoshop treatment? I have already plagierised this idea in order to only have one image to upload.

 

The strips I use for the writing samples are 14.5 cm (width of a Rhodia notepad) by 4 cm. For other paper types, I cut them to the same size. I scan them 5 at a time (so 15 samples are 3 scans) - I dont use Photoshop to stitch them together, just upload them to FPN without a blank line between them.

Oh... and I selected the quotes so they fit on the strips (took me some time to get them all ;-)

Edited December 29, 2017 by namrehsnoom

[Chrissy]

The strips I use for the writing samples are 14.5 cm (width of a Rhodia notepad) by 4 cm. For other paper types, I cut them to the same size. I scan them 5 at a time (so 15 samples are 3 scans) - I dont use Photoshop to stitch them together, just upload them to FPN without a blank line between them.

Oh... and I selected the quotes so they fit on the strips (took me some time to get them all ;-)

 

Thank you.

[Jan2016]

@Chrissy:

I think they are the same....

https://www.de-atramentis.com/topic-ink-topics-inks-in-inks-/people-inks--inks--ink--people-/ink-inks-musc-fountain-pens--27/ink-inks-bach-.html?language=en

 

if you look at the swabs you see the resemblance:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/331126-deatramentis-ebony-compact-review/?p=3973454

 

Mozart is Bordeaux Red

 

And for me deAtramentis Ebony doesn't come close to taupe at all....