Is The Pilot 78G Underrated?

[watch_art]

Whu? The 78Gs are all NOS??

[beak]

For the $10 I paid for it, the 'fine' 78G that I have is a marvel. That nib is a real killer, and several times I've wondered how I might transfer that nib to a better body! Considering the body is too short and too thin for me, and is made to suit its ridiculously low price, the fine 78G is still one of the four pens that go everywhere with me, and holds a place among others costing 70 times the price.

 

With anything that costs $10, you may expect to find a bad one slip through the net now and then. Like the man said, just try to find a better pen for $10!

Edited December 12, 2011 by beak

[_Logan]

In my opinion, the 78G is greatly overrated -- this thread is an example of that. The F nib is scratchy (I have not tried the others), the ink flows poorly, and it comes with a converter that's hard to fill and holds very little ink. The barrel is very thin and gets even thinner toward the nib, so I find it uncomfortable to hold for a long time. It may be the best pen on the market for $10, but the Platinum Preppy is better in many ways and costs $4!

 

Nearly everything I read here about any product is positive, but not every pen or ink is really perfect -- maybe people only comment on what they like, and never mention what they don't like. I may write an honest negative review of this pen just to balance it out.

The fine nib would be like a traditional extra fine nib, so obviously it isn't going to be smooth on a $10 pen. Although I disagree with your statement about the converter. It is very easy to fill, which, in my opinion, makes up for the low capacity. You will have to fill more often, but it is a lot easier. And obviously the length/width are simply preference. But thanks for showing a different opinion on the pen.

[JustinJ]

I have to agree with those who do not like the Pilot 78g. The 78g are not NOS but made in China now.

 

I purchased a new Pilot 78g and thought it might have been a fake due to the poor quality of the pen. The quality of parts and workmanship were very poor. I purchased a Broad and had to adjust the feed to get a proper flow on the ink from the pen. The Pilot 78g pens are very narrow and small, so be prepared before buying one.

 

The Pelikano Jr. is one pen that is much better than the Pilot 78g. It is close to the same price and a much nicer pen for the money. The Lamy Nexx is another pen that is not too expensive.

 

I would rather see someone spend $5.00 dollars more and get a better pen. Even though I spent under $10.00 for the Pilot 78g, I can not help but think it was a waste of money. The pen feels like a pen that should cost a $1.00.

Edited December 12, 2011 by JustinJ

[adallak]

Every time I am frustrated with another new pen (the last ones were NOS Sheaffer 440 and Sailor Procolor 500), I pick up one of my F or M Pilot 78Gs because they are exactly what I need - great and reliable stop-and-go writers with acceptable looks and built quality and more than acceptable price.

 

If you think 78G F is scratchy, try Sailor Procolor 500 F.

Edited December 12, 2011 by adallak

[crunchmaster]

I have three 78Gs: two Fs and a B. I think they are great. I also ordered from stationery_art--$7.50 is a bargain! They are a simple design, nice-looking but not flashy, decent plastic, shares feed and nib with Prera and Plumix...what's not to like? The Fs are great for note-taking, and the B is almost as good as a Lamy 1.1mm nib.

 

I think they're much better than Preppys. The Preppys' caps crack way too easily. I won't even carry a Preppy in my bag anymore, but I have no problem tossing a 78G in there.

[rwilsonedn]

Given the divergence of experience on the 78G, is it possible that we are beginning to see counterfeits of the 78G, as we are of the Hero 616? The pen certainly is well-known, widely-distributed, and respected enough, especially I think in South Asia, to make counterfeiting a profitable business.

ron

[JustinJ]

Given the divergence of experience on the 78G, is it possible that we are beginning to see counterfeits of the 78G, as we are of the Hero 616? The pen certainly is well-known, widely-distributed, and respected enough, especially I think in South Asia, to make counterfeiting a profitable business.

ron

 

 

Hi Ron,

 

I asked the same question about the 78g being counterfeited in the Japanese pen forum. The response to the pictures of my pen was that the pen was not a fake. My first reaction upon using and seeing the pen was that it was a cheap counterfeit of the a Pilot 78g. I had not used a Pilot 78g before so was shocked at the quality of the pen, especially after reading some of the glowing reviews of the pen.

 

There may be some fakes out there. There seems to be a lot of 78g pens available on ebay for not much money.

[smodak]

I think it is VERy underrated - it is a fantastic pen - even if we forget about the cheap cost .

[crunchmaster]

Please, please don't start rumors about fake 78Gs! In my opinion we still lack conclusive evidence of counterfeit Heros as opposed to poor quality control. The last thing we need is people thinking a bunch of other pens are faked, just because they come across a few semi-duds that aren't perfect out-of-the-box. People complain about Lamy 2000s that don't work well for them out-of-the-box--are we going to say those are faked too? Occam's Razor should be applied generously when speculating. It doesn't make sense for 78Gs to be subjected to the same QC standards that other, more expensive Pilots are.

 

Yes, they're cheaper on eBay direct from guys in Hong Kong because they don't pay the overhead of importing batches of them and selling them at retail markup like U.S. resellers do. They also ship them cheaply in the mail. They're just plain cheaper over there, and eBay cuts out some middlemen. If you want to pay 2-3x as much to buy it from a guy who tests it first and tweaks it if necessary, go ahead!

Edited December 13, 2011 by crunchmaster

[adallak]

Please, please don't start rumors about fake 78Gs! In my opinion we still lack conclusive evidence of counterfeit Heros as opposed to poor quality control. The last thing we need is people thinking a bunch of other pens are faked, just because they come across a few semi-duds that aren't perfect out-of-the-box. People complain about Lamy 2000s that don't work well for them out-of-the-box--are we going to say those are faked too? Occam's Razor should be applied generously when speculating. It doesn't make sense for 78Gs to be subjected to the same QC standards that other, more expensive Pilots are.

Agree 100%.

[estie1948]

I have two of these Pilots. Some time back they were regulars in my rotation, but not so much now. That is because I have acquired and restored several Esterbrook Js, not because I became dissatisfied with these Pilots. They are fine pens for the money. They are going to be less satisfactory when compared to a well tuned high quality pen, perhaps, but when compared to pens of equal quality, they rank well in my opinion. Personally, my two are better than some much more expensive pens I own. Again, in my opinion.

[pokermind]

For the $10 I paid for it, the 'fine' 78G that I have is a marvel. That nib is a real killer, and several times I've wondered how I might transfer that nib to a better body! Considering the body is too short and too thin for me...

I have a 78G with an M nib, and it has always been a slightly soft smooth writer with good flow. The section screws perfectly into the Cross Solo Classic body (I think I read that Cross outsourced the Solo to Pilot), so that would be a good candidate for a better body. Not that the 78G body is all that bad. I have a fairly large hand, and I find the 78G pretty comfortable and not too short. Eyeballing with my ruler, it appears to be about 1/16 inch greater in diameter than my two Sheaffer Imperials, and a tad narrower than my No-Nonsense. I have to agree that the plastic cap and body does emit a feeling of "cheapness," but I soon got over that after I experienced its performance.

 

I haven't tried the B and BB nibs. I was tempted to do so, but after I read that those nibs are un-tipped, I decided to stay away from them (with an irrational fear that they would be scratchy).

 

Just my two-cents.

[beak]

...............................

Thanks for the tip. I'll look out for one.

[Anthony P]

Good $10 pen but I only really like the fine nib. My Medium doesn't write very smoothly. I don't like the default convertors either, but you can just use a syringe to put ink into the cartridge if you really want to.

[PaperDarts]

I have 2 78Gs, F points, that I ordered a year ago from HisNibs.com (all the usual re no affiliation). It was worth paying a bit more to have him check each nib and make sure it was a good writer. No complaints, especially for that price point.

[XiaoMG]

I'm suspecting that the variation with the 78Gs floating around is a consequence of the cost. It seems very likely that sample variation is more severe in pens at this price range.

 

I just picked up a few Platinum Preppy pens at a bookstore, and two of them wrote only so-so, and one was not good at all, while one was pretty brilliant. Luckily, the one I liked was one of my favorite colors. I suspect a similar range can happen with the Pilots.

[Surnia]

In my opinion, the 78G is greatly overrated -- this thread is an example of that. The F nib is scratchy (I have not tried the others), the ink flows poorly, and it comes with a converter that's hard to fill and holds very little ink. The barrel is very thin and gets even thinner toward the nib, so I find it uncomfortable to hold for a long time. It may be the best pen on the market for $10, but the Platinum Preppy is better in many ways and costs $4!

 

Nearly everything I read here about any product is positive, but not every pen or ink is really perfect -- maybe people only comment on what they like, and never mention what they don't like. I may write an honest negative review of this pen just to balance it out.

 

Converter to me holds a pretty decent amount.... about the same as the carts. Did you squeeze the sac directly or did you use the press bar? I gave one to my girlfriend and she complained after some time that it was holding far less ink than before... I asked her to show me how she was filling and she was pressing the sac directly instead of using the pressure bar.

 

That aside, I've used and handled 5 78Gs, 3 purchased in a batch (all and 2 others purchased at different times (Two Ms, by friends after I got them hooked). QC seemed good, as all 3 wrote well and smooth. All of the Broad nibs needed tuning to be wetter, but that was well documented on these forums and expected when I made the purchase. I just picked up a Prera for a friend (F nib), and will be testing it with her when I deliver it (she requested to be the first to fill and such...). Preliminary dry writing with it seems to be perfect though in terms of smoothness (same nib/feed system)

 

Granted yes the preppy is great for $4, but I personally have to baby the Preppies/Plaisir significantly more than I did with my (lost) 78G. Cap retention is just nowhere near durable enough to use over time (Plaisir was used constantly for the span of about 5 months, the cap no longer holds nearly as tight and I can't use it for my daily pen anymore; The cap springs off too easily), and the basic preppies will develop cracks in the cap VERY easily (I traced it to a rather simple problem, slightly off axis uncapping with a bit of lateral pressure over the span of a few weeks WILL crack it).

 

Cap seal is superb on both pens, never had a dryout issue with either. BIG difference however, is that the preppy nibs tend to empty back into the main reservoir very easily in comparison to the 78Gs. Yes they both can keep the nibs wet and prevent dryout, but the Preppies (all my samples)consistently will start dry for about a minute before writing. The 78G tends to be the opposite where the ink starts very watered down before writing at normal colour. The seal on the Preppy is a great design, until the cap retention starts to fail. Once that happens, the cap likes to come off on its own rather easily. It needs to be paired with a screw cap to be perfect in my book.

 

No question about the clips, preppies lose to the 78G's metal one. I will agree that the 78G felt cheap compared to the preppy's body, but again the caps are different: always felt the preppy's was much more prone to damage (and they are).

[GeeBee]

I feel that it doesn't live up to it's hype, it is an ok pen at an ok price.

I have many cheaper chinese pens that out perform it in every respect.

[adallak]

I feel that it doesn't live up to it's hype, it is an ok pen at an ok price.

I have many cheaper chinese pens that out perform it in every respect.

That means those Chinese pens are underrated, not the 78G!

Edited December 14, 2011 by adallak