Visconti - fooled again for the last time

[Doug C]

On 9/4/2022 at 10:20 AM, langere said:

Yes, Dasvid, I am one of those folks who have had only positive experiences.  I have 20 Viscontis and not a dud among them, at least in terms of the nibs.  I do find the Opera style pens are too top heavy, but the Van Goghs (especially the old style), for example, are simply a delight.

 

Erick

Same here. The only one that had an issue was the most expensive, a Carbon Dream.  I Sent it to Mottishaw. The others have been fine. I do have rusty magnetic cap on a Van Gogh. 

[Doug C]

I just picked up a opera demo with the in house nib.

It is perfect in every way, including writing right out of the box.

[Tseg]

I recently rediscovered my Visconti Homo Sapiens Elegance Maxi (acrylic) in my pen case.  It is a beautiful Fine writer.  Its nib performs better than the lava version I own.  It is a great note taker with its quick release cap.  I definitely need to use it more often.

 

[Mulrich]

I have a handful of Visconti’s and I think only two nib issues. One was a used divine with a stub nib, the other was a Wall Street that had a spectacular nib until the pen jumped from my pocket and bent the tines. A nibmeister got it straightened out but it still has scars from the fall. Most of my nibs have been F or EF, so maybe the problems are with wider nibs (though I’ve heard complaints with F nibs too, just not as many). 

I have had an issue with a cap. The machining didn’t cleanly cut away the hooks on the barrel so the cap didn’t smoothly release. I think it was fixed under warranty but still frustrating given the cost. 
 

I would buy another but other brands have caught my attention. 

[Doug C]

I recently purchased two new Viscontis with the in house nib and both have been perfect in build quality and writing.

 

I think they have upped their standards. 

[Mezu]

Picked up a Skylight Steel Age recently.  QC was imperfect.  Nib had misaligned times, but easily fixed and a fantastic writer afterwards. One of the skylight windows was fidgety and moved back and forth when sheared.  The ink in the pen would also seep out of the top of the nib unit when left overnight with the nib up.  I sent it back and it was replaced within 2 weeks.  Completely satisfied with the replacement.

[raging.dragon]

On 9/4/2022 at 12:34 AM, dms525 said:

My experience with Visconti nibs, which I have described elsewhere and elsewhen, has been universally bad until the nibs have been tuned by a nib technician. Then, they can be outstanding writers.

 

I do remain intrigued by reports from several other FPN members who have multiple Viscontis that write well out of the box. They are a minority, I believe, but I wonder if their positive experience has an explanation.

 

David

I've also have several Viscontis, others have passed through my collection, and tried others belonging to friends. Most wrote well. I've seen more problems with broader nibs, especially BB and Stubs, than narrower nibs. My EF, F, and M nibs have all been flawless, while BB or Stub nibs have had a somewhat high rate of flow or skipping issues. The rest is pure speculation:

• Ink preference may play a role. In my experience Viscontis like wet and highly saturated inks, I presume because such inks usually contain surfactants, and those surfactants could help overcome baby bottom and/or feed wetting issues.
• Visconti have a custom feed designed to prevent ink surges from pressure changes while flying. This feed is larger and more complex than most other fountain pen feeds and would exacerbate any problems an ink had wetting (initially spreading over) the plastic.
• Some might be getting damaged after QC, for example:  accidents during packaging or shipping, or damage incurred when potential buyers test a pen in a store.
• Different brands tune their nibs differently and everyone holds their pens slightly differently. Sometimes you can run into an incompatibility, for example I've had dismal experiences with Stipula stubs, yet seen them work beautifully for a friend (without any adjustment or change in between). I think this could be a factor for Viscontis.

 

 

On 9/5/2022 at 3:14 AM, The Mustard said:

I have just three, a Rembrandt, Bronze Age and a Crystal Dream. They all write beautifully but I have to admit that I would probably never buy another Visconti on the back of apparently overwhelming customer dissatisfaction - there does seem to be a sub-theme though that the gold nibs write better...?

Some people prefer the feel of the Gold nibs over Palladium, but that's assuming good nib tuning and flow in both cases. Bock's manufacturing process may have struggled with Palladium as Visconti were the only customer for Palladium nibs; however, I'm pretty sure that the difference has to do with time instead of the material itself. This narrative predates the Visconti returning to to Gold nibs to a time when older Viscontis had Gold nibs and new ones Palladium.