Check out the second half from Mike at Inkdependance: • Which Music Nib is Best?! To subscribe to the Pen Addict Slack channel, visit: www.penaddict.com/contact to email for an invite.
I am a professioonal music copyist in Los Angeles. From the late 70's to the mid 90's I was hand copying with pen and ink. I started with a Pelikan 120 and a medium italic nib. That served me well until I was exposed the very best copyists at that time and I wanted my hand to look more like theirs. The real professional setup was an Esterbrook 95xx (can't remember the exact number) with a Rapidograph barrel. Esterbrook was extinct and the top people all had stashes that they would not part with. Even if I could get the right Esterbrook it would still have to modified to make it perform properly when using the 8 inch 30/60 triangle which is used to make staight stems, beams and bar lines. I was able to find an instruction sheet detailing the mods and set out to turn a Shaeffer No Nosense with a regular fine nib into something I could use. The main mods are: knock the wings off, chisel the tip, open up the feed, remove the thing that pierces the cartridge and grind a trough in the slit on the nib. I was sucessful. The No Nosense was used as an eyedropper. Most of us used special ink from Judy Green Music. It is very black and flowed well. During the mid 90's there was a transition to computer copying and that is what I have done since then.
Interesting. I know copyists and composers who never bothered with fountain pens at all. They'd just use felt-tipped pens. I recently played John Harbison's Symphony #2 from hand-written parts...Not pretty nor easy to read...and no music nib for sure! Haha.
What a great idea. At first I was confused why both of you posted a video about music nibs at the same time, but now that I see it was pre arranged I think that's great. All of you youtube reviewers should be promoting each other more I think. Thanks a lot for the video!
For some inexplicable reason I always heard "musical nibs" instead of "music nibs". I thought they must make some sort of pleasing sound while writing lol This is really interesting! I love all of the bits of extra information that you add to your videos, it really makes them special!
Am sat here listening to who's next as a result of this video and am completely hooked... great prompt - thank you David! Love the effort and the creativity you put in of lacing different themes throughout the video... it's that mindful and elegant nuance of just inserting a little bit of flair and character into the format that makes your videos more than just flat "Here's a pen, its this long, it writes, i like it" etc... :-)
Thanks for this video! I enjoyed them both very much. I happened to watch Mike's video first. What a great idea doing dual videos. I might just need that Sailor pen! Thanks!
That's some good taste in music you've got there, David. I'm no musician, but I'd probably prefer an Architect nib for writing music as the line variation is already in the correct orientation.
Thank you for this video. I recently came back to watch it to see what musidc nib would suit me best. I decided on the Sailor and I am very happy with it. I appreciate your videos. You do a great job on them. Thank you again!
i just got a custom 74 with a music nib. very soft, very well made, but it was clearly hand tuned to write music, perpendicular to the page, and skipped and hard started when normal writing . i had to tweak the tines slightly and then smooth it for a few minutes, but the result is a very smooth, soft nib that flexes a bit and writes wonderfully. it definitely wouldn't be worth $250, but for the $85 i got it for, it's a classic pen with a unique nib and is definitely going to stay in regular rotation. it also flexes quite a lot and spreads the tines to about 2mm with great spring. it definitely needed a little tuning to fix the hard and partial starts, though. i do somewhat wish I'd gone for a soft fine first, but that's a few weeks away. those hard and partial starts you had with the heritage are now gone with mine.
So, in the week since I watched this video, I now own three Sufjan Stevens albums (Illinoise, Carrie & Lowell, and Songs For Christmas). Thanks for the recommendation!
Cool...glad you like his stuff. My favorite album of his is The Age of Adz. It's a bit more electronic than his other albums, but there's a cohesiveness to it that I love.
Very interesting video! Try holding the music nib (esp the Platinum as that's the one I have) rotated about 90 degrees so that you're looking at the right side of the nib instead of the top of it. btw, that's hilarious that you leave the stickers on your Pilot pens because I do the same thing!! lololol Makes it so much easier to figure out which nib it is.
Very interesting! I wish I'd known about fountain pens with music nibs when I was studying music composition at university. By the time I got my degree, we were using computers for everything, but my first two years all our scores were written by hand, which is an experience I'll never forget.
If you guys (known pen reviewers) do this together and get to release their, ranking, top 5, best 5 under $100.00 , pass expensive pens around (reducing cost of videos content) would be the nirvana week of us pen video viewers! That was a fantastic idea, fantastic execution, enjoyed this set of videos (thanks both) immensely!
Having written a lot of music by hand myself, I can attest that: a music nib would make sense to write music with _only if _ it drew thin down strokes and thick horizontal strokes, then you could write music without cocking your wrist and instead write comfortably as you normally would. Otherwise it's no better than taking a flat edged italic calligraphy pen and trying to write music sideways with the paper turned at a 90 degree square angle to you, with the left side at the top.
@@andyphilip2154 Yes, an architect nib is much better. That said, I find this silly. I am a professional musician and most composers I know use sharpies (and other felt-tip markers), mechanical and lead pencils, or computers to write music. I don't know even one who uses a "music" nib. :)
There is in fact another nib called a "cross music nib" that draws thin verticals and wide horizontals. I'm having a devil of a time finding one for sale. Maybe only available as a custom, which is too expensive for me.
One more thing or two. I don't know of any professional copyist that used a "music nib". Music nibs are too wide to be used as is in my circle. The modified Esterbrook nib was a regular writing nib. The 9000 series nibs were long lasting premiun nibs. Using a pen 8 hours a day will wear a nib down quickly. My nibs had to be touched up every 2 to 3 weeks.
radiohead is by far my favorite band, it sounds like a moon shaped pool is more like a goodbye record, maybe because of "daydreaming" and the non-acoustic version of "true love waits" , anyways I also love sigur ros, led zeppelin, and a couple more bands. Thumbs up for the music nibs!
I always get a kick when I reviewers and such share my same interests, in addition to fountain pens! Radiohead was the band that got me into really good music, and is my favorite for sentimental reasons, and Sufjan Stevens' music is just absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking. If you like Sufjan then I think you'd like Elliott Smith as well, if you're not already familiar with him. Great video and musical taste!
I really like all the artists you listed as well but I listen to some hip hop too. Kendrick Lamar's last album was incredible. Childish Gambino's last album was an incredible funk album as well. Radiohead's Kid A was so good. It was really cool the way you made this video and incorporated music into it.
Thanks for watching. If I had one more pen, I would have mentioned the Beastie Boys. While all hip hop/rap doesn't hit home for me, I'm a huge Beastie fan.
To you and Mike: What's the difference between a Music nib and an Architect nib since they're both thin on the Vertical? Eine Kleine Nacht Musik. I knew what it was after the second measure! :-) Love the Dr Who shirt.
My ranking would be exactly like yours. As a matter fact those were the 4 music nibs I originally considered before settling on Pilots. The disadvantage for sailor was that it was 2 tines and I wanted the aesthetic of 3. I actually did a review of my Pilot music nib on you tube. I got it on the Custom 74! Another coincidence is that my family name is Parker. Lol
Thank you for at least attempting to use these for their intended use. I’m a musician getting into fountain pens and can’t find a decent one for writing music. For any one interested in proper music notation refer to Norton’s Guide to Music Notation. Thanks!
Rubic cube whiteness ? Really interesting video... I prefer stubs and italics and have stayed away from using nibs.... But I'm inclined to try them out and this review certainly helps ... Great! Really enjoyed the Motzartian connection by the end..
No hidden cube message...just a random solid color. :-) While I don't need to own many more than I do, it was interesting to check out a variety of music nibs. It's worthwhile to at least have one or two in a collection.
I have always wanted to use one but have always been put off by the fact that they are not very partial for daily use. most of my pens and nib combinations are aimed at daily use ... but from the four options I think there are two that I'd like to check out in detail.... Radiohead. . ditto 😀
Nice. I posted this elsewhere in the comments, but I've seen SR 4 times in concert. Simply amazing. Before one of the shows I saw in NYC, I had arrived rather early to the theater and poked my head inside the lobby of the venue to check it out. Right at that moment, the band and their entire backing crew came out into the lobby. I don't like bugging celebrities, but I couldn't resist asking Jonsi for a photo...i.imgur.com/vLNqw.jpg.
I finally have my first music nib, in what's also my first & probably last Platinum 3776. My initial experience has not been phenomenal. It has not set my world alight. I'm going to put more time into it and see if I'm missing something or misusing it, but frankly I can get just as good an experience writing music with a BB Plumix as with this 3776 for a tenth of the price. As for the 3776 itself, I'd not bought one before (with any nib) because of the stiffness. It would strike me as little more than a Preppy in a posh frock, in what I'd imagine its writing feel would be. That's probably doing it a great disservice, but I keep coming back to the same view - it's a 'meh' pen. Just, a pen. It writes and it does the pen thing, but it leaves me cold. I don't find myself looking forward to using it.
Thank you for your review. but, twisting the pen in your hand makes me really nervous. it reminds me of people when they try to use my pens for the first time
I only have the Sailor so can't comment on rankings. It was interesting that Mike writes from the end of the line and you more conventionally from below. From Mike's writing (and mine) you can see that if you want an italic style you need an architect/Hebrew nib. Yup, the Sailor can be used for daily notes and is quite practical but if you aren't self-writing but need legibility (open e's and o's etc.) all these nibs are a compromise. Great vids, both of you.
Mike. Not always scratchy but you do need to keep alignment as with an italic. Broken tines are rare without cause it seems to me. I have been writing for many years an haven't had one.
Wanted a music nib for my collection, but couldn't decide between the Platinum and the Pilot; the Platinum, for its beauty, and the Pilot for its crisper line variation...so I bought both! The Pilot was a joy to write with, but the Platinum seemed much thicker than the writing samples I had seen on RU-vid. I had recently had Linda Kennedy grind a crisp italic on a Pilot decimo, which I loved, so I basically copied that grind onto the Platinum, only using sharpening stones and a little 12000 grit polishing. Hate to brag, but it writes like a dream! Thought I would share.
Thanks for This . Who's Next is in my all time top5 albums. Led Zeppelin (4th) is # 1. I gotta try Radiohead. I'm going to get a Franklin-Christoph 02 soon. I want a wet stub that's Smooth & fun with lots of line variation, I've checked their site, wow, that's a lot of choices, I'm still a little,new to this. I don't want to pick wrong at this price, any advice ?
David, I meant which Nib would you recommend given I'm looking for a a Smooth , wet Nib with a lot of line variation,maybe a little less thick than the one you shown here. Thanks for the trouble .
While they write beautifully, and are rather wet, the steel FC nibs are fairly stiff. You're not going to get tons of flex or line variation out of a standard medium.
Are you sure the meaning of a music nib hasn’t changed over time? These seem to be the opposite of what you need to write music: thin verticals and wide horizontals. Like an architect nib. No?
digitalArtform From what I have seen, music nibs are intended to be held sideways, thus producing thin verticals and wide horizontals. I guess those who aren’t using them for music just don’t hold them like that.
So I got a question... what is the difference between a two tines (one slit) music nib and an italic nib? Is it the same? I thought that a music nib exclusively has two slits and three tines...
A Moon Shaped Pool is not really my thing when it comes to Radiohead. I liked it, but didn't really have a connection to it like I did their other material. Don't get me wrong, I loved Daydreaming, and would put it up there with some of their greats, but the album as a whole didn't do much for me. Personally, Amnesiac was my favorite. It just hits me personally. And OK Computer because I heard it a lot in the car. Have you listened to Talking Heads much?
The error is the fourth note of the first measure -- should be an eighth note but is written as a quarter note (no flag). Sequence is supposed to be: dotted quarter, eighth, dotted quarter, eighth. That's 4 beats... 1.5+.5.+1.5+.5 -- it bugged me as soon as I saw it.
That's a really heavy hand. As a calligrapher (as well as a fountain pen enthusiast) I can tell you that you just want to kiss the page with the nib if line variation your goal. Thanks for the wonderful content, as always.
Sam Lafata replace the f and b and you get big foot. I don’t know if that means anything but if you like word games it might be a reference to the Sasquatch
I love your videos and I thank you for all the wisdom you’ve shared over the years. I must say, though, that your writing style is not suited to music nibs or italics or stubs. Apart from your ‘f’, you basically are printing. It doesn’t allow you to showcase what these nibs can do.
Thank you for the review. But I really find it weird to judge a music nib for the purpose of daily use. Shouldn't they be judged on how they perform for what they were made for? Appreciate the effort anyway! Cheers!
For the look of writing I like the Franklin Christoph. The best line variation. But for value I love my Jinhao 51A with its 1.5 mm nib. If you didnt please give it a try. Simple but efficient.
don't think about spending money in nibs, you need to spend more time in practicing... every minute we didn't practice we stay far from our goal. If give your copied score a pianist to play s/he will say, sorry i never play from handwritten scores. So: come on practice.🙂
You could have convinced a musician to write, you know. So the handwriting could have some value. Also, maybe the notes of the Eine Kleine Nachtmusik wouldn't have been butchered in this awful way. That A note is OFF!!
I gave up @ 7:21. I clicked on this video to learn about music nibs but the first 7 minutes were devoted to slack, people you know, pen finish, bands and other miscellany. Not at all what I wanted. If you ever edit it down to the entitled topic, I might give it a second chance.
It’s really sad that Mike Matteson is so closed minded and judge mental. I DM’d him on Instagram to tell him I loved his videos and that I had ordered from Goldspot Pens and his response was to go through my Instagram page and accuse me of being a racist while telling me to “be nice to people.” When I responded and asked how going out of my way to contact him and send him a compliment was NOT being nice to people, but he just blocked me. It’s so sad that such bigotry exists in the world. The very people who parade themselves around as “good” are really the ones with the poison in their personality.
I think it's some kind of postmodernism. Before long, if not already, people will be making reviews of Gibson guitars where they test them by lighting them on fire and breaking the neck off.
If you're young and you consider 60's and 70's music to be your parents' music, please report that to the nearest doctor of the mental institution you are being held in.
My parents were born in 62 and 64. They were in their mid 30s when they had me in 98. I will be 19 on the 17th. 60s and 70s music is my parents music, though the 80s really influenced my father specifically.
I'm a musician, and I'd really like to buy t he Franklin Christoph music nib for my fountain pens (if they are compatible), but I cannot seem to find them for sale on-line. HELP!