Montegrappa Nerouno New Nib?

[Alluuu]

Hi,

 

After a long time contemplating I finally bought the Montegrappa NeroUno with the Fine nib.

 

I made the purchase online but before that I saw quite a few pens in my local shop.

 

The pen and the nib I expected to receive is this:

http://www.lacouronneducomte.nl/webstore/main/images/montegrappa_nerouno_fp_all.jpg

But the one I received is this:

 

In my local shop I tried both, and the one I expected to receive (first one) I liked way more. The shop also told me that the one with the hexagonal design is the old design and an older nib, and the clear clean one is the new one.

 

However now the online merchant is telling me that they talked to Montegrappa, who are confirming the hexagonal one is the new one, and the clean one is no longer available.

This sound strange, as all the official materials from Montegrappa still display the clean one, even the website: http://www.montegrappa.com/product-category/writing-instruments/regular-edition/nerouno/

 

I'm hoping someone here will be able to help me determine what is the truth, and is the merchant trying to *screw* me?

Best regards,

Alari

[jar]

The hexagonal design is the newer design.

[Alluuu]

Jar, Thank you for your answer.

 

Any idea, why they changed it?

 

The hexagonal one seems so out of place and bulky, plus compared to the other one, it skips a lot.

[jar]

Marketing.

[flipper_gv]

Jar, Thank you for your answer.

 

Any idea, why they changed it?

 

The hexagonal one seems so out of place and bulky, plus compared to the other one, it skips a lot.

 

I don't know, I prefer much more the one with the square-ish nib. I think the elongated nib doesn't fit the theme of the pen.

[Cordovian]

Not a fan of that new nib at all. At first glance I thought someone had done a really lousy nib swap.

 

Aesthetically, (IMO) it looks out of place and is no where near as elegant or refined as it's predecessor. To me, it breaks up the whole flow of the design. If there's no improvement in the writing experience then it's a step backwards. They should have just left well enough alone.

 

If that's the result of Marketing then they need to find a new Analyst.

Edited November 6, 2015 by Cordovian

[PabloAU]

The long nib with the hexagonal design is the newer model. I received one recently on a Linea and disappointed at first.

 

Design-wise, it's grown on me. The NeroUno is a long and proportionately slender pen, and this nib fits with that theme. The design imprinted on the nib works for me, and IMO is an improvement on the original version. I suspect that the new nib is just as long as the older version, but it appears longer due to the removal of the shroud around the top of the nib.

 

Performance-wise, mine was a disappointment OOTB. I also bought a fine, and it was quite skippy. A little time with the micromesh has fixed that up. The older nib was reputed to be soft (although reports were mixed, so perhaps this depended on the batch), but the new nib is a nail - which I'm OK with.

 

As for the source of the nibs, I'd heard that the older nibs were made by MontBlanc, as MB's parent company previously also owned Montegrappa. The new nib bears an uncanny resemblance to the nib that Edison, who typically use Jowo nibs, is using for this year's Limited Edition Mina.

Edited November 6, 2015 by PabloAU

[Alluuu]

I also agree that the old nib kept up with the sleek design of the pen and hence looked better, so like PabloAU, I alao unscrewed the pen with a bit of disappointment.

 

Maybe it will grow on me design wise, but I liked the old nibs softness, it was so pleasant and smooth to write with, the new one, not so much, being a nail kind of bothers me.

 

PabloAU, how exactly did you manage to mend the skipping?

 

Overall, the new nib seems a huge step backwards.

[PabloAU]

It was a matter of slightly reshaping the tipping to ensure good contact of ink to page. Richard Binder's nib smoothing workshop notes is a good place to start if you're unfamiliar with such topics, and there are plenty of experiences shared on FPN from people who've tried grinding, shaping, and smoothing nibs. Be aware though, that many of these shared experiences are from folks who've damaged their nibs. Attempting to alter the nib tipping WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY. The NeroUno isn't a cheap pen, and IMO is no place to start learning. If you're not confident in what you're doing the best bet would be to either send it back to the retailer for exchange or warranty service, or to send it to a reputed nibmeister.

[Susanna]

Wow, I have not even seen it yet!

 

Many of the new collections have exagonal pattern in their nibs: Ducale, Fortuna, also the Extra Otto...
Almost all boxes have been redesigned with the exagonal pattern as well.

[fistful1]

This is an old post, but I'll just add my thoughts since I was cleaning this pen(older nib version) today.

 

I haven't tried the new nib version, so I can't comment on that or give a comparison of the two nibs.

However, as much as I loved the older nib, it is causing some trouble lately.

 

I don't know if others who owned the pen have experienced the same problem, but my pen is starting to have ink leakage.

The pen is about 3-4 years old, bought brand new and wasn't even used extensively.

I play a lot with my pens, so it's usually not difficult to locate the problem area, but for this pen I am assuming although with a beautiful design it lacked durability.

The unique design naturally pressured certain areas(side of the nib made of very soft plastic) on regular usage.

 

I was thinking this could have been the commonly reported problem(A/S) that led Montegrappa Nero Uno to have a nib design change.

 

Beside the fact that the new nib's engraving is a little messy, I like the overall shape. I think it goes well with the pen.

The older nib, however, did have a fantastic feel. Generally a similar experience compared to Montblanc heritage 1912, a hint scratchier.