Editing The Pen Addict 502/transcript (section)

== List Introduction ==


'''Brad:''' So this isn't the official list, right? Right, right, right. But we're going to go through here. I'm going to go from five to one, and you're going to give me your gut instinct as to where this should sit, right? So top five fountain pens in the $100 to $200 category, which anybody can find in the top five lists over at penaddict.com. You should go check those out. There's a lot of great lists there. So number five, Lamy 2000. Does it be Lamy 2000? Yes. Okay. Lamy, sorry, number four. Lamy four. Lamy four, Estabrook Esty. Yeah. Okay. Number three, Diplomat Aero. Yeah. Number two, Leonardo Memento Zero slash Furore.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, that's just a shape difference. That's like a Pro Gear versus a 1911. Same essential pen, different shape. Yeah, easy. All of these are easy so far.

'''Brad:''' Number one, Platinum 3776.

'''Myke:''' If Platinum changes-

'''Brad:''' I knew this is where it was going to get stuck.

'''Myke:''' Here's the problem. If all the Platinums were $176, Platinum would be number one. There's only one, or maybe there's only a couple barrel styles and only gold trim that are $176 and everything else starts with a 2, right? So they're almost not on the list, right? I would- I prefer- Okay, so here's the difference in this list. This is my recommendations list, right? This is different from Brad's preference list, right? Okay, so the Custom 74 is number one. It's ahead of the 3776. Okay. If I'm going to the Closet of Doom, and I have two pens that exist in the Closet of Doom, for me, my personal use, I'm going to pick a 3776.

'''Myke:''' Okay? So that's always been the challenge with this list. This is the recommendations list, not the Brad list. So in this list, the 74 is going to go first. Because I think it separates itself in price and materials from the remainder of the list. Okay. And that would make it a very highly recommended pen for me.

'''Brad:''' Sure. So just to recap, on the list, 74 is number one. Brad Dowdy's picking up a pen. This is number two.

'''Myke:''' Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. And what's funny is this Gold Nib Custom 74, it'll be the least expensive pen on this list. Which, I mean, that's part of the recommendations. That doesn't surprise me, though. That helps me why it's number one. If it was $195, it's still on the list, but it's probably number two. For sure.

'''Brad:''' This is definitely, like, you know, I read this article and I'm like, oh, maybe I should pick one of these up. And I go and look at them and it's like, none of them really excite me enough. Mm-hmm. And so, like, it doesn't surprise me that it's cheaper. And it also kind of doesn't surprise me that it maybe gets forgotten about. Like, you know, we had this issue with the 3776 for a long time. Like a long time. 100%. 100%. And then Platinum woke up and started making some good looking versions of the pen. Yeah. You know, like either in color or material or like the way the material was shaped, you know. Yeah. And then I ended up with two of them because they were interesting to look at as well as being fantastic to use. And the 74, it kind of just feels like it was forgotten. Pilot have such strange design in some of their products where it's like, we did it once and then that's it. And we're not going to touch it anymore. Like, I'm not really a big fan of the ball and the clip. Like, I don't really like that. But that's not enough to turn me off. But it's just I look at the finishes and I'm like, well, the green one's kind of nice. But there's just so much more that they could do here. Sure. You know, like, you haven't got to be Sailor. Like, only Sailor should be that. But they could do, I don't know. I would maybe follow more what Platinum did. The colors are fine, but the shape of the pen isn't my favorite. So if they can accentuate that in different ways, then I could maybe get more on board.

'''Myke:''' So that's the price you pay for the entry-level gold nib pens is you get the average barrel. That was the problem I had with the 3776 for a long time, right? And what you said, Pilot, finally, hey, let's do this in rhodium. And, you know, let's do different colors. And now those also start with a two in front of them, right, in the price. So, you know, that's part of the challenge. You can still get the 3776 for less than $200, but you're limited in your choice. So Pilot, like, they kind of took a few years off from updating the colors of the 770s, excuse me, 74.

'''Myke:''' And over the last two or three years, they've introduced, like, two new barrel colors a year, which is good. Like, it's fine. I don't need more than one of these, right? Like, this is just one pen. Like, I'm not, this isn't like, you know, I'm going to now have three of these. I'm going to use this one, make it nice, and I would recommend it highly. Like, it's a really good quality pen. The Pilot nibs are spectacular. Pilot nibs are the most user-friendly nibs, I think, for people who aren't, like, super experienced and don't want to have to deal with, hey, what's going on with this nib, or it feels different than I expected. Pilot really nails the nib experience out of the box more than, in my opinion, Sailor and Platinum, even though I prefer Platinum's nibs, you know, overall. I think Pilot is the best overall nib to recommend to someone who's just kind of discovering things. Like, I think it's really just exceptional. So, anyway, like, I've, I can't believe how much I have enjoyed using the 74. It's to the point where I just, I just want to keep it in use all the time, which is an interesting place to be.