So, convinced by my experiences of the Cross twins’ dry nibs, I set out to find a pen that would give me a smoother, inkier page; and sure as hens can lay baby chickens, you get that from the Platinum 3776 Century with the solid 14K gold music nib.

I Did Some Reading…

This time I knew what I was buying… or so I thought. I read the reviews on Best Fountain Pen (all praise to the lovely Jennifer, may her pens never run dry):

Do you like broad nibs? Do you like thick lines and lots of ink? Then this is your pen my friend.
Jennifer, Jan 10, 2015—
Platinum 3776 Century Music Nib Review

Gourmet Pens:

The flow is good, and it’s well-adjusted. It’s not too wet and doesn’t gush ink…
Azizah Asgarali, Tuesday, September 16, 2014—
Review: Platinum #3776 Black Fountain Pen – Music Nib

And, of course the fountain pen enthusiast’s ultimate port of call, the Pen Addict:

If you want to try a music nib, but don’t want to pay a premium price, Platinum is the way to go.
Susan M. Pigott, November 13, 2015—
Platinum 3776 Century with Music Nib: A Review

Done. Sold. The Platinum it was then. And it was everything they said, and more.

And the “more” was all ink.

Don’t get me wrong. I love this pen! I love the simple elegance of the black and gold, the rounded ends to both finials (the bottom of the pen, and the top of the cap for anybody looking that up—no, it’s not a word most people encounter every day; I looked it up the first time too).

The gold band around the cap reads “Platinum Made in Japan 3776.” And as has been told elsewhere, the 3776 is the height in metres of Mt. Fuji in Japan. Then you take the cap off and, you realize why it’s called a “Music” nib…

The Nib is a Thing of Beauty

Look carefully at the nib, and compare that to my illustration of a generic fountain pen nib, here. This solid, 14K gold nib, has three tines, compared to the more usual two, and two breather holes, as opposed to one. This allows for a much greater flow of ink; and the reason they are called “music” nibs, is because that was what they were originally intended to write—music composition. The distinctive shape of this kind of nib, allows for the narrower downstrokes, and wider horizontal lines, which produce the variation necessary for music notation.

This is where most of the other reviews I’ve read would usually paste a photograph of a piano concerto, or something similar, but I’ll avoid that, because I would have no idea what I’m posting. Instead, let’s take a look at what the pen writes like…

Don’t write in and tell me how bloody awful my handwriting is, believe me, I know. It hasn’t improved since I was 12, and I do work on it. Sorry, get used to it, there will be more.

As you can see, this beautiful nib puts a lot of ink on the page; which, in this case, is J. Herbin’s Perle Noire. A nice, deep, true black, that flows beautifully and dries nice and fast. But even with a pretty quick-drying ink like this, and good quality paper like the Clairefontaine in the Rhodia notebook, I would blot before I turned the page or moved my hand over it. In fact, with my handwriting, especially on shorter notes, the line for individual letters often becomes too thick. But still I love it; this is my first high quality fountain pen, and it took my breath away when I put that gloriously smooth nib to paper for the first time.

The nib has no flex in it whatsoever, and feels very firm when a little pressure is applied. But I’ve always thought that the point of flex nibs was to allow for more line variation on the page, and given that line variation is the whole point of a music nib, well… maybe I’m missing something, but flex in this nib doesn’t really seem to matter.

Did I mention how much I love this pen? And how incredibly smooth it is to write with? Good. We should get that straight.

Slip & Seal Cap

The Century 3776 boasts Platinum’s slip & seal technology in the cap, which they claim provides “complete air tightness” with a screw-type cap, thus preventing the ink in the pen from drying out for about a year. I don’t know anybody who has actually tested the claim, nor anyone who would want to, but I can say that I’ve left this pen inked up for about a month without a problem, and certainly it has never had a dry start.

Details

This is not a big pen. In fact it’s the joint smallest I own along with the Platinum Plaisir (more on that in a later post), at 119.5mm long from the tip of the nib, to the outer edge of the curve of the bottom finial.

	Metric (mm/g/ml)	US (in/oz)
Length Unposted:	119.5	4.7
Length Capped:	139.7	5.5
Diameter:	12.7	0.5
Length Posted:	152.4	6.0
Weight:	24.6	0.83
Nib Size:	Music	Music
Nib Material:	14K Gold	14K Gold
Cartridge Notes:	1.5	0.05
Converter Notes:	0.98	0.03

There are only two real gripes I have with this pen, firstly, it needs to hold more ink. The cartridge and the converter simply do not hold enough ink for this pen to be used conveniently as a regular writer. It really needs the capacity of an eyedropper fill. Secondly, and this is the kicker for me, as much as I love this pen (I have made that clear haven’t I?), the sheer amount of ink it puts on the page, means that I can’t use it as my daily carry.

Summary

This pen is lovely to look at, and to use, but the music is just too loud for constant use… maybe just when you want to party, and nobody wants to party everyday. And so, the search go’s on…