Looks and writes great. Received this a couple of weeks ago and has been the pen I reach for the most. I’ve had a fine nib Custom 74 and the medium nib is a huge improvement.

I'm glad I bought this pen. I've been using a Pilot Metropolitan and Pilot Explorer for three years. This was my first gold nib, and I'm so glad that I upgraded (thanks to the generous gift from a family member). I love this pen!

Love the size, weight, construction and appearance, especially the rhodium plating. Does not call attention to itself.

First time I've been disappointed in a Pilot pen (I own a few Pilot fountain pens). It just doesn't write as smoothly or as wet as I'd expected it to, especially for the cost. I've tried flossing the times with brass, checking the nib under magnification (things look to be okay there), and several different inks. I'm now planning on having to take it to a local nibmeister to try his hand at tuning it. Sadly, though, he's not THAT local, so I'm waiting for him to attend one of our pen club meetings or until October during our Colorado Pen Show. This pen was a Christmas present - most of it was purchased from a gift certificate I received. So that makes this even sadder, to be honest.

I love this pen! Wrote great right out of the box and the customer service was amazing. I received the order quickly after placing it and I live across the country.

I would not have selected this pen if not for Brian's listing as one of his favorites. For its stated excellent qualities, it is way understated in appearance, a bit small and it feels plasticy. But once balanced in hand, laying ink to paper with its really wonderful nib, it all comes home. The Custom 74 is now my favorite too. Although I still dream of owning a Custom 823 one day, the desire for it is no longer as strong as before getting my Smokey 74. And, I love the Con 70 converter!

Amazing - love the personalized touch!

I like it. the nib is smoother than Platinum 3776. I wish that I ordered a medium nib instead broad through. We all heard that Japanese nib is size smaller than European brand and that is also my experience with them. So I ordered Broad and it is the same thickness as a Lamy Broad that I have. It could be just one of odd ball one but I like it enough that I decided to keep. Other than that, the pen feels and looks very high quality and the smoke color is very pleasing to my eyes.

This is a wonderful pen, and for the price you can't go wrong.

Beautiful, discrete, write wonderfully. I love it.

I absolutely love my Custom 74. I have used this pen for over a year now. It is a great weight, well balanced. The nib (f) is wonderful, smooth, with medium flex with added pressure to give line variation. I have absolutely zero complaints with this pen!

The Pilot Custom 74 is such a great pen! The size is just right...not too big or too small. The pen can be used both unposted or posted equally well. As posted, the pen is not back heavy at all. The gold nib is outstanding! It performs well, and with the broad nib, the pen allows the ink to show its gorgeous colors and shadings. This pen is near perfect.

I have used fountain pens for most of my life, and this is one of the best pens I have ever used. I watched a couple of the Goulet Pens videos where this pen was mentioned and decided to give it a try. Everything about is it perfect�the size, the way it handles, the filling system, and the nib are all perfect.

I purchased the Custom 74 in Smoke Grey and couldn't be happier. The Pilot Con-70 converter has a slight learning curve when compared to other converters, but when filled properly, it holds nearly as much ink as a piston filler. I went with the Soft Fine nib, and it's smooth enough for me, with a decent amount of line variation. The pen came in a sturdy-feeling box that you might want to keep for long-term storage or when traveling. I think this is a great pen for people that want to have an EDC, work horse, gold-nibbed pen.

The wet shaving community uses the term daily driver to characterize the double-edged safety razor you can use and find yourself reaching for every morning. I'm adding this supplement to my original review to say the Custom 74 has become my daily driver for personal correspondence. The Fine nib glides across Rhodia and Clairfontaine Triomphe papers. The iroshizuku inks flow like a dream. I find it more enjoyable to use than my Lamy 2000 fine point and, as promised in a chat with Goulet Pens, it really does write like a larger version of the E95s. Once you adapt yourself to its converter filling system, it packs plenty of ink for at least a six-page letter.

I previously fell in love with the Pilot E95s and wanted to experience something one-click higher yet with the same smooth writing and greater ink capacity. Jessica recommended I try the Pilot Custom 74. When I told her I wasn't enamored of the demonstrator (see-through) look, she made two other suggestions. As I pored over reviews of all three, I kept coming back to the Custom 74. I convinced myself that the smokey opaque version with a Fine nib would do it. It has. First try, it was gliding across the page with even less effort than the E95s. I'm using Pilot's Iroshizuku ink and am awed by the CON-70's converter's ink capacity. Perfect mating all the way around. Oh, and the pen looks really nice and sophisticated. My trepidation was unwarranted.

This is a great pen. I love the grey semi transparent coloring and with a Fine nib it writes beautifully. I have never gone wrong when choosing a Pilot!

Well, I was fully aware that this pen has been Brian Goulet's favorite dayly writer for quite sometime. Now that I finally own one I can fully understand why! What a fantastic 14k nib! On top of that the filling system is both funny and tremendously efficient, pus the converter holds a lot of ink. True, the design and general appeareance of this mass produced pen while being nice is not particularly attractive, but has a writing instrument this pen goes well beyond my expectations! Maybe the word understated, applies particularly well for this pen, particularly if chosen in the all translucent grey finish!

This pen is everything they say it is, I got it with a broad nib and I have fallen in love from the minute I inked it up with Lamy Benitoite. The nib is juicy and smooth in any paper.

This pen has exactly the nib I was hoping for. This is for taking notes, it doesn't need to write pretty. It's very fine, but reasonably smooth. It doesn't chew up the paper. People who obsess over glassy smooth writing will say this is toothy, but they are crazy. This is comfortable and easy to use. It feels good in the hand. It looks cool. Downside - I hate cartridge/converters. This comes with a con 70, which at least has decent capacity, but is a serious pain to fill. I wanted a Custom 92, but it doesn't come in EF. I may eventually get one and swap the nib, but it's already so expensive that I can't just spend another $230 just to have the filling mechanism I want. I wish that Pilot made piston fillers with EF steel nibs. I don't know what I'm getting out of the gold really. Especially with a very fine nib. PenBBS would be an option for me, but their nib size selection is extremely poor. Even with the negatives, I honestly love this pen. I use it all day at school. For me personally, the filling mechanism takes it from a 5 star to a 3 star rating. If you don't mind the con 70, you will probably feel differently.

The fountain pen is great. I use it every day. The ink flow is very good. The fine nib writes really fine but still very smooth. The Con70 is pleasant to use (I only had problems in the beginning because I pressed too carefully and too slowly...). The color smoke is good if you don't want to attract too much attention.

Recently bought the Custom 74 and love it. After using Montblancs frr 20 years I tried a Pelikan 10 years ago and stuck with it for many years soemtimes using a Pilot Falcon, until I got a Pilot Custom 823 which I now use most of the time. The 74 is very smooth, but the 823 is smooth as glass + its reservoir is gigantic, but much mor expensiveGrew up with a Parker 51 in high school a long time ago. A friend gave me an aurora duo cart - it is todays Parker 51. So, today I write a lot and I usually alternate between the Pelikan, 823, custom 74 and the Aurora. Somewhere along the way I read reviews of the Pilot Metropolitan and because of the very low price bought it - piece of junk and I literally threw it out. Which pen I use depends on what actual writing I will doing and for how long - I have a small hand and the diameter of the pens above vary. All said - either one of ones I use are wonderful and I do not see me buying another. I think the 74 is a better value for price compared to the 823, and some will have a slight problem with the 823 glass smoothness. re Falcon and the 74, the converter of the falcon is very small and limiting- so - my advice would be to save the money and wait to buy the 74.

A beautiful pen, perfect for everyday use.Very smooth and a real pleasure to use. I went for the Fine nib, which is quite fine. Thanks very much.

This is my first gold nib pen, and let me tell you I am not disappointed at all. I bought the medium nib and it is just so smooth! Definitely the best pen I own right now. Would recommend to anyone who want to dive into gold nibs and loves smooth writing.

Beautiful pen. Loving it. Just an awesome writer

Pen was what I expected and Goulet is a pleasure to deal with.

The gold nib writes incredibly well, it's so smooth compared to the stainless steel nibs I've written with. This is my first pen with a resin body, and I must say that this took some getting used to. The resin almost gives the pen a cheap feel compared with the metal pens that I usually use, but at the same time I can write with the Custom 74 for longer periods due to how lightweight it is. The filler mechanism also work very well and it's simple to max out the pens ink capacity. Overall an easy peanut to use with quality mechanics.

The Custom 74 is a joy to use. I like the Smoke color specifically because it looks black until you take a closer look. It writes well and holds a ton of ink!

The Pilot Custom 74 was my first next level pen, coming from pilot metros and lamy safari's. I have to say that the 14k F nib was a dream to write with. Even with some of my toothier paper it still wrote very smooth. It had great balance and weight. I prefer to write with the cap not put on the back side. Felt a little heavy on the back end for me. Pen worked flawlessly with all types of inks i tried. Only downside is the CON-70 converter is really had to clean and stains easily. Anyone who gets this will love it!