No offence on my part, I hope.
   I think you were somewhat unlucky here in that you fell foul of an irritating phenomena experienced outside the USA, namely, that of some Americans (not talking about you) who proclaim America and things American as superior when they clearly have have hardly experienced anything other than America.  The rest of the world is getting into the habit of reacting to this quickly and firmly when they experience it - especially in cases where the example is ridiculous.  Again, I am speaking generally and not about this thread. 
  I like my Royal HH; it is well built and even looks well built.  It simply lacks features I would expect as standard on a 'standard'.
  It was good to have your opinion - it just wasn't the same as mine.
I really want to get hold of an S-C series 5 'Silent Super' - but here in Australia they are rare as hen's teeth (as they say over here) and I have only seen two for sale in the last three years; both too far gone to be useful working machines.  Do you know these machines?  What do you think of them?

beak wrote:

that of some Americans (not talking about you) who proclaim America and things American as superior when they clearly have have hardly experienced anything other than America.

...I was going to go on a long, sarcastic, stereotypical rant that would have seemed very offensive and appalling but if you had a twisted sense of humor it would be funny yet somehow it would agree with beak, but I decided against it because since there is a lack of tone over text. Especially over the internet. 

But, yes, I do think beak is right. We're seeing it right now, and even though things look bleak for us, I still have hope that looking at things objectively will eventually prevail and my experience will be chalked up as something only old people remember. Such as walking 40 miles to a one room school, uphill, both ways. 

Beak, I almost forgot.  You'll want to opt for a Silent Super made in the latter fifties.  I have one made in 1958, and my Tower version was made in 1960.  The ones made earlier have only 84 characters while the latter ones have 88.  Although they don't typically have lots of extras, you can get one with half-vertical spacing, and they all have a very decent paper stand.  

Just got my hands on my first Olivetti, and boy is it different! Cannot place my finger on it, but just the way the mechanisms are configured and constructed... it's... it's different. I quite like it, but it's only my first and I'd like to get to know more about the Italian typewriters.

thetypewriterman wrote:

The thing with Olivettis is that the Italians have a love of engineering - in fact engineering as art. Why make a mechanism the same way as everyone else when you can think of an entirely different way of achieving the same end result ?  You can particularly see this in pre-1964 Olivettis.  It is interesting that you can see national characteristics in the way typewriters are made.  German - immaculate precision engineering, English - (Imperial) very 'nuts and bolts' everything adjustable, American - cruder construction, lots of nickel plating, Swiss - everything on a finer scale, more like clock and watch engineering etc. etc.

Just how "crude" are we talking when we're discussing American-made typewriters, huh?  I'll have you know, sir, that our "crude" machines have outlived alot of people.  There's something to be said about "Proudly Made in the U. S. A.

And I don't think "crude" or any other negatives are in there.  Simple, perhaps, but crude implies that some out there think the quality of our stuff matches that of Yugo.  That is not the case, sir.  Not the case at all.