Ride Cymbals - What do YOU use?

[troutbrooke]

Taste in cymbals is a personal thing, but I have had the hardest time finding a ride to 'love' in the last 12 months. Years ago (maybe 20) I used use a 20" Sabian HH Medium Heavy, and I loved it. But then I joined a loud heavy rock band, and it just didn't cut it anymore. So then I switched to a Sabian 20" AA Heavy Ride. I used that ride up until a year ago. But after all those years, it was just sounding annoying to me, and didn't have enough complex harmonics for my ear, nor did it have enough 'stick' sound (too washy).

I sold it and bought a Sabian 21" HHX Dry. I enjoyed that cymbal for about 4 months, but it turned out to be too 'clangy' for my taste. Next I ordered a Sabian 21" AAX Stage ride, and when it arrived, I played it for all of 15 seconds before packing it up and sending it back (way too washy). I've now been playing a Sabian 20" HHX Stage ride, and I like it a lot, but it's still not 'the one'.

I tried Sabian's new Artisan cymbals, and although they were great sounding, they seem better suited for quiet to moderate volume gigs. Not as useful to me as they would need to be for that price.

I now have on order a Sabian 20" HH Medium Heavy (going full circle). It should be here tomorrow, and I hope this will keep me happy for years to come...but we'll see.

What ride cymbal do you use? Do you love it? Why is it so hard to find 22" rides anymore? The only ones you see are as thick as man-hole covers (aside from the thinner 'jazz' rides like Artisans and K-Constantinoples). How did 20" become the standard diameter for most rides?

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 28, 2005 09:30 PM: Message edited by: drumming sort of person ]</font>

[Randy walker]

21" K Heavy ride, love it.
Also have a 22" K Custom.

[ed4644]

21" K Custom Specil Dry Ride-amazing in any situation.

22" K Custom Medium Ride is very nice- for those louder situations rock, big band...

I also use a 20" K Ride w/ 2 rivets-nice imo

check out the 21" though-very nice cymbal.

[XNavyDrummer]

20" Zildjian Ping, nice articulation
20" Sabian Evolution Ride nice articulation, spread and crash.

[troutbrooke]

I don't have any first hand experience with Zildjian's K Customs..... I need to remedy that pronto!

[ladanny]

20" K Custom Special Dry - when you HAVE TO cut through. It's like a modern day Earth Ride

20" A Medium about 30 years old - Great washy jazz ride

20" A Ping - good all around other than light jazz

22" K Custom Medium - my GO TO ride for pretty much anything.

[Lee Collins]

20 K custom dry light ride
20 Istanbul Agop signature ride.
20 K Custom dry
18 K custom
20 K Jazz ride
20 602 jazz ride.

Not all at the same time [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Want to get: 20 A custom projection ride ( ala Carter Beauford to replace my 20 K Custom dry which I'm bored of),
20 JoJo Mayer fierce ride.
Want to try: 20 Sabian Evolution ride.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 29, 2005 06:39 AM: Message edited by: Rudy_Ment ]</font>

[Klemme]

20" K Jazz Ride

22" Paiste Sound Creation "Dark Ride"

22" K-Istanbul

20" Paiste 602 Flat-Ride with 2 rivets.

19" Istanbul Mel Lewis Ride.

[Jean-Paul]

I use a Sabian 21" Raw bell dry ride, 20" AAX metal ride, 22" Manhattan ride, 20" HH medium ride and a 20" HH heavy ride. Now I want the new Sabian Artisan ride and a flat ride maybe with rivets.

Not all at once but sometimes two [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[alexsanguinetti]

Sabian HHX Manhattan Ride 20 (on my left), Sabian AA Raw Ride 20 (on my right).

You can listen me playing both here (video):

http://site238.webhost4life.com/alexsanguine/Jam2.wmv


Best regards from Munich,
Alex Sanguinetti

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 29, 2005 04:15 PM: Message edited by: Alex Sanguinetti ]</font>