On buying cymbals

[Wen1001]

This ever happen to anyone?

just yesterday i went to a warehouse sale here in Singapore... they were selling everything at half price and i picked up a sabian vault artisan medium ride for about 210 US dollars...brand new. When i played it at the store it didn't sound as special as i thought it would given the rave reviews these cymbals have been getting but i figured i might as well grab it since it was such a good deal and i could probably sell it off at at least the same price if i really didn't like it...

I went home and set it up on a cymbal stand and played it..it actually sounded worse in my room (since my room was pretty small)..clangy and overly ringy...and was pretty disappointed...my drums were set up at a club for a gig so i didn't have a chance to try the cymbal in the context of a drumkit...but really i thought i had bought a lemon...

I finally got my drums back today and set up the ride with the rest of the kit and suddenly it sounds great! the stick click is wonderful, it's got a nice balance and fills up a nice portion of the sonic spectrum while not getting in the way of the drums... it's definitely not like a constantinople but that wasn't what i was trying to get with this cymbal...i was looking for a crossover cymbal that i could use on pop/rock/funk gigs or maybe a outdoors jazz gig that required a bit more ping and projection from a ride...and this mother has got it all!

it just got me thinking about how when we buy a snare, or a cymbal we buy individual parts of a whole instrument and it's unfortunate that a lot of the time we don't get to hear it as a part of our instrument during the purchasing process...i would never have picked up this cymbal if it wasn't at half price...i was just wondering what you guys do sometimes (besides bring down all your other cymbals to see if the potential new one will fit with the other) to try to go an idea of how a cymbal is gonna sound with the rest of your kit and whether it will provide what you want it to for the musical situation you're buying it for...

On another note, i've got a really really nice seasoned 20 inch k custom dark ride for sale...no keyholing, cracks or dents, only some stick marks and all the original logos are still intact... I'm in Singapore now but i'll be in the states come january, so if anyone wants to get it i can ship it when i get there...

I'm loving the artisan!
Wen

[CLWarunki]

Yeah the properties and dimensions of a room can really affect a drum or cymbals sound...

I bought two artisan rides and sold one. Kept the 22" - they can be a bit clangy, esp the 20".

[Degas]

yeah the room plays a huge role...always nice to try new cymbals with YOUR OWN kit....

I could never imagine buying or ordering a cymbal without hearing it first...with my other cymbals.......

Its like picking a women without talking or smelling her first.....
Damm she looks good...but


did I just say smelling?


[img]graemlins/shhh.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/shhh.gif[/img]

[JoesMechanic]

And even if you get a chance to smell one doesn't mean that several years later it doesn't develop a certain problem. [img]wink.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I'm talking of the cymbal of course. [img]wink.gif[/img]

Talking with the Weckmeister about cymbals lately, he sez that the stick has ALOT to do with the way the cymbal behaves/sounds. I'm degas on this one. I was checking out 12" splashes at GC last year. Out of 3 cymbals, they all sounded different and only one was the way I wanted it to sound. According to Dave, the reason why he was so intensly involved with his new Legacys was because he hears what other drummers are saying, and that repeatability/consistancy from one cymbal to the next was important when purchasing to most us consumers.