TigerBill's DrumBeat Community Forums for Free Expert Advice on Drums and Percussion.

Aaah yes, buying cymbals on line. I'm not going to be popular here with the buy/sell cats in this forum. Nor have I ever been popular with major cymbal company reps. That will never change because of the ensuing explanation of my view of cymbals and how I pick them:

I don't and never will, buy that way. If I can't lay my stick on the cymbal it doesn't make it to my kit. Pictures and sound files can be as we know, "enhanced" shall I say. I have found that the appearance and sound on line in any way, is at best, only related; but not what the cymbal really is. I'm even skeptical of these boxed retail packages that basically just get sold over the counter. They have to be on display, available for playing, and if I can't take it on trial for about four hours It stays exactly where it sits in the store. If its used and I have tracked it down through ads or through word of mouth, I'll be able to play it or have heard it many times before in performance. I also tend to ignore the maker of the cymbal in most cases and just look and listen and feel the cymbal on its own individual merits. I'm sure there are scads of on line buys that have worked out well. I'm also sure that there are just as many on line buys that sit in a corner and don't really fit the Sonic picture with the purchaser.
And then of course there are another lot of those cymbals that were bought because of general reputation that don't fit the buyer's real concept, who then goes about fitting his or her playing to that cymbal that cost at least a finger or two and maybe as much as an arm or leg or even a first born, depending on their particular pocket book. Which in turn; activates a number of further purchases to fit the on line cymbal. I'd rather go to a drum shop or big retail store with a trade in policy like Long & McQuades, a cross-Canada retailer, and just dig around until I find what I am looking for. My last cymbal purchase I found in a warehouse, where a small drum shop that had closed its doors was storing its left over stock. It is an 18" Paiste Dimensions ride that had its own particular sound, and I was able to sign it out for a day and drop it into my existing set-up and play it on a gig. At that time there were three of the same model sitting up on line with sound files and pictures and none of them remotely sounded like the one I obtained after having had my hands, sticks, brushes and mallets on it in real time with my band. I trust no-one's ears or eyes other than my own when it comes to cymbals! What they look like has little to do with how they sound and play to me.
Of course, if you know how to do it, you can modify any cymbal's sound and feel without any invasive applications anyway. But I suppose that is a subject for a whole different thread really.

Edited by roger strange (Sun Jun 29 2008 07:14 AM)