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

I haven't done much in the way of modifying cymbals, beyond adding rivets to a couple of mine. I definitely haven't progressed to hammering or reshaping, much less lathing. (Maybe one of these days, but not at the moment.)

FWIW, here's a cymbal that was given to me as a "going away present" by the owner of the drum shop where I used to teach. It had been used as the crash cymbal on one of kits used for lessons in the shop, and had pretty much been worn out - there were numerous cracks, some of which I was able to drill to stop, but one section had so many cracks, I just cut out a huge section:

As you can guess, with all of that metal cut off, it doesn't really function all that well as a conventional crash cymbal. I've experimented with it a bit, however, and my best results have been:

1) Putting a couple of rivets in - I drilled four rivet holes, spaced evenly around the cymbal, and experimented with various rivet combinations, from one to four in number. I ended up leaving two in, in the holes on either side of the cutout. With the rivets, it's an interesting "effects crash" for softer music - the sustain of the rivets helps to replace the portion cymbals natural sustain that was lost when I cut that big chunk out of it.

2) I've gotten some excellent results with stacking - specifically, setting an 8" K Zildjian splash directly on top of this one, flush with the bell. It offers an interesting two-tone sort of variation on a ribbon crasher sound - one sound when I crash on the Sabian, and another (quicker, higher) sound when I crash on the 8" splash.

One thing I'm considering is cutting a few small holes in it, like the Sabian "O-zone" line. I haven't tried it yet (I want to save my hole saw for one or two more wood-related projects before I put it on a cymbal!), but from what I hear, "perforated" cymbals tend to be trashier-sounding after having the holes cut out of them.

In terms of hammering a flange into the cymbal, to make it more of a china cymbal, that's possible. Again, I haven't done it, and from what I hear from cymbalsmiths such as the late Johan Van de Sijpe, it has to be done with extreme care - that sort of reshaping puts a lot of stress on the metal.

The only other thing I'll add is the obvious: one's first attempts at reworking/modifying cymbals should only be done on expendable cymbals - something that won't break your heart if it becomes unusable in the process.

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