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

Apropos of nothing...just thought I'd share a couple of quick sound files of the 20" Paiste Sig Reflector Dry Ride that I just picked up on eBay, along with a few comments.

• single strikes (bell, crash, etc.)
• cymbal alone
• cymbal w/kit

The cutout was there already before I bought the cymbal - removing a small section of the cymbal where a crack had formed. That big line down around "eight o'clock" in the photo is a light scratch, not a crack.

I originally found one of these rides in the local "big box" store a few years back, for sale "used," but I had no funds to work with at the time. This one showed up recently, and the bidding stayed low enough (due to the cutout, I'm sure) for me to take a flyer on it. I'll keep an eye on the area surrounding the cutout, to watch for any cracks that may start anew, but since I'm not planning to go all Keith Moon on this ride, I'm not too worried about it.

I had been looking for a cymbal for general business work - one with a fairly prominent bell, but not something overpowering (like my 2002 Power Ride, which is a wonderful cymbal, but it takes a lot of work to balance it out against the rest of the kit). This one definitely seems to fit the bill. It probably wouldn't be my first choice for a jazz gig, but I think it can work in that context as well.

I find the hammering on the cymbal to be quite interesting. While I don't claim to be an expert on "all things Paiste," the Paiste cymbals I've owned tend to have fairly consistent hammering throughout - the top and bottom may be hammered differently, but the top is consistent, and the bottom is consistent (and the bell may or may not be hammered). I don't know enough about the whys and wherefores of cymbalsmithing to know exactly how the hammering affects the sound and tension on a cymbal, but for what it's worth:

- the bell has no hammering
- the top surface, from the bell out to about an inch and a half from the edge, features primarily wide, shallow hammer marks, with some smaller hammer marks mixed in.
- the outer 1-1/2" shows almost exclusively smaller and shallow hammer marks
- the underside is hammered with larger, shallower hammer marks from the bell out to 1-1/2" from the edge
- the outer 1-1/2" of the bottom side is basically unhammered.

The lathing is also fine and shallow.

I had a steel pan gig last week (pans, keyboard, drums), and I brought this cymbal for my drummer to use. Maybe it was the room, maybe it was my proximity to the drums, or maybe it's just my conception of what a "dry" ride is, but this one has plenty of wash for my tastes.

Overall, this cymbal has a wide dynamic range, a very strong bell, and is a great choice for general business work. If I need a cymbal that will cover a wide variety of styles - pop, rock, Caribbean, even jazz - this one will be one of the first ones out of my cymbal bag.

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