Cymbal Myths

 

Over time, myths emerge that become set in the psyche of those who covet or admire cymbals.


I’d like to shed a different perspective (maybe) on some of them here .....


  1. 1.‘Weight is a defining characteristic of a cymbal’ - This simply isn’t true and yet the first thing anyone asks about a cymbal is ‘what is the weight?’. There are so many things that have a more definitive effect on a cymbals sonic characteristics than weight .... profile, taper, bell size, hammering technique and lathing technique to name a few. Don’t believe me? Make a couple of thousand cymbals and get back to me :)

    Does this cymbal sound like its weight? -

















  1. 2.‘The more a cymbal is hammered, the better the sound’ - ‘Better’ is obviously a subjective and ambiguous term, but I can site dozens of times that I have hammered a cymbal multiple times at a clients request (and usually against my advice) and the final result has yielded diminished potential. There is an optimum for every outcome, go too far and the optimum is progressively reduced.


  1. 3.‘It’s all in the alloy’ - There are theoretical optimum outcomes for different alloy compositions and tempering tolerances, but there are also virtually unlimited combinations of tools and techniques. Refining those can lead to a hugely varied number of possibilities. The variation in exact alloy composition, hardness etc between cast cymbals, is a number of percentage points of difference, even for the most clinical of manufacturers. Alloy is just one of many factors integral to a final sonic outcome.


  1. 4.‘You can always hear when it’s an old k’ - If you ask zenstat from cymbalholic.com he’ll agree with me that when it comes to blindfold tests, respondents who believe they can always tell on old k do no better than chance. As much as people say there are defining characteristics that ONLY appear in old k’s, they can never actually pick them from other manufacturers in a blindfold test. Don’t get me wrong, many old k’s are stunningly beautiful instruments that deserve legendary status. But there are wonderful sounding cymbals from pretty much every manufacturer.

MISLEADING INFORMATION -


‘Random Hammering’ - If you listen to certain manufacturers, they’ll talk about ‘random hammering’ with the implicit notion that hand shaped cymbals feature random hammering. It is not possible to properly shape and tension a cymbal with individual hammer hits if it’s done in a random way.

No cymbal I have ever made or modified had any random hammer hits. Everything is done with a specific purpose and intent.

Terms like ‘Random hammering’ and ‘hammer-marks all over the place’ are marketing ploys typically employed by manufacturers that machine hammer after shape pressing.


‘Nobody Fine Tunes’ - Another saying used by certain manufacturers, with the intention of discrediting the notion; which is often sought after by certain drummers. Plenty of people fine tune their cymbals. The end.