CYMBALISTIC: I went to Cymbal & Gong HQ yesterday and played a lot of great cymbals. Picking out the “best” ones to sell on my Cymbalistic site is really a game of inches. Someone else could have easily picked out a completely different group of cymbals as good as the ones I got.
This outing I was attracted to the thinner, more characterful cymbals. There were many good options for beautiful, clean toned jazz cymbals, with slightly more straightforward character, which would have been easy choices.
I selected:
2x – 18″ Holy Grail crashes
1x – 18″ Turk crash
1x – 20″ Turk jazz ride
2x – 20″ Extra Special Janavar – jazz ride
1x – 20″ Special Janavar crash-ride
1x – 22″ Holy Grail (K-style) jazz ride
2x – 22″ Extra Special Janavar crash-ride
1x – 22″ Special Janavar crash-ride
Note: the jazz rides and crash-rides are very similar in weight and handling. It’s a kind of a C&G convention that all the Janavars are labeled crash-rides. Virtually all C&G cymbals ride and crash very well.
I’ll have the cymbals in hand at the end of the week, and will have videos and descriptions of individual cymbals posted at Cymbalistic next week. C&G has a lot of cymbals on hand right now, and this is a great time for me to pick out a cymbal or set for you.
And a reminder: I have in person events coming up SOON in Chehalis, WA, Seattle, and in Germany.
About the cymbals:
Extra Special Janavar: Tim Ennis of C&G and I both are very excited about this series— Janavars with irregular K-type hammering and lathing. I’m happy that this custom design was my idea. He received several each of 20s and 22s. All of the ones I sell will get a heavy patina, and the 22s will get a row of three rivets.
The regular Janavar series are excellent light weight, brighter timbred cymbals for rock/pop. I have Tim give them a heavy patina to make them Special Janavars. The patina seems to give them a funkier character, and makes them more appealing to me as a jazz drummer. They were a big hit in Germany last year, and continue to be very popular. A student owns one, and I love the sound of it just hearing him play it over Skype. They’re really cool, a brighter jazz sound with character.
I chose the lightest and most unusual ones for how they would handle the patina, there were also some great options available for anyone who wants a bright, clean, musical light-medium crash-ride. Again: let me know, they won’t be around forever.
Holy Grail (K-style): I haven’t had a lot of these in stock— the last few took awhile to sell. Possibly the “regular” Holy Grail seems mundane now, just from the familiarity of the name? If so, that’s a bad perception! People are missing out on some great cymbals for no good reason. They’re such great instruments, and would serve well as any jazz drummer’s main axe. I played several really nice 22s today, and was sorry I could only get one.
For awhile they were making the Holy Grail crashes a little on the stout side— a lot of them were functioning better as rides than as very responsive crashes. The current round are generally thinner, while still riding well. I selected the ones that functioned best both ways. There are a few available that were better as pure crashes, with a more straightforward crash sound, if anyone is looking for that.
Turks: He received several each of 18, 20, and 22″, all it jazz weight. Usually they make them with no lathing, and with a hammered bell. This time they made them their usual way, which is similar to Bosphorus Turks, with a few mm wide band of lathing at the edge, and no hammering on the bell. That gives the tone a little more shimmer, where the non-lathed versions I prefer are a little darker and drier. Still, the ones I chose are excellent.
You can listen to examples of all these types of cymbals on the available cymbals at Cymbalistic, and the list of cymbals I’ve sold.