Cymbal durability

[B36arin]

I wasn't sure where I should post this, but this should be the right section.

A friend of mine is buying new cymbals, and we were discussing which ones he should get. He's pretty broke, but he still wants to get quite expensive cymbals(Zildijan A custom, Sabian AAX) because he claims that cheaper cymbals break much faster. I have a hard time believing that there is such a huge difference in durability between a cymbal set(2x crash, china, hihat, splash) for 1400 euros than an equivalent set for 7-800 euros. Obviously the more expensive ones will sound better, but right now I'm only interested in durability, it's been bugging me a bit. Is the difference huge? Does anybody have any "cheaper" cymbals that they can recommend?

 

[BLUElightCory]

Are they being used for live or recording, or both? Bad sounding cymbals are an express ticket to bad drum sounds, so in my opinion he should get the A's or AAX if he can swing them.

 

[Chris Lucas]

As a drummer, I've broken a lot of cymbals, and I mean a fucking lot.

Durability is 100% going to come down to how hard he beats the shit out of them, both good, and bad cymbals will break. I have broken a ton of expensive cymbals.

The ones I'd really watch out for are the Chinas, I have literally broken 10+ chinas.

End of story is, buy the good cymbals, because bad cymbals sound insanely awful and ruin a drum sound completely.

 

[icos]

Cymbals are very much an opinion thing though, everyone has different preferences,but IMHO, cheap cymbals sound cheap, the best thing I ever did was spend some money to upgrade to a better set

I would not recommend the AAX Metal cymbals. I used them for gigging mostly, but they were not as durable as advertised and were too harsh for good recordings. One thing I will say though, the bell on the AAX Metal ride cut through really nice in live situations.

Ended up getting a set of Rudes (Paiste) for gigging (you can run them over with a tank) and buying a combination of second hand Zildjian K's and A's for recording, because I found mixing up the sets gave a better sound variety that you don't really need for gigging so much. Be careful with second hand though....especially eBAY.

 

[greyskull]

what can eek out the life of your cymbals even more is to just use the knackered old ones or cheap shit ones for practice, and save the good ones for gigs/recording.

 

[Strachan of D]

a set o stagg sh for beating the shit out of and a set of z3 or something

 

[WellfearJoe]

It's more about how he strikes the cymbal than anything else. http://www.sabian.com/EN/education/cymbal_care.cfm

Istanbul Samatya are decent cheaper cymbals - hand hammered in Turkey from good metal. Very usable sounds for the price, recommended before the cheaper lines from the big name companies. I've used an 18" Samatya crash for three years, two of those it was my only crash. No cracks.

Also heard good things about the Wuhan New Traditional line, stay away from the other Wuhans though (except the chinas).

 

[Pipsymbol]

It's more about how he strikes the cymbal than anything else.

^^ this ! ! !

I ended up playing paiste aplha cymbals most of my life since they offer great combination of price, durability and sound. they'll do the job in studio and sound very nice on stage.

only more expensive cymbal I would suggest to get is ride (paiste 2002/signature) and possibly hi-hat (paiste 2002 will do the job) since cheap ones always sound like shit. but once you get decent HH and ride they will definitely last you much longer since they don't tend to break as easy as crashes, splashes and chinas.

 

[B36arin]

Thanks for all the replies! I was aware of the importance of technique, but I wasn't sure if more expensive cymbals were of higher quality so that it would take longer to break them. Now I know that there isn't a huge difference

 

[MatrixClaw]

Durability is 100% going to come down to how hard he beats the shit out of them, both good, and bad cymbals will break. I have broken a ton of expensive cymbals.

Not really.

It's all about placement of the cymbals and how you hit them. I guarantee that if you're placing them correctly and hitting them correctly, they will not break. I bash on my cymbals like a motherfucker sometimes and I have never even cracked one. If you don't know how to hit your cymbals correctly or have them too high/too low, you are going to break cymbals, guaranteed.

Granted, there ARE some cymbals that break more easily than others, but unless you're seriously buying the bottom-of-the-barrel shit, you know, the cymbals that cost $20 a piece, you're not going to be breaking them if you're doing it right.

Now, your friend probably DOES have a good point in the durability versus price, not because they truly ARE more durable, but because since he paid so much more for them, he is more likely to treat them correctly than the cheaper ones, since he doesn't want to be replacing them anytime soon.

 

[digitaldeath]

After touring and breaking countless expensive cymbals, I switched to cheap ass cymbals for gigging. They last me just as long as expensive cymbals.
A lot of it can come down to poor technique too, but overall durability can be also be found in cheap cymbals.