[Cymbals & Snares]

It has been said we are currently living in the "Golden Age " of Cymbal making. We certainly live in an age of prolific Drum/Cymbal making. Today there are boutique Drum companies by the dozens. Most of these companies purchase their raw materials or should I say "parts" from other drum companies that specialise in parts and shells. Most use keller shells and assemble the drum. Are they assemblers or manufactures. Starting a boutique drum company is far easier than a Cymbal company in the sence you can purchase everything you need for say a snare drum. You can have the bearing edges cut, you can have it pre-drilled for you the whole nine yards. So basically you assemble it and put the finish on. I'm not in any way knocking this type of operation just using it for the basis of my real question. Cymbals on the other hand are a whole different ball of wax. You either buy blanks and hammer them out, or have an entire factory with a smelter and presses and everything else that goes along with cymbal making. Or you simply order cymbals from an OEM to your specs and have your brand put on them. IF you choose to do the latter are you a Cymbal company or not ?? I saw sometime ago a guy selling his "own" brand of cymbals and alot of people were inferring because they were simply "Re- Branded " cymbals that somehow he was not a true cymbal company. Now I think ( correct me if I'm wrong) TRX outsources all their Cymbal production. I'm pretty sure Saluda was selling nothing more than Re-branded Cymbals. ( atleast they use to) so If a company decides to simply order Cymbals from an OEM and put their own brand on it, In Your Eyes the drumming community are they a true cymbal company or not ? If they are not what do you consider them ? Trying to be honest here I have a financial intrest in this, actually for both drum building and Cymbal making. I'm intrested to see how my fellow drummers percieve this query. Thanks T. Cymbals & Snares

[butter]

I wouldn't consider him a real company, but I don't know what I would consider him.

I don't see the point in doing this. As a store owner I don't think it would benefit you since if you did buy cymbals and brand them yourself, who would buy them? I would rather buy a Sabian cymbal that says Sabian than a Sabian cymbal that says anything else. I think if you lose the big name then you lose some of the marketing value.

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[Bo Eder]

Unfortunately, the big three are the big three (well, 4 if you counf Meinl), and they don't do anything else.

There is Wuhan and Dream coming out of China, I believe, but in order to really strike out on your own as a cymbal company, I think total quality control would be your priority, which would mean you're doing everything from the molten state, and then you'll have to market so you can compete with the big guys.

How do you out-Zildjian Zildjian? Metal is metal, I think it'd be tough. Drums, however, like you said, is a much easier operation.

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[Paulo]

I pretty much agree with everyone else. It's not particularly easy to keep a certain cymbal line sounding the same for 40 years. And, I would argue that cymbals are the most critical piece of percussion in the kit, when it comes to consistency.

We buy certain brands with certain sizes and tempers to make sure we get the sound we want, and more importantly, be able to go back to the store 1 year, 3 years, 10 years later and get the same cymbal to replace a broken/wore out one, confident that it will fit right in like nothing happened.

So, any company that makes their own product or even re-labels another is a legit company, for all intensive purposes. However, the past is still the best indicator of the future and a company that has little past or a murky one, will take a long time of consistency to become 'legit' as a viable alternative to names like Meinl, Paiste, Sabian and Zildjian.

For auxillary cymbals, i.e. trashes and chinas, the market might be more lenient. I dunno. And some people like to mix up their sound every few years. But, I have always been quite brand-loyal when it comes to something I'm going to drop considerable money on.

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[xxvenom13xx]

I agree with Paulo; I consider a cymbal company legit if the cymbal sounds are consistent and you can continue purchasing them and switching them out.

[Cymbals & Snares]

Thanks for the input. I run a percussion retail website, My company also is begining to wholesale some items. It's a completely different ballgame, some items like Silken cymbals I purchase directly from Silken. I have also contracted out to another factory in China to build 6 proto-type snare drums for us. The factory produces about 20 different "stock" snares. They are building them to our spec's. After these snares are delivered to us we plan to retrofit and upgrade them with parts purchased here. Of course before we do any of that we will get to check the quality of the drums. Many factories offer to brand their products for you. If you are a single store or a mega chain and strictly retail them they are known in the industry as stencil kits. Consumers often refer to them as "House Brands". Tons of these brands come and go. I have someone who is intrested ( and has tons of money ) about developing a brand and simply outsourcing most of the manufacturing. It's not like this idea is new by any means and we wouldn't be the first company to do this. It does fit in with my companies long term master plan. Although I hadn't really planned on getting into that area of operation just yet. Sometimes oppotunity knocks at the most inconvienent times. I was just looking for some input from other drummers. Thanks a bunch. T Cymbals & Snares

[Bif McDrumin]

Zildjian sort of... is but maybe not as they once use to be.The sound of their cymbals are very inconsistent unlike cymbals of years past,I remember buying a couple of 18" Zildjian crash/rides in the late 70's and they pretty much sounded identical as well was the case with rides and hats at the time.
This is not the case any longer unfortunately,mass production,lower quality control,company changes and over saturation of the cymbal market results in a product that is less then consistent in quality and sound.

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