[Davenhurst]

What's the best piece of budget gear you've owned / played? It seems there are a few gems out there that may get overlooked simply because of the branding.

My vote goes to the Sabian B8Pro 18" China, a cymbal I've had for about 7 years and have thrashed to hell and back - it's still going strong. Great trashy sound with a nice sharp attack and beautiful smooth decay. Top gun.

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[gyutae]

great post
I agree with you on the B8 china and I've heard a lot of really good drummers who prefer the b8 china over other top models just because they can beat the crap out of it and not worry about it cracking or anything like that

Some other great budget stuff: i bought a CB drum set for my church and put Remo Pinstripe heads on them to make them sound decent... not bad for such a budget kit.

any other good value deals?

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[AvengedDrummer]

Well, some good budget cymbals that people never give a chance are ZXT's. They sound amazing for the price range, and are great if you dont have the money to get top of the line zildjians.

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[Davenhurst]

Never tried ZXTs but have heard good things - I'm currently buying far too many Istanbul and Bosphorus cymbals. Talking of which, they're not exactly budget I admit, but both those companies make amazing cymbals that won't break the bank. My 18" Istanbul Agop Trad Dark crash is the most incredible sounding cymbal I've ever had the pleasure of laying ears on.

So - other budget gear..... Again, technically not really "budget" as such, but I bought a couple of Big Dog boom stands and they're holding up nicely, no rattling or wobbling (technical terms, of course).

[AvengedDrummer]

Oh Another! My sonar mini boom stands! I have two, both were 19.99. (They've jacked the price back up to 39.99 now, i think i got a discount cause i bought them with my cymbals) Anyway! These are extremely solid cymbal stands. (one of mine is holding a 22" rock ride!) They're perfect because they have a smaller boom arm than usual so they dont take up as much space. Id reccomend them to anybody.

[gyutae]

I usually get budget cymbal stands anyway because the top end models seem to be big and bulky, taking up way too much space.

Davenhurst - what makes this "incredible sounding cymbal" sound so great? I know it's hard to describe in words but I've never heard a Istanbul or Bosphorus cymbal. (sounds Indian or middle eastern)

Where do you all buy your drum gear? Online? Drum shops? Guitar center?

[AvengedDrummer]

One of the best sites I've found for cymbals is cymbalcellar.com. He mainly deals in used cymbals, and you can ge some fantastic deals! For bosphorus sound bytes try CymbalsOnly.com thats another excellent site and they usually have ALOT in stock.

[mattdelrossi]

they are fairly cheap i'm considering the box pack it comes with hats, ride, crash, ect. this would be as an up grade to my current zbt hats and crash/ride.

[Davenhurst]

Originally Posted by gyutae

what makes this "incredible sounding cymbal" sound so great? I know it's hard to describe in words but I've never heard a Istanbul or Bosphorus cymbal. (sounds Indian or middle eastern)

Where do you all buy your drum gear? Online? Drum shops? Guitar center?

I buy most of my cymbals through http://www.cymbalsonly.com , I can thoroughly recommend it for service and quality.

As for this "incredible sounding cymbal", cymbalsonly.com have very few Agops left unfortunately, but have a look at the site and you'll see you can hear a sound file of every single cymbal they have in stock, check out some of them to get an idea of the sort of sounds. Try the 18" Agop Trad Med Crash on the Agop page, or some of the Bosphorus antique series rides and crashes. In fact, just dive in and listen to a bunch, some lovely lovely sounding cymbals in there. All hand-hammered and all high quality, a lot of them are aimed more at the jazz side of things, so there are a lot of very thin rides, for example, but I've got some nice heavy ones that can stand being beaten night after night.

Its really opened my ears up and I don't think I could go back to AAX or A Custom or such. (Saying that, I'll still use Ks and K Customs, and I'm dying to try some Paiste, they're just hard to get your hands on over here).

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[gyutae]

Thanks for the reply. On general, how accurate are the sound files for the cymbals? i would think there would be some variation when actually hearing the cymbals live and in combination with ur drums and other cymbals.