So a bit of an update:
Those 13" K Custom Dark hats are keepers for sure. I cleaned them with dish soap and a CLR/water solution (cleaned them without stripping ALL the 'patina' off) and they sound really good. I did find a flea bite, so perhaps dropping them was good for their sound...Hurting More on those later.
I brought those and all my rides (only three) to visit a friend who bought a used K Constantinople ride recently. I wanted to hear that K Con ride, and he was interested in my 20 and 22 ping rides. I also had "the beast" with me (old 22" A Zildjian ride from mid 50's or so if you're just tuning in), and a couple crashes (16 and 18 A thin crashes from the early 80's).
I have been using 'the beast' in my Drumgeon with a strip of painters tape on the bottom, and been pleased enough with it. You still can't crash it unless you play with aluminum baseball bats, but otherwise, it actually sounds OK that way in my room (which is rather live).
Set up in my friend's basement, which is a bit larger space and a bit less live (carpeting and sound panels on the walls) that beast sounded, well, like it had a big piece of tape on it. In his room, the beast sounded decent wide open (but it still has tsunami-grade wash and no possibility of crashing unless tossed out of a speeding pick-up truck) I played it (did I mention I brought my old D-20 kit along?) all day Sunday like that. My friend grabbed some mallets at one point and did a suspended cymbal roll on the beast and I had to stuff my fingers in my ears! It was painful!!
We both REALLY were digging the 13" K hats I picked up. He has old 2002 sound edge hats (nice) as well as some old 505? maybe hats that sounded pretty good as well, but when we switched kits (he had his round badge Gretch kit up) hearing the K hats from a distance further reinforced these as a sweet pair of hats. In spite of Zildjian's best efforts, good stuff still manages to sneak out once in a while!Excited
Now, as for the K Con (22") ride, as I said to him after playing it every which way for a while: I could live with that ride and be quite happy. Considering it's 22" diameter, it actually crashed very well. I imagine a similar 20" would be even better in this regard, but it was nice. Drop the shoulder into it for some nice accents that don't get in the way of the ride pattern. Also versatile- play closer to the edge and you can hear where the thickness changes on this cymbal. Mid-bow is very 'pingy' but not ping-ride piercing, close to the edge gets VERY dark and mysterious. The bell cuts fine, but nothing like the bell of my 'beast' ride (which cuts depleted Uranium). I'd like to sample several of these rides, but I think I could find a nice one with time... We also noticed differing sticks changed the ride's character quite a bit. I play 747 oak nylon sticks and he plays 7a wood tips. As you might imagine, very different sounding! He had a pair of 7a nylon sticks and I really liked how those sounded on the K Con. I will not be switching to 7A's to make my cymbals sound better, but I have been looking for the 707 hickory nylon sticks as I think these will be a good 'transition' stick for me. A bit lighter and a bit bouncier in the shoulder... 7A's a just too spindly feeling for my hand size.
My D-20 kit held its own very well against the legendary round badge Gretch kit. He is using the rail consolette (not for long now I suspect- read on) and was getting frustrated with the choked sound of his 12. When he held it, it sounded wide open and sweet. On the rail, it sounded like it was filled with fresh mini-marshmallows... The mount was totally killing that drum! His 16" floor tom would put a lot of bass drums to shame, and it in fact actually had a lower pitch than his 20" kick batter head!
On my kit the rim-mounted 12 and stock-legged 14 floor tom were singing out so well, they drowned my bass drum out! Independently, the drums sounded good- bordering on great, but I have to open up that bass drum some more. I think the batter felt will be moved up to cover less of the bater head (which is an Emperor coated) which may do the trick. A resonant head without a huge hole will certainly help as well I'm sure...
A bit of banter, but possibly useful for those shopping for cymbals or wondering how an old Japanese kit can hold up to a legend... I think the old D-20 did just fine, and I have no plans to get rid of it any time soon!