Mike, I have gone over it with a magnifying glass and with bright light and have never been able to find any marks that look like letters or symbols of any kind. As I said this cymbal is scratched up worse than any I have ever seen... like someone took #60 sandpaper to it- -- so maybe the stamp got removed if it was light to begin with.

Where on the cymbal would this 's' be?? I will look again.

What brand cymbal would it be if it had the 's'??

I think they are in the same area as a usual stamp would be. closer out towards the edge..

mike

what does the 's' stand for?

"second".......marko

That's an Avedis, mid 1950's vintage. I have not even the slightest doubt about that.

Thanks Drumaholic! Would that have been the stamp with the hollow zildjian? Any thoughts why there wouldn't be a stamp? I have a zildjian with 2 stamps and now one with none.

Should I just leave all the scratches? My thinking is that because they down from the bell to the outside and not with the lathing that they might interfere with the vibrations and it could sound even better if I could polish them out.

Thanks mbira. I was just checking how much you have in your reference collection. Bill H says mid 50s which I presume narrows it down to the 3 stamps he refers to collectively as "Large Stamps". Only one has the hollow lettering for Zildjian.

[ame]http://black.net.nz/cym2013/ZDatingZildjianCymbals.pdf[/ame]

I would leave it alone myself. The more you try and polish scratches out the more you reduce the tonal grooves and turn it into a "brilliant" finish. That may change the sound a bit, but not towards the original sound. For me, original sound trumps "better" sound. Otherwise why go for vintage cymbals in the first place?

Good. That way it averages out to one each, so it's cool.

My guess is that this was a 2nd that didn't get stamped as such. Yes, looks like a large stamp.

thanks everyone for the info on this cymbal!