It was a marketing campaign. I have a 16" AZ (Made in Canada) that has "CRASH" stamped on it and it's a nice ride. I've never cared much what the companies said the cymbals were called since that's just marketing... just what someone at AZ decided to write in their catalog.

To me a China cymbal and a swish are the same thing. A pang was a cymbal AZ put out that to me was a swish but I don't recall big ones. The ones I saw were 18"'s I think, whereas the swishes I saw in the 60's and 70's were mostly 22"s and some 20"s.

They are all patterned after cymbals used in the Chinese Lion Dance. I've seen them do it here and the swish cymbals are small and played in pairs like marching cymbals. They sound pretty cool.

The Wikipedia article says they were the result of a collaboration between Gene Krupa and Avedis Zildjian. I doubt that's true since the Chinese were making swishes way before Zildjian started in 1623.

I thought it might have to do with the weight and the shape of the bell. I have a Paiste 20" China Type and the bell is shaped like a top hat (kinda). The Swish and Pang cymbals I remember all seemed to have regular rounded bells. I understand about marketing hype names, but they must have been differentiated in some other ways besides the name.Mister T

Yes there is probably some particular way of differentiating a pang from a swish.

I remember when Paiste came out with those cymbals, I always thought the cup or bell looked like a doorknob. It was Paiste thing that I never saw anyone else do. Those cymbals have a unique sound... they sound pretty good.

Actually thats a traditional lion-china style cymbal bell.......Wuhan and Dream cymbals still do that. It was originally a handle to hold the cymbal by when you crashed two of them together like modern marching band/orchestra cymbals.....

As Johnny Carson often said:

"I did not know that!".

Minor somewhat related hijack:

I was playing music in New Brunswick in the mid-70's in Fredericton, which isn't that far from Meductic. A music store there had a bunch of AZCO (the Sabian company) seconds - cymbals with small defects.

I bought, and still use a 22" swish second there for $80. It has an "S" stamped on it and I could only find some tiny "bubble" poc marks that I guess were the defects. For all intents and purpose it's an Avedis Zildjian, and later I put rivets in it.

Here's what was weird about this one: For the first year or so I used it in a rock band. It was always extremely loud. Touch it and it barked. Kinda uncontrollable. No way you could ride it - it turned into a monster real fast.

So I put it away.

Now I've had cymbals change when they aged, but this one did a total transformation. When I took it out in the 90's after a long "sleep", it was a totally different beast. It's real controllable now, I can ride it with brushes, use it in soft ballads... it's totally different, and pretty much got the classic swish sound I always wanted. It's very, very useful and playable, doesn't bark anymore.

Still scratch my head at the degree of change on that one.

Me and the rest of the band toured the AZCO factory in Meductic and that was great - they were super cool.

Something I'll mention about that experience was that the guy giving us the tour went up to a stack of 8" splashes (there must have been hundreds in the stack) and grabbed one and in a millisecond bent the thing in half like a taco shell - the opposite sides touched each other. He let it pop back and said "sign of a good splash". I would never have had the guts to do that!

Hey, that's cool about the shape of the lion-China type bell. You're right. Wuhans have a very similar shape to the bell -which, as a handle, would make perfect sense!

It's been taking me about 29 years to get used to my China-type. It's made from a different alloy than all my other cymbals and it's NOT a "soft" China trash sound. It's more gongy. I have played the Wuhans in the local shop and they definitely have more of that trashy sound. But, I have seen MANY of them with the hole drilled way off center. I mean, like there was a whole batch of them sitting in a pile and NONE of them had the holes centered! -not one! They were really inexpensive, though. I suppose that's kind of the point. You buy one, play it. When it cracks, you use it some more. When about half of it falls on the floor, you go out and buy a new one! Burger Kin

I have heard some sizzle cymbals that I believed to be known as "swish" cymbals that were around 20" and had very shallow bells, a low-profile bow. They made a very nice sizzle that didn't build up too much. I might be looking for something like that if anyone knows anything. I just want to make sure I'm on the same page with the names (swish, pang, China) and such. Thanks

You know how China type cymbals have the upturned edge... I've seen some cymbals where that part was actually flat, so that if you put the cymbal on a tabletop the outside 2" or so would make full contact with the tabletop, if you know what I mean. What that's called I don't know.

To me a swish has always referred to a China type cymbal. There's never really been a time where everybody met in a room and agreed on these terms so it more likely would be a consensus of impressions.

Swishes are a must on the V chord in cha-cha's when the bones hit on "2".

I remember a Billy Cobham interview in Downbeat in the 70's when he was with Mahavishnu and he said that his swish was the "governor" on the volume, that it was the loudest thing on stage.