I have three Sultan cymbals. Two rides and a crash. I think they are from 50's or 60's. Can anyone tell me about the brand. My guess is that they are East German made as my Lefima snare. I have searched the whole internet but haven't found a single word about them. Hope the stamp will tell you something.
Hartza
Finland
Sorry, can't help you there. That's one of the great unknowns.
[COLOR="DarkRed"]Wow....you stumped Drumaholic ! Mind Blowi
...we are all goners, now ! ;)
Can you post some more pics of the entire cymbals ?
...they look interesting. From the color of your image here it looks to be NS12 alloy...which would make sense if it was a vintage German cymbal....[/COLOR]
Thanks for the replys!
Here are the pictures. Hope they will help you.
What is the NS12 alloy?
The other ride is similar but without the rivets. The sizes are about 20" and 14".
[COLOR="DarkRed"]NS12 is often called nickelbronze, or (oddly) nickelsilver.
It is a Copper, Zinc and Nickel alloy, I believe.
Historically, cymbals are Bronze which is an alloy of Copper and Tin. B20, B8, B15 are the 3 most common these days, although Meinl also has a B10. The number being the % of tin in the mix. B20 (Bell Bronze) is the most widely used.
(Technically, the B20 designation really is "CuSn20"...but that doesn't exactly roll off of teh tongue, so B20, etc. is how it is typically referred to...)
Brass is Copper and Zinc.
So, an NS12 alloy is basically Brass with the addition of Nickel.
Nickelbronze (NS12) seems to have come into use in Germany and vicinity. It was the first cymbal alloy which could be stamped out of sheets of metal. So, Paiste used it on their earlier cymbals, probably for ease/efficiency of fabrication more than anything else. Usually when you come across an old NS12 cymbal, it is from Germany or environs.
Their sound is a bit limited; kinda metallic, not the most responsive under the stick, and too bright for my tastes...
But, I have had some old Paiste NS12's which worked quite well...particularly the hi-hats and some crashes. But most are, as I said, limited in their sound and generally not sought-after much, anymore. [/COLOR]
They're also very limited in the volume they can produce so once amplification of other instruments came along NS12 could not keep up.
[COLOR="DarkRed"]...which is why so many of 'em look like someone opened a can of 'whup-ass' on 'em......crying2-07[/COLOR]
Thanks all for your replies.
The alloy have to be NS12 because they are very silent and most of the time sound like crap. :) I play the crash with brushes in my skiffle band where it suits perfectly. I only use the rides on occasional acoustic summer cottage jams. It's a shame that no-one knows about the brand but thanks for the interest! Keep on drumming!
Could this cymbal have been made in Turkey? I may be way off but all I did is researched the clues the cymbal gave us. If it is from Turkey does it narrow things down?
"The crescent moon and star is an internationally-recognized symbol of the faith of Islam"
http://islam.about.com/od/history/a/crescent_moon.htm
sul⋅tan [suhl-tn]
1. the sovereign of an Islamic country.
2. (often initial capital letter) any of the former sovereigns of Turkey.
3. any absolute ruler or despot.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sultan
I believe Turkey is mostly Islamic.
