Years ago, I came to realize that at that point in time, Zildjian's quality had gone downhill as far as I was concerned. I had bought a 21" Sweet Ride off Ebay on the recommendation of a drummer friend, and it was the worst sounding cymbal I had ever heard. I wrote Craigie Zildjian a letter about it, and she called and invited me up the factory to exchange it for anything I wanted. I took her up on it a few months later, and was treated like a visiting potentate. She and the rest of her staff went out of their way to make things right. I was very grateful to them, but outside of the 14" Mastersound hi-hats I use regularly, I am more partial these days to Paiste and Meinl cymbals, along with various Turkish-made brands, although I have bought a few old Zildjians here and there. I just don't connect with new Zildjians anymore for some reason. When I started playing in '64, you either had Zildjians or you had garbage. There really wasn't anything else at that point. Today, there are so many choices in cymbals. Zildjian is simply not my choice. I did the factory tour of Sabian in '05 and was knocked out by the quality and the treatment we got as visitors. Half the fun was having dinner with Bob Zildjian and his wife Willie at their favorite German restaurant. The stories Bob told us were amazing.
Thanks for the post.
I've heard it stated here on VDF that Sabian sounds more like Zildjian these days than Zildjian does...
