These are profesional grade cymbals made from B-20 which is the industry standard. The early ones were hand hammered, but this is one of the machine hammered ones that came later. They were manufactured by UFIP as a stencil brand for Gretsch, and they advertised as being "second only to K. Zildjian". So I guess by inference that leaves Zildjian (Avedis) in third place at best....at least according to them.

[COLOR="DarkRed"]Are you kiddin' me, McJ ????? That cymbal is worth $200 at least, probably $250.

It's a UFIP-made Ajaha, with stamped signature. Probably from the 70's...B20, handmade, NOT rotocast, just a standard cast B20. They appear in Gretsch catalogs as far back as the '40's.....but those old ones had ink signatures and were more old-school looking. This one is definitely the stenciled UFIP version. I confirmed from Mr. Biasei at UFIP that they did indeed make these in the 70's-early 80's.

I dig these !

I have one up on my website, an NOS, which is great except being NOS it has not developed patina over time so it needs some to settle it down. I have a 22" of the same era which is slightly patina'd and it is as good a ride as anyone ever made.

I don't do the "better than old Zildjian" sorta comparisons....but I will say that if one digs old A's and the like...these are usually right up your alley.

I penned an article on Wikipedia many moons ago...am not sure whether the pimply-faced-teens-without-a-real-life-wiki-gestapo has carved it into pieces or not, but it gives some low-down on Ajaha.

They have developed a bit of a cult following.

Seller should have done some research....it comes up in websearches pretty readily....

You could put that up on eFlay and get over $200 for it pretty easily....

I suspect you are really gonna like it....based on my reading of your taste in cymbals.

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Well this is good news. I honestly didn't know what I was buying. It should be here mid week. It sounded nice and dark and open over the phone. It's good to score every now and again. You know how there's always one guy who overpays for everything? That schmuck is me.

MAN oh man. Just got the cymbal. Wow. This is a very nice piece. The lathing is oh so familiar. It's got a real Zildjian quality to it. I had no idea. There is a stamp name under the bell. It plays sweet. Nice bell. I included some pics and a video. They were all taken with my iPhone. Not great, but you get the idea.

Jaye, thank you for all the research and info you've posted on this line. I'm impressed with this cymbal. I'll be hunting down more of 'em.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ITeachThereforeIDrum#p/u/6/zcemsupAKQs

[COLOR="Purple"]Yes...very nice cymbals. If you really look at 'em for a while, you can see that their resemblence to A's only goes so far. Their lathing patterns and hammering are full-fledged Italian, even the casting marks are different than anywhere else...da vero !

I have an 18" medium crash if you want. It was perplexing me for quite a while because I was trying to use it as a ride and it just didn't have the complexity of the larger ones. Like taking a woman you are sweet on out on 7 dates... and coming to the point where you wanna say...

"c'mon now, baby...how's about a little more than just that...?"

So....I just crashed it [COLOR="Silver"](the cymbal, not the lady)[/COLOR]. And then again. And again.

Voila....then it struck me: it's an 18" [COLOR="DarkOrange"]crash[/COLOR]...is what it is.....(and a nice crash at that).

Lemme know.

I might also have a 14" floating around somewhere.....no 16's, though....[/COLOR]

I've got an almost new 18 Bos Trad crash that I'd trade ya for it (it's too thin and too high pitched for me). As you know, I'm easy enough on these deals. Let me know and I'll post some pics or some vid for ya.

Some Ajaha's can be quite nice, and yours seems to be one of those. You're very lucky to have that one, but not all of them are that good.

I've got an Ajaha cymbal that I picked up from a music store I used to teach at back in the late 70's. It's a 16" Medium Crash and has the ink stamped XE Ajaha on the bottom bell. I'm doing some research to find out a fair selling price. Any suggestions?

Welcome! Send a PM to McJ, he probably has an interest. Get a fair value first, he is a top notch guy. Jaye!!!! Drumaholic, either will be able to help out. A 16, medium....mught not be quite as much as a thin, but what do I know...