Can anyone help me identify this cymbal?
22" Heavy ride. Stamped with both names "mehmet tamdeper agop tomurcuk" Mehmet on top. Agop under Mehmet.
Its hand hammered. Istanbul stamp.
Take a look at the stamp and if you want more pictures I can send them to you via email.
I acquired it at the scrap metals yard, of all places. What a find for 20 bucks! It plays and sounds great, just a bit heavy for my taste.
Great find! Scrap metals yard? What the..................
Is that "Zilcher" above Mehmet on the stamp? Does it have any ink stamping on it? If it does I can bet that's it's green. This is certainly a "pre-split" Istanbul cymbal. In the late 90's, the three brothers Agop, Mehmet and ?? had a big fight, and formed thier own companies. Istanbul Agop, Istanbul Mehmet and Amedia. I believe that Mehmet died not too long ago.
From the stamp, this seems to be an older cymbal, maybe early 80's or older.
Cool cymbal.
Nice! The stamp looks like Zilciler after Zildjiler.
Great find! Scrap metals yard? What the..................Is that "Zilcher" above Mehmet on the stamp? Does it have any ink stamping on it? If it does I can bet that's it's green. This is certainly a "pre-split" Istanbul cymbal. In the late 90's, the three brothers Agop, Mehmet and ?? had a big fight, and formed thier own companies. Istanbul Agop, Istanbul Mehmet and Amedia. I believe that Mehmet died not too long ago.From the stamp, this seems to be an older cymbal, maybe early 80's or older.Cool cymbal.
Agop was the one that passed away back in the 90's and they were not brothers, they were business partners. The split occured because of infighting between the surviving family of Agop's and Mehmet. They couldn't agree on the direction to take the company, so now we have the two Istanbul cymbal companies. Agops are manufactured a little differently than the Mehmets now.....sonically I prefer the Mehmet Istanbuls....they sound better to me for the most part.
The split with the brothers you may be refering to is the Zildjian split between Robert & Armand ZIldjian. The story is all connected actually. Agop, Mehmet, and the third guy that started Amedia all worked for the K Zildjian factory at one time. When the American Zildjian company bought out the K Zildjian company, they moved it to their factory in Canada during the 70's. All K employees were given the option of moving to Canada as well or staying behind with no work. Two of those that stayed behind were Mehmet & Agop, who opened Istanbul cymbals. The ones that went to canada turned out some fine K's. Then the split between Robert & Armand happened. Robert got the formula and the Canadian factory, but not the name Zildjian. Hence the Sabian company was born. Robert also got to keep any of the workforce that decided to stay with him rather than move to Norwell to stay with the parent company. With that Robert got some of the finest sounding hand hammered cymbals from that early HH line that Sabian made. So if Agop and Mehmet had made the move to Canada and then the USA, there would be no Istanbul cymbals of any brand, pre-split, Agop, Mehmet what-so-ever. Kinda glad they decided to stay behind :D
Good score on the pre-split Istanbul BTW... :)
Agop was the one that passed away back in the 90's and they were not brothers, they were business partners. The split occured because of infighting between the surviving family of Agop's and Mehmet. They couldn't agree on the direction to take the company, so now we have the two Istanbul cymbal companies. Agops are manufactured a little differently than the Mehmets now.....sonically I prefer the Mehmet Istanbuls....they sound better to me for the most part. Good score on the pre-split Istanbul BTW... :)
Thanks Lud dude. Im trying to figure out if this is a rarity........Actually I just want to get an estimated value for this puppy. Ive read a lot about Mehmet Agop today. This is a Zilciler for sure, not Zildjiler. ...........WROCK ON!
Thanks Lud dude. Im trying to figure out if this is a rarity........Actually I just want to get an estimated value for this puppy. Ive read a lot about Mehmet Agop today. This is a Zilciler for sure, not Zildjiler. ...........WROCK ON!
Probably not worth a lot monitarily yet.....if it sounds great, then its worth a lot sonically. :D
Great find! Scrap metals yard? What the..................Is that "Zilcher" above Mehmet on the stamp? Does it have any ink stamping on it? If it does I can bet that's it's green. This is certainly a "pre-split" Istanbul cymbal. In the late 90's, the three brothers Agop, Mehmet and ?? had a big fight, and formed thier own companies. Istanbul Agop, Istanbul Mehmet and Amedia. I believe that Mehmet died not too long ago.From the stamp, this seems to be an older cymbal, maybe early 80's or older.Cool cymbal.
Ok, I was doing a little research last night. I think I figured out that the stamp above their names is indeed Zilciler. There is no ink stamped on the cymbal that I can tell. There were two hand signed signitures (faded) under the bell and neither one of them look like either Mehmet Tamdeger or Agop Tomurcuk. Ive emailed the Istanbul Mehmet cymbal co with an inquiry but I dont expect to hear back from them. We'll see. Yeah, I was taking in some old telephone wire to the scrap yard and out of the corner of my eye saw this cymbal sitting over in a corner. So I asked and the weighmaster said to put it on the scale. Then he said 18 dollars, I pad him and walked out of there with this awesome cymbal. Wiki says the two men first started producing in 1984 and exporting in 1985. From what Ive read they both could have been making cymbals together before that but I am thinking the early 80's is the oldest we may find out this cymbal is. Again, we'll see. If its one of the very first cymbals they ever made together Ill be stoked. In any case its a nice sounding heavy ride cymbal........thanks for your posts. Ill keep this thread up to date if I hear anything.
Thanks Lud dude. Im trying to figure out if this is a rarity........Actually I just want to get an estimated value for this puppy. Ive read a lot about Mehmet Agop today. This is a Zilciler for sure, not Zildjiler. ...........WROCK ON!
BTW, Zilciler was the ORIGINAL name of the Istanbul company. They had to change it as they were being threatened by Zildjian with a lawsuit over the name citing it was too close to the name Zildjian or some such non-sense. They decided to change the name rather than go to court as it would have been easier and cheaper than going through a big lawsuit as a small company with so-so lawyers vs. a big company with big lawyers.
Probably not worth a lot monitarily yet.....if it sounds great, then its worth a lot sonically. :D
I was checking ebay last night and the cymbals going for 1300 and up are the K Zildjian Istanbuls
I probably owned a few of those in my day.
Sonically this cymbal is a solid rock ride. Rich, bright and natural!........as they say.
BTW, Zilciler was the ORIGINAL name of the Istanbul company. They had to change it as they were being threatened by Zildjian with a lawsuit over the name citing it was too close to the name Zildjian or some such non-sense. They decided to change the name rather than go to court as it would have been easier and cheaper than going through a big lawsuit as a small company with so-so lawyers vs. a big company with big lawyers.
WIKI says Zildjiler but looking at the stamp on this cymbal its Zilciler for sure. What does WIKI know anyway?...........LOL. You seem to know a lot aobut the company. I am fascinated by the history and your wealth of knowledge about it.
For as long as I been playing and buying drum gear I should know!
