yes, these points are very true.

LOL @ Columbo! No, I haven't been watching Columbo. ;)

There are just a plethora of cymbals these days -nothing like the good old days of simplicity!.

For another example:

I went into GC years ago looking for a good flat ride. They didn't have a single flat ride in the store that day -on the floor....but.... they did have a used cymbal bin. And in that bin, there was one flat ride. It was an A Zildjian flat ride in a "brilliant" finish. It was very heavy. When the guy behind the counter hit it with his 5B, it sounded really clangy and horrible. Then, I took my tipless Regal Tip and put it to the cymbal. Instant success! Plus, it was one of those feel things that made my stick respond very well. It didn't build up. It really didn't do anything other than it's one-trick pony flat ride thang....and it did it exceedingly well....which was what I wanted it for, in the first place. 80 bucks!

When I brought it into the band, it worked very well and the bass player really liked it because he could hear the definition between each stroke better.

Then, one night, another drummer friend came into the gig...it was a slow night....I asked him if he wanted to sit in...yeah, okay...He grabbed the 5As I had in my bag and started to play.....HORRIBLE! It was like a completely different cymbal. Even the brushes sounded different when he played it. And he's a really good drummer! He knows what he's doing.

I took that cymbal into the studio and it took awhile to find the right mic combination that brought what I was hearing, from my persepctive, out on the recording. That's probably a better way to describe what I'm getting at: "Perspective". I mean, where my ears are in relation to what I hear when I play a particular drum or cymbal -but especially cymbals. The mics were picking up just singular aspects of the spectrum that I was hearing. But, eventually, the engineer got things positioned so that the resulting recorded sound was what I was hearing live.

If there's a woman for every man, then maybe there's a cymbal for every drummer. Some people would find that example as sounding good. I just can't hear it, myself. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't find those cymbals to be nice in a different situation....I guess that's what I mean.

One more thing.....

:p

Yes, I've found that the type of stick makes a gigantic difference in the sound of a cymbal.

Sticks have always been a compromise for me - on one hand I like the sound of the tiniest, lightest stick on cymbals but toms and especially floor toms sound best with telephone poles. That's why I usually play with my left hand (backbeats) turned around. It's a compromise though, 'cause when you go to the toms your sticks sound different... luckily music is more about feel than sound so in a song in can work fine. Maybe it's even better that they sound different (?).

When I got my Grestch set in 1972, they came with a pair of Premier sticks that I still have that are the thinnest sticks I've ever seen. I believe they are made from lancewood, and being from Jolly Old we can only imagine what they use that wood for. Burger Kin

I use those sticks (masking tape and warped) on recordings because they still are the best sticks I've ever heard for a ride cymbal. The tip is a really long acorn so there's lots of surface contact.