Just use them for whatever purpose they seem best suited for. According to Mel Lewis, and I agree with him, every cymbal you have should be good for both as a crash and a ride. If you want to use a ride for a crash or a crash for a ride, just because you don't know what Zildjian called them when they first came out of the foundry, it's O.K. The cymbal police are not going to come pounding on your door in the middle of the night, or any other time for that matter.

And if they ever do you can tell them that you got a message from me to give to them......and that message is F**ck Off!

We live in a world of over communication. Everyone tells everything about themselves to everybody. Just look at Facebook. The cymbal labels today are mostly marketing, but some new cymbals seem to work best if used as they are labeled.

Back in the fifties cymbals were often marked with silk screen as well, usually in fairly small type. I have an early fifties transitional cymbal where you can still see the silk screened "Bop Ride" logo. But as Drumaholic said, use them in whatever way they sound best to you. Early on, high hats were not even made in matched pairs. You just bought two 14" cymbals and try to find a slightly heavier one for the bottom. Identifying the cymbals use probably makes it easier for a chain store to order fill in stock.

Great info. , thanks so much. Yeah, it makes sense from a marketing standpoint !!

I think I'm catching the bug y'all have. I have these 4 really great sounding 60's Zlidjians and now I want to find more of them.

I didn't realize how much some of them were worth. Without quoting the cash, I bought six of them and sold 2 of them on Ebay, which paid for all of them + some....AND I got to keep four of them !!!!

The 24" 50's ride with 4 rivets brought way more than I ever imagined it would !!!

Yeah, I'm pretty happy about it.

And to think the guy I bought them from was going to throw them out !!!

As a side note, I assume the holes were punched after the logo was stamped (from the way it looked to me) . One of the holes was in the middle of the logo....kinda not all that great from an aesthetic point.

But, yeah...I'm getting to like the old ones.

Thanks !!

Cheers, Dave

Here is a very rough way, but again as the boys said, you can do whatever you want for each cymbal. Personally, nothing sounds better to me than my 22" Zildjian 50's ride smacked hard on the end of a song and letting it ring.

They often did have minimal ink labeling (thin hihat, etc.) But oftentimes that has worn off. But nothing to the extent they have tattooed new cymbals. They are definitely trying to sell more cymbals with the giant ink stamp logos on the undersides and tops of the cymbals these days.