They're back! - Page 1 - Vintage Drum Forum

I think this should be Interst to all Paiste fans from a bud of mine. from a CH member that was visiting the Paiste factory last october:

Since the news about the reintroduction of the 602 line is out, I no longer consider myself bound by the promise of silence I had to give when I visited the Paiste factory in Nottwill, Switzerland, in mid October last year. Together with two friends, I was there to pick up a bunch of cymbals for a music studio in Sweden. We spent three great days at the factory, playing cymbals until out ears blead and hanging out with the great staff at the factory. Thanks for treating us like kings, Christian and Ranato!

During our stay at the factory, we also got the opportunity to try and comment on prototypes for new cymbals. When we entered the special test room, I saw some 602´s up on stands. Since I assumed they where there as reference cymbals, I did not pay them much attention. However, after a while I asked Renato (international sales manager) about them and was informed they were actually prototypes for the reintroduction of the 602 line. Wow, I was almost knocked to the floor!

During the three days in the factory we got plenty of opportunities to play the new 602 cymbals. The first run of the reissue 602 line will include a 20" Medium Ride, a 20" Flat Ride, a 18" Thin Crash, a 16" Thin Crash and a pair of 14" SE hats. Maybe some more models will follow in the future, depending on the the popularity of the line. However, Renato maintained that Paiste is not expecting any huge sales figures. The line is more of a connoissseur line, designed (and maybe priced?) for cymbal enthusiasts. Visually and structurally the prototypes we played were almost identical to their ancestors. Maybe I should say that I have played and collected Paiste cymbals (not least the 602 line) since the late 70s. The black label prints on the new 602´s, however, were slightly bigger compared to the originals from the 70s. Of course I had to bring up the issue of the 602 alloy and the rumours saying it could no longer be obtained. Renato answered that Paiste had to do quite a bit of research before they were able to find a producer which could deliver the exact alloy they were looking for. Paiste tried a few alternatives before they finally were satisfied. The key, according to Christian and Renato, is the pureness of the special 602 alloy. Despite beeing B20, as the Twenty line, the quality of the 602 alloy is much higher. When Paiste finally found the right alloy (in Germany), their cymbal smiths were finally able to recreate the original sound of the 602 cymbals. Before that, they tried and tried but could not get it right.

I also asked if Paiste still has the necessary knowledge to produce the 602 cymbals, given that almost all of the cymbal smiths that used to work with the 602 line are retired. Renato told me that the factory has kept careful written descriptions of the production process and also has an extensive archive of original cymbals to use as referens cymbals. Actually, there were quite a few vintage 602 laying around in the test room. For example a 22” Paperthin crash from the late 70s…yummie!

And, what about the sound? On a question about which generation of vintage 602 cymbals (pre-serial, black label or blue label) Paiste has tried to recreate, Renato, said that the ambition has been to copy the sound of the early 602 line. That also became obvious when playing the cymbals. They reminded me more of the early 70s black labels than the blue labels of the 80s. My overall impression is that Paiste has done a great job recreating the 602 line. All of the cymbals sounded REALLY GOOD and very close to the originals. The crashes had the classic smooth and full range sound of the Thin Crash models of the 70s. Unfortunately we forgot to put them on the scale (there was of course a scale in the test room) but to tell from the sound and feel of the cymbals they were very close in weight to the early to mid 70s models. We were also able to test the 602 crashes side by side with crashes from modern cymbal lines. For example the Twenty line, the Dark Energy line, and the 2002 line. No other crash cymbal came close to the pureness and full range tone of the 602 crashes.

Also the 20” Medium Ride sounded fantastic. Personally, I think it sounded better than the originals. To be honest, I’ve never cared much for the Original Medium rides. Too sterile and one dimensional for my taste. The reissue 20” Medium Ride, however, even had better crash qualities than my 20” pre-serial 602 Medium. The SE hats were maybe the cymbals I was least impressed with. They were good but did not reach the hights of the best SE hats I played over the years. Personally I’m not a huge fan of the original Flat Rides, but as far as I could tell, the reissue model sounded just as sweet and silvery as a Flat Ride should do. A unique cymbal for sure, but not my cup of tea.

For obvious reasons I did not get the permission to take any photos or record any sound files but soon enough you will be able to see and play them yourselves.