Welcome Ricky,

Tosco is an Italian company. Not part of the UFIP collective, and not rotocast (although a lot of people get both of these things wrong thinking Italian = UFIP and UFIP = always rotocast).

Robert Zildjian (yes that family, and founder of Sabian) was involved in Tosco, and at various times Tosco produced cymbals which had ink showing that relationship. Some great, some cheaper lines.

Yours is a high quality cast cymbal from B20 by the look of it. Ride cymbals in that diameter are scarce these days, but not unheard of in previous decades.

It might make a nice hi hat bottom if using it as a ride doesn't take your fancy. But be aware that it is probably metric (38 cm) and very slightly undersized in inches (14.96"). So if you try it as a bottom hat under a true 15" top the bottom will be slightly smaller. That's not a problem, just something to note.

This site has some info on Tosco if you scroll down. Some of the Italian stuff needs revision based on the information I've got, but the Tosco stuff is not too far off the mark in a way that matters other than to cymbal historians.

http://robscott.net/cymbals/italian-cymbals/

Hope this is enough to give you some idea about it. There are a few of us here who love Italian cymbals. Others may chime in if they want to add more detail. I've kept it simple for now.

wow, a 15" RIDE? How does that even work? Can You record it?

This is an interesting first post, welcome!

thanks Zenstat!

indeed, i allready found some info regarding the history of Tosco.

However i thought it was a rotocast cymbal. Nice info! Thanks!

however the strange size of 15" is completely new to me.

I can't find any info!

do you think it is a collectable?

@gilnar,

weird ain't it!

i will try and make a recording later this week

Cheers

Collectable? Not in the sense of getting a decent price. Other than Spizzichino or UFIP Firma (two very special cases), used Italian cymbals don't get much price love. Which is great for those of us who appreciate them. Not such good news if you are selling one.

Here is a thread about 16" ride cymbals:

http://www.drumforum.org/index.php?/topic/112344-16-ride-cymbal/

I thought I remembered some discussion recently somewhere about well known drummers who play smaller ride cymbals, but that's a very hard thing to search for (technical issue with the keywords being too common, etc). You could always start a thread about that and see what people can come up with.

I've had two immaculate pre-serial Paiste 602 16" rides. They never suited anything I played so sold them both (one just 2 weeks ago). Both sold for around $100ea. So not terribly sought after it seems.

i don;t mind if it does not make big money.

I wasn't planning on selling it anywhere soon.

It is a nice cymbal, small, but nice.

It might come in handy at a studio session.

Possibly Mr. Tosco was drinking to much vino that day and said "Let me ink stamp this batch" DOH