Hello everybody!
Today I recieved my new old Amati cymbals and I thought I'd share this breathtaking experience with you.
What I got for 16 dollars and 58 cents plus shipping fee was 13 3/4" hi-hat and 20" ride w/ 3 rivet holes. Both hi-hat cymbals weigh around 630 grams and the ride is 1560 grams. Hi-hat is in good shape, except for quite huge tap on supposedly bottom cymbal (also notice these ridiculously large holes! I guess they must've been enlarged by one of previous owners). Ride, however, is in much worse state. Bent on couple of places, one huge and one small crack, couple of dents on the edge.
I think these hi-hats are newer, like 70s-80s, while ride would be 60s-70s. Ride seems unhammered.
So, how do they sound? Well, they sound just like cymbals you get for less than 20 bucks. Hats are comparable to any cheap line of cymbals today: Stagg DX, Paiste 101, you know what I'm talking about. Ride sounds very trash-can lid-like, but I suppose that beating it got has something to do with it, too. I'll see how it'll be once I add rivets or something and clean or cut out the cracks.
I'm also thinking about cleaning them. Before you start yelling at me-these cymbals are worth little more than nothing, so it won't be such a big waste. However, I kinda like the patina. I've had my another Amati cleaned (20" 80s ride, weighing 1942g) and it looked marvelous for some time but now the alloy just got kinda annoyingly yellow. Yes, the cymbals are BRASS. Then again, they're filthy. I might just wash them with soap, not scour them, so some patina will remain, while that disgusting dirt will go off, hopefully.
Pics are here:
http://gilnar.rajce.net/Amati_cymbals
I'll post some more after I do something with the ride.
Have a great weekend!