Ha! Yes.

Man, those things are wonderful, though. The 18 and 20 can act as a ride, have a great bell, and open up with an unreal aggressive crash that is much louder and more rough sounding than a standard crash. Just love them for rock.

Don't laugh, but I've actually used the 18 in a jazz setting. I would ride on it and swipe it lightly to open it up for a dragon crash effect. It worked beautifully.

I've been known to be a hard hitter, Vater nightsticks and all.

On my wedding kit, I use all 19" Zildjian A Rock Crashes and Z Custom Rock crashes. As far as chinas, I use a 20 hi boy, a 20 low boy, an 18 oriental and a 17" K custom china.

If you are having trouble with cymbals cutting through, I would invest in some microphones. If you are breaking them, then I would take a look at your technique...

I agree with Rogersling 20 inch is my sweet spot for a crash cymbal I like 2002's and also Dark-K and A medium I am a very hard hitter and I have broke alot of cymbals I started leaving free to swing 100% and have less problems with breakage, I have not broke one in many years now and i still use 5An's for proctice and 5B's for gigs

For those of you who break cymbals ... I used to be one of you ... try the Aquarian Cymbal Springs.

http://www.aquariandrumheads.com/products/accessories

When I used them (for over twenty years) I NEVER broke a single cymbal. Prior to that, I had my stack of shrapnel in the cymbal corner. After I rolled them into the mix, NOT ONE broken cymbal.

To put this into perspective ... Here's a pic of one of the more cymbal heavy setups I used. Forgive the poor quality as it was taken from an old vhs rehearsal session prior to the studio date. That setup ranged from 24 to 38 cymbals ... depending on just how annoyingly pompous I felt like playing.

All of those were top line (Paiste Sig, SF, 2002, Zildjian K, Sabian HH, AAX). With that much money invested, I needed to protect them from breakage. Those cymbal springs did the trick. Excellent product for it's purpose.

Back in the big drum set 80s, I was a 2002 cymbal guy until I took out a chunk of a 19" crash. It hit my floor tom and bounced up and hit me near the eye. The next day I switched to Sabian AA cymbals. I have been using them ever since. I find that the thinner cymbals are more flexible and cut as well as anything out there. I have added the SR2 cymbals into the mix also. I have a pair of 19" thins that make guitar players wet themselves. Great cymbals for low bucks.

I'm a metal/punk guy and as such I have a propensity to play hard, loud and fast. I would take look at the Zildjian Zs. They were designed for hard rock/metal. Personally I use modern As on my primary kit as I prefer the sound over the Zs, I have never had an issue with them not cutting through the band and they offer a bit more versatility when I'm playing something that is a bit lighter. tom

I don't guess I'm much of a basher (I play with a blues-rock band and a Christian rock/praise and worship band). However, I do play some loud, hard and heavy songs with both bands. The 3 main crash cymbals I've used for the last 6 years are all fairly to very thin 18" Zildjians: A Custom Crash, K Dark Thin and K Custom Fast Crash. I have NEVER been told that my cymbals weren't cutting through the mix. In fact, people usually say "Man, those cymbals sound good!" The band guys always say, "Man, those cymbals are LOUD!" I've finished some songs and/or sets thinking, "I have to check my babies and see if they survived that thrashing." I've never broken a cymbal. Someone sat in on my kit one night when I was filling in for a blues band and I noticed a crack in a cymbal I had for a long time (18" A Crash Ride) after I got back on stage. I'm not saying I couldn't have done it, but he was beating my stuff like they had done something bad to his mother, and I was thinking the whole time that he was gonna break something. I'm thinking if I haven't broken the K Fast Crash, it probably wasn't me that cracked the cymbal.

I played in a punk/rock band for 6 years and continually cracked crash cymbals and hihats, mostly Zildjian A's, and Paiste Signatures. I finally convinced myself to stop hitting the cymbals so darn hard and saved myself a bunch of money. Have been playing Paise 2002's for a couple of years now and havent had a problem.

James

I've played SABIAN 18" & 20" rock crashes since '87. they hold up to 2s & 3s sticks and make good lite rides also. Cool1

I also use cymbal springs. Back then I played pretty hard to compete w/ 8-12"s ,lol....now the ALESIS unit & a QSC amp do the talking ..lol