drumhack,

Burying your cymbals for a year or two may add some patina if that's what you're after, but I can't see the process altering the sound in a positive manner. I may be wrong though. I'm no metallurgist.

Brian

I did this back around 2004-6. It was a 20 inch Zildjian medium ride with holes for three rivets. Buried without rivets. Just short of two years. Simple rinse and played... it was not improved, the sound was deadened and the patina wasn't normal. The good part is that it cleaned nicely with cymbal polish and brought back to its previous lustre and played as I remembered it with no improvement.

Hey Salty. Surprised you don't remember the thread about burying cymbals from way back. 100+ posts. Hahaha. I made this post to say hello to my old bud Vintagemore 2000. Figured he would be around and was definitely anti-bury.

What's crazy is Zildjan or someone actually made a cymbal series called Vault I think that advertised they were buried in earth. Hahahaha

story i read, years ago a jazz player buried some of his cymbals, now one of the 2 big cymbal makers heard about it, and thought good sales gimmick, they had a cage made out of bars & loaded it with cymbals, dug a hole & buried it, years later they dug them up & had a special name for them, i did have the artical with pic's but were is it?

found it, online, sabian canada has write up about it!

I think it was Sabian that did that with like a hundred cymbals. “Soil aged”

Maybe if I sand blast a ride cymbal, I could sell it as a sand ride? Party

Hey, drumhack!

I'm lucky if I can remember what happened yesterday! Cymbals may age gracefully, but I don't think I am! LOL!

Brian

Dan hello ole friend and Brian. I did a thread on the cymbals I buried. I used a brilliant finish Sabian and some Zildjian K's that didn't sound all that great, Left it in the ground for three months, It did indeed change the color and the sound of the cymbal, I was using it the Sabian at a gig and a drummer asked if I'd sale the cymbal he loved the sound of it, I told him what had been done to it. He said I don't care if went thru a war. He now owns it and still going strong.

I would think that any change would be related to the chemicals in the soil and the alloy of the cymbal. Some soils are slightly acidic and some are basic and some are neutral. I used to get some pretty nasty "patina" on some of my older Zildjians from just touching them. Other cymbals never developed more than a fingerprint. Go figure.

I know that cymbal makers "rest" newly-made cymbals for a period of time. I have no idea why they do it or what it does....something about the molecules aligning or something...

Molecular alignment of grainular elements is possible only on old growth bronze buried during a full moon of the vernal equinox cycle, otherwise it's just a waste of time.

As far as the shovel goes, it's not a complete waste as you could always use it to to dig an appropriate hole after you, "...Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women."