Depends on the cymbal. Depends on the "repair". I've seen older K Zildjians that had edges that looked like they had been chewed by large animals -and they sounded great. Bill Stewart plays one or two that have big bites taken out of them. But cracks in the bell...??? I dunno. There was a recent thread from a guy who had some cymbal cracks "welded" that looked pretty good....but who knows how long those welds will hold? Time will tell.

On the other hand, if it's a newer mass produced cymbal, then it's probably not worth putting in the repair work to begin with.

I have repaired several cymbals. The first method I heard of was to drill a hole at each end of the crack to prevent it from spreading further. This worked ok but sometimes you could hear the cymbal shivering together along the crack. Next it was to gouge out the material where the crack was and keep a rounded shape smooth transition type of thing. This works well depending on the cracks location. I’ve had a cymbal that had a crack along the bottom of the bell about 3-4” long and gouged it out but made the cymbal not sound too good but ok. I’ve found an old Fleetwood Mac vid where you can see the ride cymbal was gouged for repair. (About one minute into vid.. etc.) Depending on the cymbal and circumstances, a cymbal can sound great still after repair.

[ame]https://youtu.be/VWJCeokQIkg[/ame]

A couple stills from vid showing gouged out repair. Mind you, this was 1968? Cool stuff.

Some cymbals I’ve repaired, some worse than others obviously. Though not top of the line cymbals, they still sound way better than any stock pie tin. The laser welded one along the bell and end are still holding strong, look and sound great.

Hello,

Your description is essentially what was explained in the MD article.

The repairs on mine are much smaller than the on cymbals in the photos posted.

The 'trashy' sounds developed or sought after in the 1980's could be realized also from these type of repairs. Not to forget that the manufacturers have been marketing cutouts in their cymbal lines.

The only cymbals that I have ever owned are Avedis Zildjians--mostly bought new in the 1950s and 1960s. Only one cymbal has cracked. That is an early 1960's medium ride that fell from a stage to the concrete floor six feet down from the stage. The cymbal cracked for about six inches along a lathed groove that is about four inches in from the edge. The day after the gig, I took the cymbal to a shop that drilled a small hole at each end of the crack and added three more holes around the cymbal at that same distance from the edge. Rivets were added at that time. Over the years since then I have played with this cymbal as part of my drum set. It sound great with or without the rivets. I have not been able to locate pictures of this cymbal. Another 20" A Zildjian medium ride from the mid 1950s developed a fairly significant keyhole. I inserted a two-piece brass grommet to prevent the keyhole from spreading. This has no effect on the sound.

leedybdp:

I like your idea of the brass grommet. In addition to never cracking any of my cymbals, I 've never developed a keyhole either, but I will remember the grommet idea. Except to one Krut cymbal I had in the mid 60's to which I had rivets added, I've always used Zildjian.

Has the brass grommet held up and have you had to replace it periodically? Have you ever used steel?

For sure, I can understand that your cymbal cracked after a fall such as you described.

Thanks,

Dudley

I have about two dozen cymbals. Every one of them is an A Zildjian. The oldest one is from the 1940s and the newest one is from the early 1970s. The grommet has been in place for about twenty years. I don't gig any more. So, I don't know if would have required replacement if I were still an active player. I bought a couple of those two-part grommets at Lone Star Percussion in Dallas. They install them on school marching band cymbals through which they feed the strings or leather thongs for affixing the handles or wrist band straps to the piece of leather or cloth on the underside of the bell.

Again, thanks for the tip on the grommet. I just had a thought - would a drum air vent grommet work too? It's not two parts but it could be crimped. I'll check my parts and see if I have one and check it out.

Dudley