I am a little concerned that one of the rides I ordered could be a scimitar rock ride. Found this pic and it looks similar, kinda like an old "A" series cymbal but definitely doesn't sound like an old "A". The brilliant cymbal is the one I ordered. It also kinda looks like an "A" Rock Ride. I will get the cymbal today....hoping it really is an A series cymbal.

AR, you have me confused. PM sent.

Here are pics of the cymbal. Doesn't sound bad...some overtones that aren't my favorite but it has a good bell ping. Not sure what it is? I got a shot of the logo. What are everybody's thoughts as to what series it is and year/era by the stamp? I kind of thinking it is possibly b8 instead of b20 by the color compared to my other cymbals...not sure though. Also, notice the underside of the bell isn't lathed. If I decide to sell it, I'm not sure what to list it as????

The trademark die stamp appears to be what Bill Hartrick called the 70s stamp

http://black.net.nz/avedis/avedis-gallery.html#70s

which does persist well past the 1970s, and didn't start exactly on January 1st 1970. But the shorthand name is "70s".

Brilliant finish was an option on the Avedis series from the 1970s, although there are even earlier examples which are highly buffed going back to the 1940s. Here is an ad from 1972 offering Brilliant

http://black.net.nz/cym2014/z-brilliant.jpg

Solid ZILDJIAN ink is 1982 (ish)

http://black.net.nz/avedis/avedis-gallery.html#SolidInkZ

which is coincidently the year for the Scimitar. I'm travelling overseas and don't have access to my full data archives so I'm unable to confirm what pressed in trademark die stamp is on Scimitars...if I even have it somewhere. If somebody else has a good photo of a Scimitar pressed in die stamp we can see if they used the same die as they did on the Avedis series.

From what I see I'm comfortable with the ride being an 80s Avedis Zildjian based on the hammering and lathing. I've seen other Avedis brilliants from that era which don't seem to have much by way of lathing inside the bell. But as I say, I can't rule out Scimitar (or something else) because I don't have an example of the trademark on them. So Avedis series remains a weak inference.

Based on past experience I won't comment on whether or not it is B20 or B8 from your photos. There are too many uncontrolled factors in most photos (light balance and light source being the most critical) to pick the difference reliably unless you have some kind of color balance standard reference in the photo.

Sorry I can't be more help. You next step might be to start searching until you find a good quality die stamp photo from a Scimitar.

*edit* just noticed this in for sale which provides a useful comparison

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=57023

There isn't much lathing visible inside the bell in that photo. One of the effects of the Brilliant process is to smooth down the lathe lines, so if the lathing grooves were light to begin with they might not be visible post Brilliant.

Great in depth info...I really appreciate it! The coloring is different in the pic than it is in person. I have a first gen AMIR and the coloring is closer to this than the b20 cymbals I have. Problem is, I can't find any b8 cymbals that Zildjian made that match the hammering pattern on this cymbal. There is absolutely no lathing visible...very smooth. Here is a demo of the cymbal in action... [ame="https://youtu.be/OY3WneBreVk"]https://youtu.be/OY3WneBreVk[/ame]