Sabian Meet The Masters 2017
My daughter Maisie and I went to the 2017 Sabian Meet The Masters event at Rhythm Traders in Portland, OR. They had prototypes on display and for sale along with someone hammering cymbals as well as another Sabian employee operating the cymbal lathe.
The main reason I went was to find out a bit more about the turning tools they use with their cymbal lathes. I was thrown off a bit since the YouTube videos I’ve seen shows what looks like high-speed steel scrapers being used but some of the videos from other cymbal junkies indicate that they use carbides. It turns out that they use carbide scrapers that look like big popsicle sticks that simply insert into a big handle. It appears that any carbide cutting tool will work and I plan on trying out this theory later this summer.
Another highlight was getting to meet Mark Love in person. I’ve seen him in a lot of Sabian videos. He seems to have one of the coolest jobs.
Maisie and I each picked up a cymbal and Maisie got herself a pair of Ringo Starr signature drumsticks. She’s a pretty big Beatles fan, which is pretty cool for an 11-year old.
Sabian 10″ Prototype Cymbal
One of the prototype cymbals we picked up was a 10″ B8 conical doohickey. Since it’s part of the Prototype line, it doesn’t really have a name, but I’ve seen it referred to as a Lamp Shade or just an FX cymbal. It’s a conical B8 cymbal with a tight lathing pattern on the top and more of a “sanded” texture on the bottom. There isn’t any hammering at all. I’m normally not a fan of B8 cymbals but I decided to give this one a try since they didn’t have any of this style in B20.
Last night I got a chance to actually try it out and it actually seems to go well with my 12″ Glennie’s Garbage. Below is a clip of one of the songs we’re working on. You can hear the prototype at around 4 seconds and the 12″ Glennie’s Garbage cymbal at around 12 seconds for comparison.
As you can hear, the Glennie’s Garbage has considerably more sustain than the prototype, but that’s to be expected when you go from a 10″ to a 12″ cymbal. They definitely sound like they belong in the same family.
I’ve seen these used before by Terry Bozzio. particularly in the All Cymbal Drum Set video where he takes two of the same size and tapes them together so they form a diamond. He takes several of these in different sizes and uses them as “toms” in his all-cymbal drumset. He does a pretty wicked roll around them starting at about 1:59.
Sabian 16″ Prototype Cymbal
My daughter Maisie picked up a prototype cymbal as well. Like mine, it’s B8 and doesn’t have any hammering. It also doesn’t have any lathing but instead has an almost “brick-like” pattern stamped into it. It actually sounds pretty good for a B8 cymbal. I haven’t heard it used in a musical setting yet, so it’s hard to make a final judgement. She seems to really like it and that’s all that matters.
