To further elaborate, I prefer older cymbals to newer ones. There is something to be said about the mellower sound of a heavily-fingerprinted, nightclub-smoke- laced patina, with respect to a shiny, new cymbal. A cymbal ages, just as guitars do; to my ears they sound richer over time.
Then there's the bane of cymbal manufacture -- the 'brilliant' finish. From a marketing standpoint, I fully understand why manufacturers sell three times as many shiny pies as they do with dull pies. The cymbals are shinier, they appear to be easier to clean (just wipe the fingerprints off), and they look great under stage lighting. But I have never liked the sound of a cymbal in a brilliant finish. Not one. To me they sound shrill, un-musical; more like hunks of metal than an instrument.
I have even played the exact same cymbal in music stores -- the only difference being the type of finish on the cymbal, and always found myself gravitating towards the regular-finished cymbal in terms of preferring its' sound.
In my never-ending quest to find the 'perfect' cymbal, I find myself scouring auction sites, craigslists, and pawn brokers, hoping to find a used cache, instead of the virgin cymbals at the local music dealer. I have even resorted to paying more for a used cymbal than I would for
a new one -- so I wouldn't have to wait 10 years for the cymbal to age. Finding the perfect cymbal is a bit of a laborious process though that might mean I end up purchasing one cymbal for every 75 cymbals that have piqued my interest. If I preferred brilliant cymbals to traditional cymbals, I might have 100 cymbals in my collection, which would be, incidentally, quite a sizable investment.
I still buy the odd "new" cymbal in music stores. I sometimes find a new cymbal that speaks to me in such a way that I know it sounds good now -- and it will sound even better in the future. I just realize the sound that I hear in my head, cannot be purchased new. This sound only comes with an aged, thin cymbal that appears like the dog dragged it outside and buried it in the backyard.
Truth of the matter is, my cymbal purchases these days are more for the collectability value, than anything else. Rare cymbals, odd sizes, lines, makes and models that are no longer in production are the pies I seek. This also makes it difficult, as they are incidentally, the same cymbals that every other collector is searching for.
Still, when I see a cymbal close on an auction for a thousand dollars, I shake my head and wonder who'd be crazy enough to blow that kind of dough on a cymbal -- but the true cymbalholics do.
I'm just a cymbalholic in denial.
