Mixing different hi-hat top & bottom cymbals

[guidrummer]

Anyone ever played around with using different hi-hat tops & bottoms?

I currently own a set of 13" A Custom Mastersound hats and I want a little warmer sound.

I am considering buying a 13" K top to give my hats a warmer sound.
Not sure how what this would sound like.

[somedrummer]

I'm sure there's at least one thread about this. Try searching for it.

In the meantime, I use an A Zildjian New Beat bottom hat, with a Sabian AAX Studio hat on top. I like the sound better than either of those hats straight.

[rendezvous_drummer]

Yea man alot of drummers do this. Carter Beauford uses a K/Z combo and they sound KICK ASS!

[Solaris]

My guess would be that it would most likely result in a warmer closed sound but still with the bright crispness of the mastersound bottom when you opened them up.

My advice would be to bring your bottom hat with you to a music shop and try out a bunch of different hi hat tops with it and see which one you like the best.

The only thing that I'm unsure of is whether or not you can purchase a bottom or top cymbal on its own or are they only sold as pairs. I'd assume that they'd only be sold as pairs, only having a top/bottom hat is going to be a bit hard to get rid of for the music shop.

Anyway, best of luck with it!

[moe.ron]

you can always try them out in person and buy them on the internet i'm pretty sure musiciansfriend sells tops and bottoms

[The Ploughman]

I play a 14" K Custom Dark Top married to an A Custom 14" Projection Bottom, ........theyve been that way since new. and are perfect.

[wy yung]

I have always liked to mix and match. I've often used 14" crash cymbals as hi hat tops and they sounded great. I've also used a 12" splash with a 14" quick beat bottom.

Hey this is drumming, the combinations are only as limited as your imagination.

[Antman]

I've used a Quick Beat Top on the bottom and a K Custom Top on top. Also the Quick Beat bottom with a 14" A Custom fast crash on top. Both had there own purposes in the studio. I can't particularly remember how each combo sounded, we were just trying different combinations during mic-up and soundcheck to get 'that' sound.

I would deffinetly recommend trying as many combinations that are available to you, in as many different situations.
You may be the only person that notices, but that little warm feeling you get is nice when something sounds right, and blends, from such little effort.

[KCMcC]

Hey, the new guy gets to be helpful already!
Strangely enough I just posted a recording of me playing on some mixed up hihats:

Top cymbal=14" Zildjian K Custom Dark Crash
Bottom Cymbal=14" Sabian HH regular hat top
So that maintains the heavier bottom, lighter top relationship of standard hats, but with much thinner, lighter sounds on both, I thought it was a cool dark almost trashy sound.

Click here to listen (http://media.putfile.com/01-War-final-version)

the guitar player wanted me to include this:
PLEASE NOTE
Music, lyrics, arrangement and recording all copyright 2007, Dan Sessler.

[Drummer Karl]

Sometimes it sounds amazing when mixing bottom and top cymbal!
Last week my drum teacher had a 14" top hi-hat cymbal at music school which was actually an 18" Paiste Traditional crash first, he then made a 14" out of it.
He mixed it with a cheap Meinl Meteor bottom cymbal...and it sounded amazing!!! So trashy, old, just great!

Overall I like this option of mixing cymbals! Why not, just go to a music store and experiment a bit...there are so nice combinations...

Karl =)

[KzSgDrummer]

Right now I'm playing with a Paiste 2002 sound edge top cymbal on the bottom and a K Custom Session bottom hat on the top (got that?!). I have both the sound edges and sessions, and one day I tried out every combination possible and recorded the sounds to find out which ones work the best, and the Paiste top-cymbal-on-bottom and Ziljian bottom-cymbal-on-top worked together better than I could have ever imagined.

And for a jazz ensemble rehearsal once, I used two 18" crashes for my hi hats - the bottom was a paiste 2002 crash and the top a Traditionals thin crash. Soooooo crunchy and deep sounding.. my bassist still talks about how good they sounded to this day, and that was almost 5 years ago!!

So my advice is to combine anything and everything you can get your hands on!

[Skitch]

Anyone ever played around with using different hi-hat tops & bottoms?

I currently own a set of 13" A Custom Mastersound hats and I want a little warmer sound.

I am considering buying a 13" K top to give my hats a warmer sound.
Not sure how what this would sound like.

This would probably give you a sound closer to what you are looking for, but take that bottom cymbal with you when trying out the other cymbal. Many of the old scholl drummers used to use this method of mixing hi hats for their sound.


Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com


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