Thicker cymbals cracking easier then thin?

[Pedey]

A friend of mine siad thicker cymbals crack easier then thin ones?


Whats the truth to this?

cheeers

[TitanSound]

Cymbals crack if they are mistreated. It does not matter which one cracks quicker than the other! I have heard over the years that thicker cymbals are more "prone" to developing cracks but as long as you play them properly and don't over tighten the felts/wing nuts then you should never have a cracked cymbal unless the cymbal itself is defective in some way.

[Ozzy Biz]

I love the wealth of knowledge available here. Thanks Johan!

[bonzolead]

First thing make sure you have a plastic sleeve on your cymbal stand so you don't. have any metal to metal contact that will crack any cymbal regardless of thickness also use a sweeping motion when hitting your cymbals don't. try to go through the cymbal.as in other posts don't. over-tighten the cymbal the cymbal needs to have a little give and don't. use Lincoln-Logs(2S or larger) for drumsticks if you know how to hit a drum properly you should be able to get any volume you desire.hopefully this helps you out

Keep Swatting,
Bonzolead

[tkillian]

Cymbals crack if they are mistreated. It does not matter which one cracks quicker than the other! I have heard over the years that thicker cymbals are more "prone" to developing cracks but as long as you play them properly and don't over tighten the felts/wing nuts then you should never have a cracked cymbal unless the cymbal itself is defective in some way.

I 100% agree. If you crack cymbals (I dont mean once in your whole life by mistake) on a regular basis you are playing incorrectly.

I just played a VERY LOUD wedding band gig..and I did fine...no cracked cymbals.

[dw D]

Ive never cracked a cymbal, just made them turn inside out. LOL

[Frantic Freddie]

Also if you tighten it down on the stand it has less movement to absorb the shock,resulting in possible cracking.

[the skin man]

as long as you play them properly and don't over tighten the felts/wing nuts then you should never have a cracked cymbal unless the cymbal itself is defective in some way.

It depends on what is meant by playing properly. If someone is hitting really hard and the cymbal is not very durable, then he could be doing everything perfectly and the cymbal could still crack. Maybe that means that he's hitting too hard, but I don't think there's any guarantee that all cymbal will never crack as long as you treat it the right way. The only real guarantee is the warranty that promises to replace it if it will break.

[Frantic Freddie]

It's possible for any cymbal to crack,I had an 18" medium thin Sabian AA crack after just 2 years (granted,a small one that I drilled) but I have a 27 year old Zildjian 14" thin crash that's still goin' strong after all the abuse I've put it thru.

[ULTIMATEDRUMMER]

Just play them properly and take care of them while handling and playin them it should be okay but I've cracked three cymbals after about 4 yrs. of playing.

[sticksnstonesrus]

Cymbals are a consumable item that while on my firing line, get put to the test every time I line them up. Yes, they're plenty abused and no, I'm not surprised that I crack a cymbal every now and then. I would never be so naive to say that even a correctly played cymbal "shouldn't" or "wont" crack. That would be entirely up to the drummer who owns them. I would certainly not insult someone elses right to play how he or she wants to...even at their own expense of cymbals.

If you know what you are doing... for instance, you know how to play, you know how to set your cymbals up, and you know how to swat at cymbals correctly, but choose to hit them hard, full-well knowing that the chance for breakage is high...why is that "incorrect"?

I think our position is solely to inform and bring to light what some don't know, haven't heard, and/or never experienced....sharing is caring.

Not meaning to hijack....

Andy

[the skin man]

I would never be so naive to say that even a correctly played cymbal "shouldn't" or "wont" crack. That would be entirely up to the drummer who owns them. I would certainly not insult someone elses right to play how he or she wants to...even at their own expense of cymbals.

But they are some people on this forum who are that naive, or at least they act like it. They love to say stuff like "well, with proper use and proper technique no one should ever break a cymbal under any circumstances because that's a sign that you're not using proper technique" which seems pretty silly to me. I mean, come on, if you're hitting something with a stick that's got to take it's toll over time and if you're hitting as hard as some death metal drummers it doesn't matter how good the technique is. Eventually something has to give.

[sticksnstonesrus]

I guess there must not be any technique in death metal, right?

Ha-ha-ha.

Where are my death metal brothers? You know I love you guys (and gals)....

[Steamer]

Well i've never broken a cymbal in over 33 years of professionally playing the drums and I would not call my myself a light lounge jazz player by any stretch of the imagination coming straight out of Elvin and Tony as being a heavy jazz hitter at times with lots of full intent especially in regard to my cymbal playing at times. In other words I use a very wide range of dynamics depending on the musical situation when I want a certain cymbal effect and sound which will cause me by no means to be polite on cymbals. Proper mounting and angle of cymbal can go a long way towards cymbal life as well as letting the cymbal having lots of free movement especially when hit hard. Most cymbal damage i've seen over the years on other peoples cymbals have been caused by metal to metal contact {no plastic sleeve} and cymbals mounted very high and flat and mounted very tight and firm and hit on the edge hard. All or a couple of these factors combined with very heavy hitting will cause any cymbal to crack regardless to size,weight, thickness or what company made it. I also don't use very large heavy sticks when I play hard too so that might also explain my good track record with cymbals also.

I'm by no means directing any disrespect to guys that hit even harder than me with bigger sticks or a different cymbal mounting style but I would recommend to those players regardless of thickness/size of cymbals used to purchase them from a store which will allow you to have a warranty with the cymbal company to seek a replacement or replacements should one or more break in the warranty period stated by each individual cymbal company on their website. Be aware though that most companies clearly state if determined damage was caused by improper mounting or unrealistic cymbal abuse as laid out by each company the warranty will not be honored and you will be out of luck on getting a free replacement.

Good to learn early on all the do's and do not's towards good cymbal health but cymbals will still break depending on certain individual player factors and the odd defective cymbal regardless.

[the skin man]

One thing is that if they're trying to get such a high volume they probably need mics and instead of hitting so hard, they might be able to let the sound system do some of the work and that might save heads, sticks and cymbals. But I've seen lots of drummers with mics all over th kit just bashing away like you wouldn't believe, so who knows.

[Skitch]

Cymbal care rehash:


Plastic slevve between the cymbal and the stand.
Plenty of free motion for the cymbal to sway. The most common culprit is the felts used by Yamaha - cut the tops in half if you can't get any motion.
A good sweeping or arcing motion across the cymbal. Exagerate this every time you play and you will eventually get used to doing this.


Mike

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

http://www.youtube.com/drummermikemccraw
http://www.myspace.com/drummermikemccraw

[Gunn]

It's one of those things. Its like falling over, You land wrong...you break a bone. With a cymbal you can just hit it wrong once and hey presto....you've got yourself a nice crack.