positioning tape on a cymbal

Does anyone know where is best to place tape to take off some of its wash? The ride is great for crashing, but when played any bit loud, it loses all definition. Near the edge? The middle?

Underside or topside?
I placed it on the underside before, but i never tried topside, thats what jojo does, and i thought "why make such a lovely cymbal look worse unless there is some meaning to why its topside"

I haven't done this but I would guess it would be an individual thing. Just like moon gels on a drum. Depends on the size, type of cymbal and the effect you are trying to get.

I was recording years ago and the engineer thought one of my crashes was a little too washy. He placed a two or three inch piece of masking tape, loosely draped over the sound edge that looped back underneath the cymbal. Not a lot of pressure was used and the tape was easy to get off. It seemed to do the trick....didn't totally kill the cymbal tone but controlled the unwanted overtones. Worth a try.

I would use putty instead and put it on the underside. If you put something like tape on the top and you hit it with your stick repeatedly, it will disintegrate and turn to mush and stick to the tip of your stick, where you will distribute it all over your heads and cymbals.

yeah putty would be a good idea, if on the topside that is, I'll try and get the blue ( painters) tape tomorrow, which doesnt leave residue. And like you said, just experiment I guess

Putting tape under and toward the the edge will reduce the wash in a ride. I used to put a complete square of duct tape on my ride and that reduced the wash and the ping shined through.

Moongel actually works just fine on cymbals. For a ride, put it on the far side from you, out toward the edge. The further out, the less wash.

Another trick is to get really large felts. That can tame a ride a bit.

If you don't like that, try to find some gaffers tape. It looks like duct tape but is made not to leave residue. I really get upset if I see someone helping and putting duct tape over my cables. You just can't get the goo off.

But any tape, blue painters, gaff, or anything else, will eventually leave a residue if it's left on long enough.

To more directly answer the OP, about a 2" by 3" piece of gaff tape on the bottom will damp the wash of a ride cymbal. If you put it under the area where you hit, you'll get a duller, clangier sound. Putting it on the far side will let the stick sound be more natural but have less wash. The further out toward the edge you put it, the deader you'll make the cymbal. Since gaff tape comes right off, it's easy to experiment. But if you're really trying to kill a washy cymbal, I'd start with 2/3's out.

I have three ride cymbals. A K Custom Dry, a regular K med, and a Dream Bliss (which is really washy). I looked all over for the K Dry to find one that pinged instead of clanged, having gone though several ping rides and various others. But after playing that ride for about 5 years, I just sold it to a buddy (who'd had a really dry 60's A stolen). I can dry up the regular K with moongel if I need to when recording. Other than that, I've discovered that a bit of wash or shimmer helps fill out the ride sound. Usually folks switch from the hats to the ride when you want to kick up the energy and dynamics. But a really dry ride falls down after washing the hats as the song picks up.