How many cymbals have you cracked/broken/split in your drumming lifetime?

I never cracked any cymbals until I started playing in loud bands. As it turns out, I really enjoy wailing away in loud bands, so as a result, I've broken a couple dozen, anyway, maybe more. Mostly crashes, but a couple Wuhan chinas, two rides, and two hi hat tops.

I haven't broken anything in two years, but in that time, I've been doing lower intensity gigs.

Todd - I played the Satyricon regularly in the early-mid nineties as well. That place was great. It's still there being the same divey live venue isn't it? It's the place where Kurt Cobain met Courtney Love, legend has it.... Do you remember Gern Blanston, Atomic 61, and all the other Cavity Search bands? They all used to play there all the time (including Control Freak, which was the CS band I was in at the time). Memories!
 
Todd - I played the Satyricon regularly in the early-mid nineties as well. That place was great. It's still there being the same divey live venue isn't it? It's the place where Kurt Cobain met Courtney Love, legend has it.... Do you remember Gern Blanston, Atomic 61, and all the other Cavity Search bands? They all used to play there all the time (including Control Freak, which was the CS band I was in at the time). Memories!

Yeah, Gern Blanston! Iommi Stubbs, with the two basses, and also Slowface- I loved those guys. I think we were doing more stuff with the Cravedog bands- Holgator, Flaps Down. We did some things with Rollerball and Mel, too. The Satyricon bouncer/doorguy Eegan had a hilarious punk rock theater band, Add-X. I don't think they ever changed the carpet on stage in 20 years- it was completely matted and shiny- Paul Allen probably has the disgusting thing in his museum archives as a piece of rock & roll history. The club is still going, under new ownership, but I haven't gone in there in over ten years- I think it's pretty long-done.

And for the record, Portland in the 90's had two of my favorite band names of all time: Butt Trumpet, and F___priest Fantastic.
 
I've never cracked a cymbal by playing. But back in the 70's someone bumped that the stand of my lovely 16" A Thin Crash and it fell down a drum riser. This made a nick on the edge. Thankfully, the nick never got bigger, and I still use that cymbal.
 
A lot. 20-30?

Over 25 some odd years...all in metal, or some kind of ...core bands. In the last 5 years...only two or three. Playing a cracked HHX China cause it still sounds decent.

In the same last few years, I've turned my bashing knob way down and somewhat play em' recommended. I can't afford to replace Vault crashes all the time. Plus, they don't need the decimating blow to speak really loud.

Now don't get me wrong....before I make a complete liar out of myself. I still play hard...and sometimes excessively. And I'm sure I'll crack more...it's just not a complete constant to bash away. That said. Rock on.
 
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I have cracked a nasty beginner cymbal (partially from not knowing how to hit it; partially because I was playing it louder than it could go; partially because it flew off the stand once). Since then I have cracked an 18" A Zildjian Rock crash and a 16" A Zildjian medium crash - both after about 17 years of ownership. So... 3 in twenty-someodd years.
 
uhhh... i'll see if i can list them.
1.10" paiste splash
2.18" paiste crash
3. 17" A custom
4. 18" stage crash
5.14" paiste 502 hats
6.18" powerbeat china
7. 21" sweet ride
8. 16" hh crash
9. 8" hh splash
10. 22" classic china
11. 14" oriental china
12. 20" vintage A
13. 14" aax fast hats
14. 16" aaxplosion crash
15. 17" dark crash
16. 18" dark crash
17. 16" a custom
18. 18" a medium thin
19. 16" paiste crystal crash
20. 18" paiste full crash
21. 8" A splash
22. 18" el sabor
23. 20" hh china
24. 16" china boy
25. 18" china boy
26. 16" a custom
27. 18" a custom
28. 13" newbeats
29. 19" aax metal crash
30. 19" aaxplosion crash
31. 18" K custom dark crash (this one really lasted a while)
32. 22" A ride (vintage)
33. 20" aa medium thin
34. 20" a vintage
35. 20" aa medium thin ( the cymbal that replaced number 33 under warrenty)
36. 20" a custom ride
37. 20" istanbul mehmet traditional original ride
38. 20" dream ride
39. 19" A medium thin
40. 18" paiste alpha china
41. 18" B8 pro medium crash

this was since i was 11 (im 25), i've worked at a drum shop since i was 14 or 15 so i always got everything at cost. and i always got first dibs on the used stuff that came through. thankfully i have recently stopped breaking stuff. i used to feel it was a badge of honor to break everything (i had a dumb brain from 15 untill very recently) but i got smarter lately and now i just feel shame for wasting so many musical instruments. oh well.
 
Lately I haven't cracked as many but probably because I do not tend to play the same cymbals near as much as I used to.
This is true for me, too. As I accumulate more cymbals, they tend to get rotated in and out of the cymbal line-up, and last longer (more like spared).

Now don't get me wrong....before I make a complete liar out of myself. I still play hard...and sometimes excessively. And I'm sure I'll crack more...
Me too. I like to think of it (euphemistically) as tough love... Oh how I love my cymbals to death!
 
uhhh... i'll see if i can list them.
1.10" paiste splash
2.18" paiste crash
3. 17" A custom
4. 18" stage crash
5.14" paiste 502 hats
6.18" powerbeat china
7. 21" sweet ride
8. 16" hh crash
9. 8" hh splash
10. 22" classic china
11. 14" oriental china
12. 20" vintage A
13. 14" aax fast hats
14. 16" aaxplosion crash
15. 17" dark crash
16. 18" dark crash
17. 16" a custom
18. 18" a medium thin
19. 16" paiste crystal crash
20. 18" paiste full crash
21. 8" A splash
22. 18" el sabor
23. 20" hh china
24. 16" china boy
25. 18" china boy
26. 16" a custom
27. 18" a custom
28. 13" newbeats
29. 19" aax metal crash
30. 19" aaxplosion crash
31. 18" K custom dark crash (this one really lasted a while)
32. 22" A ride (vintage)
33. 20" aa medium thin
34. 20" a vintage
35. 20" aa medium thin ( the cymbal that replaced number 33 under warrenty)
36. 20" a custom ride
37. 20" istanbul mehmet traditional original ride
38. 20" dream ride
39. 19" A medium thin
40. 18" paiste alpha china
41. 18" B8 pro medium crash

this was since i was 11 (im 25), i've worked at a drum shop since i was 14 or 15 so i always got everything at cost. and i always got first dibs on the used stuff that came through. thankfully i have recently stopped breaking stuff. i used to feel it was a badge of honor to break everything (i had a dumb brain from 15 untill very recently) but i got smarter lately and now i just feel shame for wasting so many musical instruments. oh well.

Really man? Maybe your doing something wrong man
 
i was. i was swinging as hard as i could. and the volume of the bands i was in was outragous. 100w marshall through 2 4x12 cabs turned up to 8. and the bass player had a 1200 watt head through an 8x10 and 2 2x18's. absolutely mamouth. iwas a stoner/doom band. and before that i was just dumb.
 
I've never broken a cymbal...and although I've only played a couple years from me and my teacher's experiences if you're breaking cymbals frequently you probably have poor technique (there are exceptions, however). My logic is if you manage to break metal with a wooden stick, you're doing something wrong
 
I LOVE this subject!!!!

I consider cymbals to be expendable like a drumhead or drumsticks. Some music styles cause me to play cymbals certain ways. I have played in metal bands, punk bands, hard rock bands, blues bands, jazz bands, funk bands, a Jimmy Buffett cover band, etc...

In my hard rockin' years, I burned through a crash cymbal every couple of months and destroyed well over a dozen chinese types. I know how to caress a cymbal. I know how to work a cymbal. I know how to finesse a cymbal. I know how to pull lots of different types of sounds from a cymbal, and some sounds only come right at the edge of breaking them.

For me, it has NOTHING to do with technique or wisdom. It has everything to do with satisfaction...and I have felt incredibly satisfied at having wrecked dozens of cymbals in the last 20 years. All of them were crashes and splashes and chinas. I've never harmed a ride or hihats, because I never found the sounds I wanted through hitting them hard.

Here are a few...
 

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Crazy, that Z (or is it Z Custom?.....can't see....too much light), must have taken a hell of a beating.

Retro, 41 odd cymbals?? Epic pounding, man!!
 
Crazy, that Z (or is it Z Custom?.....can't see....too much light), must have taken a hell of a beating.

Z custom. Heavier crash cymbals die more quickly than thinner ones do in my experience. Thinner cymbals flex more and more quickly. The heavier cymbals are just louder. Zildjian tries to imply that their Z cymbals are built to take a beating, but it isnt exactly true. They are just louder.

I don't play the same way I used to. It was fun to break cymbals until I broke myself while doing it, financially and physically... :(
 
I've broken about a dozen, 2 were Z customs, 2 were stamped, and the rest are A and K Zildjians. In terms of Hi Hats, one 15" A zildjian sweet top. Still sound good though even with all the hairlines around the circumference of the cymbal.

The newer cymbals seems to be much more susceptible at cracking between the lathe marks; I had two 24" K Lights go in less than a year with these types of cracks. I bought the GC warranty and was paid in full after I gave up on the 2nd one.

It's ok though, because for every cast cymbal I break, my trusty shop Lonestar Percussion will give me $2 per inch in store credit.
 
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