Cymbal tightness?

[Guz2]

How tight down do I screw a cymbal and what difference does it make?

[Steamer]

All my cymbals are mounted at a slight angle and free to move and vibrate fully especialy when played hard at times including the high hat clutch felts that allows the top cymbal to move about too a wee bit.

For some individuals it will make the difference between broken and unbroken pies :}

[TenPastTen]

Ditto to Steamer's note. However I keep my top hat pretty tight on my clutch. Because of the "support" of the bottom hat, the top hat is less susceptible to breaking with tightened washers than a crash cymbal for instance. My china and splashes are tight, while my crashes are like saloon girls - loose and trashy.

[Abstsbtsb]

All my crashes are as loose as possible. My china is tight however. I do this because i like the shorter decay it gives and i like my crashes to ring as freely as possible. My top hi-hat i would say is on there with medium tightness. I dont like it to be too loose but if it were really tight it wouldnt give that nice shhhh sound.

[Guz2]

Ok, thanks for your help!

[remoking]

I don't even put the wingnut on my crashes. Thats mainly because I hit hard.

[LeeLovesSabian]

The tighter you have it, the less sustain you get.
I have my crashes really loose, my ride is pretty tight, and my hats are medium.

[wolfmoon]

I use Aquarian cymbal springs. They allow the cymbal to move more freely than felt, plactic T nuts... ect. They run around $30 each where I am but it's well worth it if you have expensive cymbals.

[sticksnstonesrus]

Originally Posted by wolfmoon

I use Aquarian cymbal springs. They allow the cymbal to move more freely than felt, plactic T nuts... ect. They run around $30 each where I am but it's well worth it if you have expensive cymbals.

I found that Aquarian cymbal springs allowed for too much swing. Excessive swing, in fact. Not that it wouldn't happen on regular felts and wingnuts, but more often I was crashing a cymbal that hadn't stopped swinging from the last hit and either caught it on the down or up. Like I said, it happens on regular felts and wingnuts, but not as often as with the aqaurian CS's.

Nick Menza (Megadeth) had lots of them on his tower cage and his setup had them hanging from above. He had a lot of crashes though. I believe it probably wasnt a concern though if they swung too much. Looked good though.

Just my $.02.

Andy

[wolfmoon]

Originally Posted by sticksnstonesrus

I found that Aquarian cymbal springs allowed for too much swing. Excessive swing, in fact. Not that it wouldn't happen on regular felts and wingnuts, but more often I was crashing a cymbal that hadn't stopped swinging from the last hit and either caught it on the down or up. Like I said, it happens on regular felts and wingnuts, but not as often as with the aqaurian CS's.

Nick Menza (Megadeth) had lots of them on his tower cage and his setup had them hanging from above. He had a lot of crashes though. I believe it probably wasnt a concern though if they swung too much. Looked good though.

Just my $.02.

Andy

Yep. I know what you mean. the easiest way to fix that is to take a medium felt and cut it half with a steak knife. I'm using them with Paiste Rudes. They don't wobble around too much being as heavy as hey are.

[ascreamingYeti]

i'd have to say that it depends on what kind of music your playing. If your playing fast rock where you hit your cymbals hard and do blast beats occasionally, you want to have them tight to have a quick return. I HATE loose cymbals, the only reason i can find for them is if you are for some reason wanting to have them just sit there and vibrate for ever and just mush up every thing else on stage...or in your room, ether way.

[Amoredrummer]

I would say keep the wing nut on (so the cymbal does not come off or they get off balnce) but never over tighten becuase it can crack your cymbals at the bell if your wing nut is to tight. Also it can break/strip the stand. As well if the wing nut is on tight the cymbals sound really dead.

[Solaris]

I keep all my wingnuts pretty loose so the cymbal can vibrate freely. You can develop bell cracks reallllyyy easily by clamping the cymbal down tight, stoping the bell from moving while the rest of the cymbal still is.

[sticksnstonesrus]

I'm using Vater Slick Nuts on all of my cymbals. Overall, I'm very satisfied with them. Shaves a few seconds going off and on and you can control the "tension" easily. Haven't had any issues to speak of. Makes it very consistent for me and anyone else who tech's my kit or is just playing roadie. Kind of "set it and forget it".

If you like em tight, the slick nuts can accomodate...but you'd better use the setscrew funtion to lock them down. Medium to light tension is my preference.