Picking a new ride and hi hats need advice!

drums32 · #1 04-24-2011, 02:38 AM

hey guys i have xs20 hats and ride but i want to upgrade for hats im considering aaxcelerators 14" or a custom mastersound and for rides im considering aax raw bell dry ride, aax stage ride, omni, or a zildjian a sweet ride. i play church music gospel and rock im looking for a nice tight chick when closed and a full sound when open for my hihats and for my ride i want a nice ping but also a good crash i recently tried the aax rbdr and i loved the sound and the crash was decent but im still deciding. thanks alot and please reccomend cymbals!

braincramp · #2 04-24-2011, 04:37 AM

For a crashable ride I would go with the sweet ride or omni of the ones you mentined..you could also try a crash/ride like a K or paiste GB

diegobxr · #3 04-24-2011, 04:56 AM

Hi man, all your options sound pretty good to me, and it seems that you already kinda know what you want.

I'm not a huge fan of A Customs or AAX's, I prefer Avedis and AA's, but that's a personal choice.

I'd go for the Sweet Ride, and if you get the chance, try the 14" A New Beat and 14" A Mastersound Hihats.
The 20" A Medium Ride is very solid, versatile and with a nice crash (at least to me).

(Source: I own A Mastersounds and owned the 20" A Med Ride. Sold it to get a K ride, and I regret it, I miss the A)

Cheers.

Typo · #4 04-24-2011, 05:59 AM

You've got a few things to think about. I own the AAX X-Celerators and I think they're awesome. They sound crisp when closed (and none of those overtones you get with non-rippled hi-hats if you close them too hard) and strong and smooth when open. However, I tried them side by side with A Custom Mastersounds, and I personally thought the Mastersounds' chick (the sound you get when closing your hats with your foot) was 10 times better than the X-Celerators. On the flip side, the Mastersounds sounded more metallic while playing them opened. Both are great choices, but you can generally get Sabians for a bit cheaper.

I don't really have much experience with crashable rides; I use the super-heavy AAX Metal ride. Really great for a bright, strong ping (and a sick bell!) but crashing it feels and sounds like trying to whack a manhole cover. Although, I did try a Sabian Vault Ride the other day. It's got a raw bottom to retain clean sticking, but it's a medium weight cymbal, so you can crash on it. I was actually really impressed with the crash I was getting out of it. It might be an option worth looking into, but I think it costs a bit more than the Sweet Ride.

MikeM · #5 04-24-2011, 01:24 PM

The Raw Bell Dry Ride is almost the opposite of an Omni or a Stage Ride as the latter two can be crashed with ease. The RBDR, being not only dry, as the name says, is also medium-heavy in weight, so it's not going to open up very easily if at all - it will sound like it can crash when either played by itself, or if you're playing with others quietly, but when the volume goes up, the washy part of that cymbal gets quickly swallowed up by the other instruments (I owned two: the AA and the HH). I would go to either the Stage Ride or the Sweet Ride if it were me, because I know they both will crash. I don't have any experience with the Omni.

On the hats: The AAXcellerators and A Custom Mastersounds don't have that much in common other than they both use ripple bottom cymbals. The main difference is that the ACMS are significantly lighter (medium thin top / medium bottom) than the AAXs (medium top / heavy bottom). I've owned both and the difference is night and day. To me the Xcellerators were hard to control and too loud - probably because they were too heavy. The ACMS were probably not quite loud enough (but at least I was able to get used to them), but played like a dream.

A good middle ground would be New Beats, which are almost always going to work with any type of music, and if you're into Sabian, AAX Stage hats are pretty close to what New Beats do and are similar to the Xcellerators but without the ripple bottom cymbal.

drums32 · #6 04-24-2011, 08:52 PM

yea i was also wondering for the sweet ride and the aax-xcelerators/stage hats would it be better to get brilliant finish or traditional? or is it just preference? thanks

Typo · #7 04-24-2011, 10:50 PM

Generally, you won't notice too much of a difference. I own the natural finish X-Celerators, and when I was trying the brilliants, I felt like they had a touch more of stick definition. Sabian has a service to get brilliant finishes if you end up really disliking the natural. What do you have on your Xs20's? If you like what you have, you could go with the same finish, or if you don't, then you could try the opposite.

drums32 · #8 04-24-2011, 11:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Typo

Generally, you won't notice too much of a difference. I own the natural finish X-Celerators, and when I was trying the brilliants, I felt like they had a touch more of stick definition. Sabian has a service to get brilliant finishes if you end up really disliking the natural. What do you have on your Xs20's? If you like what you have, you could go with the same finish, or if you don't, then you could try the opposite.

i have xs20 traditional finish in 14 inches im leaning towards brilliant, i just need to find out which hi hats i want. like i said before its between aaxcelerators 14" or zildjian a custom mastersounds, or even aax stage hats. I want something other than a "generic" sounding hi hat like new beats or something. i want something cutting when closed but full when open. For my ride (20 inch xs20 medium ride traditional finish) it dosent have enough stick definition, it dosent sound that good when crashed and the bell is very small. I am leaning towards maybe a aax rbdr because of how good it sounds when u ride on it. I know it dosent have the best crash but i also am interested in the aax stage ride or zildjian a sweet ride which i'll have to try out when i go to guitarcenter next week.