About to Give Up on Agops Because I Can't Find a Decent Ride

Chris Whitten said:
I need to hear time, usually from the stick attack sound. Then I want to hear a nice body (aka wash). Most of the Agops are built for lower volume playing, so played medium strength the wash overtakes the 'stick' and you lose the definition of the time, just a wall of wash.
I find standard rock rides very boring. They usually have the perfect balance of stick attack to wash, but the tone is vanilla, super bland.
I love the tone of Agop cymbals. So it's just a case of finding a ride that can live with loud guitars and keyboards.
So far I'm having decent luck with the Mantra.
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This! Exactly this! Chris nailed it perfectly.
 
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toddbishop said:
The best Agops are great, but I've played a lot of bad ones too. The main problems I've experienced are that they were difficult to control, or they didn't cut because they were too dark, or they had too wild a harmonic profile.

I mean: I recommend Cymbal & Gong to anyone who generally likes Agops, or traditional Turkish cymbals generally. I've found them to be consistently excellent, in the ~6 years that I've been playing them, and selling them. They're extremely playable cymbals with a traditional sound, without the problems above. I've sold quite a few to some great players, and they've been thrilled by them. Juuuust saying.... :)
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Hmm… I don’t know much about them. Can you steer me in a direction?

My Agop set up currently is:
15” OM or 30th hats
19” Traditional dark or Signature crash with rivets
22” Mantra
20 or 22” Traditional dark crash
 
Awhile back I fell totally in lust with a 20" Agop traditional..original ride played by the dark haired guy at Memphis drumshop. It was a certain weight but was sold. I'd listened to many thereafter but the weight was crucial to me. Still don't have one but I'd snag one in a heartbeat if the right weight came along.
 
Chunkaway said:
Hmm… I don’t know much about them. Can you steer me in a direction?

My Agop set up currently is:
15” OM or 30th hats
19” Traditional dark or Signature crash with rivets
22” Mantra
20 or 22” Traditional dark crash
Click to expand...

Sure, root around in my GET CYMBALS link below-- there are a lot of videos of the cymbals (current and past), played by me, and a lot of info about them in the blog. Broadly they cover the range of sounds you hear on records from the late 50s-early 70s-- both bright and dark sounds.

C&Gs generally will sound not as dark as your Agops, but they'll play well together. In that respect they sound closer to old K and A Zildjians than most newer jazz/hand-hammered type cymbals, where they're really exaggerating the dark/complex aspect.

A few forum regulars have them-- @Griener in Berlin and @eddypierce here in Portland. Both are outstanding professional players.

And for anyone else who's interested-- the Cymbal & Gong warehouse is here in town-- I can and often do go over there and make special selections for people.
 
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