Incorrectly labeled cymbals?

Yohin

Member
A while ago I saw an auction on ebay for a 17" AAXplosion crash for $130. I bid on and won the auction, and it just arrived today. I set it up next to my 18" AAXplosion crash to see how they would sound, expecting a somewhat similar sound and feel since, after all, they're the same model but different sizes.

Here's what I heard: While my 18" sounded like an 18" and felt like a medium-thin weight cymbal like it should, my new 17" feels drastically thinner and has quite a higher pitch considering they're only one inch apart. I thought I may have accidentally bought an AAXplosion Fast crash instead of the regular Xplosion, but I checked and re-checked the label and it definitely says 17" AAXplosion crash.

So is there any possibility that a cymbal might accidentally be labeled wrong? Or am I just being ridiculous. Or is this something you can attribute to it being brand new? (Yes, the auction was for a new cymbal, not used) And would it become more like my 18" as time goes by?

I can understand the pitch difference but I am confused by the weight. It feels just as thin if not thinner than my AAX Studio crash. Did I just end up with a fluke model that happened to be a bit thinner than usual, just because of the nature of cast cymbals?
 
Being smaller, it is also thinner than the 18", and yes because it is cast there is no guarantee of the gram weights being exactly to par. It's not a fluke, just a bit thinner, or your 18" aaxplosion is abnormally thick for that model.
 
Sometimes pitch is more drastic between cymbals then you would think. I don't think that it was mislabeled. Missmade perhaps. Ive seen two of the same paragon cymbals have toatally different pitches.
 
I have a friend with 3 18" A Custom Crashes, all with noticeably different pitches.

I'd say it's the real deal, Sabian wouldn't mislabel a cymbal without noticing, especially with the unique raw bell of the X-plosion crash. Give it a few weeks and you'll get used to it.
 
As you noted, due to the nature of cast cymbals, there are always variances with in the same model.

If you had a room full of 10 of these cymbals, and they were all the same size and model, you would hear differences between them.

Still, 17" should be higher in pitch than an 18" if everything else is equal.
 
A while ago I saw an auction on ebay for a 17" AAXplosion crash for $130. I bid on and won the auction, and it just arrived today. I set it up next to my 18" AAXplosion crash to see how they would sound, expecting a somewhat similar sound and feel since, after all, they're the same model but different sizes.

Here's what I heard: While my 18" sounded like an 18" and felt like a medium-thin weight cymbal like it should, my new 17" feels drastically thinner and has quite a higher pitch considering they're only one inch apart. I thought I may have accidentally bought an AAXplosion Fast crash instead of the regular Xplosion, but I checked and re-checked the label and it definitely says 17" AAXplosion crash.

So is there any possibility that a cymbal might accidentally be labeled wrong? Or am I just being ridiculous. Or is this something you can attribute to it being brand new? (Yes, the auction was for a new cymbal, not used) And would it become more like my 18" as time goes by?

I can understand the pitch difference but I am confused by the weight. It feels just as thin if not thinner than my AAX Studio crash. Did I just end up with a fluke model that happened to be a bit thinner than usual, just because of the nature of cast cymbals?

Cymbals from the Zildjian family can certainly very a good bit. Without seeing/hearing its tough to say. Its not unheard of but it is pretty rare to find a mislabled cymbal
 
I just got a pair of HHX Groove Hats. Top says 14", Bottom 13". Same size. Strange...but they sound great ;-)

cheers
Max
 
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