Playing a Ride That is Crashable (or a Crash that is Rideable)

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Drumolator

Platinum Member
I have owned the following that could be called crash-ride cymbals (all Sabian)

21" AA Bash Ride (my favorite ride ever, now at the church I play at)
20" AA El Sabor Ride (no longer own it)
20" HHX Evolution Ride (I have it now)
18" AA El Sabor (no longer own it)
18" AA Crash-ride (no longer own it because the crash sound was too high pitched)
18" SR2 Thin (I have it now)

To get a good amount of ping vs. wash, one must play all of these near the bell / middle. The closer one plays to the edge, the washier (and less pingy) it gets. To me there is an art to playing this kind of cymbal that some drummers do not get. What do you think? Peace and goodwill.
 
On a "ride that's crashable" I work a zone about 2" in from the edge for "washier" and a zone about 1½" to 2" in from where the bell starts for more ping. Using different tips and digging in with some of the shoulder of stick have helped me get the most out of these type cymbals i.e. a 21" Sabian HH Vintage Ride and a 24" Paiste Giant Beat, in my personal experience.
 
I really do have a sickness..over the years I've absolutely loved when drummers make do and learn to work with their instrument overcoming any slight flaw?. I'm once again at odds with the drummers that make do wanting thee perfect in this case ride cymbals PERFECT everywhere I play it. I want no part of it to cause me to think hmm?..i gotta play it here for this and there for that...dont like the bell unless I play it with THIS part of the stick. If there is to much of me learning the art of fidgeting..or learning to cope I'm depressed. I hate that part of myself. It's caused a great deal of turmoil in my life.
 
I have tried a few crash/ride equivalents, mostly when the music doesn’t need a solid, pingy ride. In my quest I’ve bought and sold several 18” and 20” rides.

I currently use either an Armand Ride or a Medium K Crash as the only cymbal in two bands. I’ll use the washy near the edge sound for quiet riding, or near the bell for louder sections or mambos, as well as crashing the edge. I use brushes a fair bit, so it has to respond to riding and crashing with brushes too.

But for ‘serious’ gigs where I need a full range of sounds I’ll use a Medium Ride or a Ping Ride and bring some actual crash cymbals for the accents.
 
The Zildjian A Avedis series I'm playing now consists only of crash-rides, which offer a delicate balance between definition and wash. For years, the crash-ride concept repelled me. I saw it as a multitasking monstrosity that lacked distinctive identity, but my stance on the topic has undergone a 180-degree transition. I love my A Avedis crash-rides so much that I don't foresee myself buying a pure ride or a pure crash ever again. I suspect I'll be a crash-ride convert for life.
 
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I've got several wonderful crashable rides in the collection:

20" Zildjian Avedis
22" Paiste Traditional Light Ride
21" Paiste Dark Energy Light Dark Ride proto
22" Istanbul Agop Signature

I've also got a 22" Dark Energy Mk II and a 22" Artisan Medium that wash ride very well, but aren't great for single smacks.

Honestly I think it's as much about how you play the cymbal as what model cymbal it is.
 
I have an A. Zildjian 22" Medium Ride from 2017 that weighs 2824g. It is a little on the light side, and not as much stick articulation as I would like to have. The crash sound is beautiful, and the bell is good.
 
dwsabianguy said:
Honestly I think it's as much about how you play the cymbal as what model cymbal it is.
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Quite so. A cymbal's surface area is rich in variety. Often, ping or wash is just as much a product of one's strike zone and dynamic mastery as it is of a cymbal's weight and construction. After all, a cymbal is nothing but a mass of bronze until we play it.
 
I have a new cymbal, a 19" Turkish it's totally a crash-ride, I love how versatile it is. It's a good ride with a gentile and light touch, a mellow cymbal and the crash has a medium amount of wash, but very low pitched.

It's not an explosive crash.

I find it very interesting to use, since my 22" ride is not crashable.. although the 22" has much a better stick definition and stronger ping. It's fun to have a real ride and a crash ride to give me much more options now.

If gives me a new freedom behind the kit while improvising some jazz and it would be hard to go back to the previous setup with 1x 17" crash and 1x 22" ride. 1 crash, one ride and 1 crash ride = 😍
 
So many old Turkish K style cymbals will fall in this category, great rides that can crash.

18” pre-aged light ride K, the most versatile cymbal I’ve owned.

Crash of Doom 20” good to, but it is a crash so limit the spread a bit and a killer ride. I want to rivet mine, thinking of going through Zildjian factory.

Much harder to get a decent ride out of a crash, many rides are crash-able
 
There is definitely an art to drawing the best stick, crash, and bell sounds out of any cymbal. There have been cymbals that I “hated” the crash sound etc until I spent enough time learning how to attack it correctly. I feel like we’re all questing after a crashable ride that is easy to play, but the ones that ARE easy often don’t sound all that awesome. Of course there are exceptions, but they tend to be expensive.
 
bongoman said:
There is definitely an art to drawing the best stick, crash, and bell sounds out of any cymbal. There have been cymbals that I “hated” the crash sound etc until I spent enough time learning how to attack it correctly. I feel like we’re all questing after a crashable ride that is easy to play, but the ones that ARE easy often don’t sound all that awesome. Of course there are exceptions, but they tend to be expensive.
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@bongoman I don't know but it seems to me that a ride that is easy to crash must be thin. not too heavy, mellow and probably washy. When getting that, I think there could be a sacrifice in attack, stick definition and the power of the ping by itself.

It's just my theory so far, it's not tested enough to really be 100% sure.
 
21" Meinl Polyphonic is all you need, my homie.
 
I've given up letting the cymbal dictate what I should use it for. I hit it, I determine when and how it gets struck. I'll crash a ride, ride a crash, I just dont care anymore.
 
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