vyacheslav
Senior Member
Greetings,
I noticed that Zildjian has discontinued quite a few models from their catalog recently, namely the Hal Blaine Artist Series, the hickory and maple Jazz models (which I loved), the Big Band Jazz model, the 6A, the Super 7A Maple and the entire "Gauge" Series, which was a really cool concept.
We all know that Vic merged with Zildjian and that Vic now makes all the Zildjian sticks. It seems like Zildjian might be positioning themselves to get out of the stick business and let Vic handle it all under the Vic name. Here's why I say that:
If you look at their regular, "normal" hickory models (not the DIP series, Chroma, Anti-Vibe, and colored sticks) they only offer a few basic models:
7A Wood & Nylon
5A Wood & Nylon
5B Wood & Nylon
Super 5A Wood
Super 5B Wood
5B Acorn
2B Wood
The only offer 4 maple models anymore (they used to offer a dozen), ALL of which are "DIP" Series wood tip, so no "normal" maple models. Unique to Zildjian, they offer 4 Laminated Birch sticks, which is a much heavier, denser wood:
Jazz (curiously, they didn't discontinue this Jazz model)
5A
Super 5A
5B
They also only offer one pair of brushes and only one pair of mallets.
Meanwhile, if you add up all the "non-normal" models (DIP, Chroma, Anti-Vibe, and Colored), they offer 43 of those models, not including any of the Artist Series! They out number the "normal" sticks 3 to 1. Looks like Zildjian is going all in on the non-standard stick models.
This is disappointing, because I really like Zildjian sticks, and they have discontinued many of my favorites. Here are some questions for the group:
1-Do you think Zildjian is positioning itself to possibly get out of the stick business and let Vic handle it all?
2-Regaridng what I said about the "non-traditional" sticks being outnumbered 3 to1, it seems to me, in general, that Zildjian is trying really hard to be "hip" and "edgy", especially with all of their marketing. Do you feel like they should just focus on making great cymbals, or do you like their new "flashy" and edgy" approach to their company?
I noticed that Zildjian has discontinued quite a few models from their catalog recently, namely the Hal Blaine Artist Series, the hickory and maple Jazz models (which I loved), the Big Band Jazz model, the 6A, the Super 7A Maple and the entire "Gauge" Series, which was a really cool concept.
We all know that Vic merged with Zildjian and that Vic now makes all the Zildjian sticks. It seems like Zildjian might be positioning themselves to get out of the stick business and let Vic handle it all under the Vic name. Here's why I say that:
If you look at their regular, "normal" hickory models (not the DIP series, Chroma, Anti-Vibe, and colored sticks) they only offer a few basic models:
7A Wood & Nylon
5A Wood & Nylon
5B Wood & Nylon
Super 5A Wood
Super 5B Wood
5B Acorn
2B Wood
The only offer 4 maple models anymore (they used to offer a dozen), ALL of which are "DIP" Series wood tip, so no "normal" maple models. Unique to Zildjian, they offer 4 Laminated Birch sticks, which is a much heavier, denser wood:
Jazz (curiously, they didn't discontinue this Jazz model)
5A
Super 5A
5B
They also only offer one pair of brushes and only one pair of mallets.
Meanwhile, if you add up all the "non-normal" models (DIP, Chroma, Anti-Vibe, and Colored), they offer 43 of those models, not including any of the Artist Series! They out number the "normal" sticks 3 to 1. Looks like Zildjian is going all in on the non-standard stick models.
This is disappointing, because I really like Zildjian sticks, and they have discontinued many of my favorites. Here are some questions for the group:
1-Do you think Zildjian is positioning itself to possibly get out of the stick business and let Vic handle it all?
2-Regaridng what I said about the "non-traditional" sticks being outnumbered 3 to1, it seems to me, in general, that Zildjian is trying really hard to be "hip" and "edgy", especially with all of their marketing. Do you feel like they should just focus on making great cymbals, or do you like their new "flashy" and edgy" approach to their company?