Cymbals getting bigger?

SweetRide

Member
Obviously, over the past 30 years or so, people have started using/requesting larger cymbals. My question is, do you think this will continue? Will at some point, people be using 28" rides, and 24/26" crashes? Or once we've reached the commonness of people using 24" rides and 20" crashes, we're at a point where nobody will want anything bigger? Whats your opinion on cymbal sizes?
 
It seems to me that that smaller sizes are gaining popularity. I see more 16" crashes than ever.
 
28 inch rides would be too sluggish for most and would probably break easily. Besides, how would you fit it around your kit? If sizes were to change, it would have happened before now. If there is some change in technology that allows more options, then maybe. The price of metal alone right now might discourage most manufacturers from using more of it.
 
I don't think they're getting bigger.

John Bonham used a 24" ride, as did others in the 70's.

If anything, today's use of bigger cymbals by some is just a throw back to what was popular in previous eras.
 
People use big crashes for more volume, but that's not necessarily new. I remember reading an MD article in the early 90s where Eric Singer had like 10 19" Z crashes on his kit. I think they hadn't started making 20"s yet.
 
If anything, today's use of bigger cymbals by some is just a throw back to what was popular in previous eras.

I think this basically nails it.

Personally, I prefer 18" or 20" crashes and 20" or 22" rides, but I don't see myself ever wanting to go any bigger than that.

There is a trend in certain styles of music to go fairly large, but trends have always been present in drumming. I don't think it's a matter of going larger and larger, it's just that certain trends moved from smaller to larger cymbals over the last few years, and will probably move in another direction again soon enough.
 
Preferences for larger or smaller sizes than the standard fare goes in trends I think.

The trend now is for larger crashes and rides.

Gadd often uses an 18" ride but I don't think that ride size caught on enough to become widely popular.

I recently saw Zac Farro from Paramour and he plays 20" and 21" rides as crashes. Personally I thought they sounded terrible as crashes but he's a great player and exciting to watch.

I love smaller cymbals for when I don't need to produce as much volume and I love the specific voices I get with a mix of smaller and larger cymbals.
 
I recently saw Zac Farro from Paramour and he plays 20" and 21" rides as crashes.
I like that approach. I don't limit how I use cymbals by their "official designations". I've got countless different ways that I can produce sounds on cymbals (and drums, etc.) in my toolkit (including the popular tip of stick on body of cymbal, edge of stick on edge of cymbal, tip or edge on bell, etc.) and I try to not think in stereotypical ways about using the tools. ;-)

One of my favorite "famous drummers" who had a somewhat similar approach is Ed Thigpen. He was a huge influence on me thinking about drumming in that way.
 
I use larger cymbals because I like the sound of them better than smaller cymbals. Always have, and I like all the different sounds I can get out of them.

I have a few 21's I really like, and quite a few 20's. My favorite ride size is a 24.
Larger hats too, but for what I am doing these days, anything over 15 wouldn't work that great for me.

My smallest crash is a 19, but I use all my cymbals as a "cymbal" not as "just" a crash or ride, or whatever designation is stamped on it.

Right now, I'm using 3 cymbals on my kit. A 20", a 22" and a 24" (15" hats).

I originally wanted to just have 2 cymbals, but the 22 really sounds great, so I'm using it too, & the 22 might be swapped out once in a while with a 21" Sabian HH "Novo" style prototype cymbal I have. That's a cool one too.

I just feel freer, and more comfortable with fewer cymbals on the kit than I had been playing for years. But I still like my gong.

I like the sound of smaller cymbals when other people play them, but they really don't do anything for me when I play them.
 
Who doesn't love taking their 20" crash and 21" ride and putting them on their High hat stand? I say the bigger the hats the better.
 
I don't think anything much has changed, since the 60's. Most drummers (80-90%) probably run 20, 21, or 22 inch rides. 14 and 15 inch hats, 16 or 18 inch crashes.
 
Big cymbals are the flavor of the month right now.I've always have used 18" crashes as well as 17" and 16".....anything to me under a 16" is simply a splash as far as I'm concerned.
The whole "retro" thing is just popular as is seen with most young drummers coming up now looking like hippies of the 70's.....just a trend that will likely change again as time has shown over the years IE; concert toms,roto toms,huge kits etc...
 
I don't think I would use any cymbal less than 18'' as a crash and I would love a 24'' ride. Smaller cymbals have never really appealed to me (like 16'' and under), I find them too bright and come with too little decay.
 
Hmm. Really? Then everybody into bigger cymbals must be playing mic'd up all the time because when I use my standard 20" ride, and 17" 18" thin crashes, those pretty much can obliterate my smaller drums below them. I can imagine if I used even bigger cymbals.

I do like how Steve Jordan actually uses 17" hi hats. That was the fattest hi hat sound I've ever heard. But cymbals going beyond the 24" size I think is complete overkill.

However, that's the cool thing about playing drums - you're not limited to a rule book. I just believe for a practical matter that really big cymbals will be completely louder than the drums your using, and you'd have to mic up for an acoustic balance, no?

Besides, my cymbal bag is 22", I allow that to limit how big of a cymbal I'll carry around!
 
But cymbals going beyond the 24" size I think is complete overkill.

However, that's the cool thing about playing drums - you're not limited to a rule book. I just believe for a practical matter that really big cymbals will be completely louder than the drums your using, and you'd have to mic up for an acoustic balance, no?

Well I pretty much exclusively play and record in original based acoustic jazz settings and they fit perfectly in 24" and 26" sizes for my needs. Love them!

I think the volume issue of overpowering the drums and the other instruments is bit of a myth especially when you factor in the weight of some of the larger ride cymbals made today {not heavy LOUD clang monsters} and how they behave based on how they are hammered and shaped to achieve their characteristics. You can have big cymbals made today that can have a deep/dark/rich low pitched sound combined with a clear higher pitched stick heard on top being totally under control. The crash sound on these thinner larger rides is a real trip to hear and can be explosive and quite fast to respond and then get out of the way surprisingly.

Yes no rules only what sounds great in the music for both player, fellow band members and listeners...Brian Blade's been using a 24" ride for years in the main position. He's also been known to use a 26" and 24" in his setup at the same time in acoustic jazz situations.

It's all about sound and larger rides possess a certain "vibe" that many folks really dig.
 
Hmm. Really? Then everybody into bigger cymbals must be playing mic'd up all the time because when I use my standard 20" ride, and 17" 18" thin crashes, those pretty much can obliterate my smaller drums below them. I can imagine if I used even bigger cymbals.

I use a 19" and 20" with a 16" kick, and 12" and 8" toms (from a Rhythm Traveler). Usually playing acoustically. Obviously, I'm not hitting hard and many of my crashes are just glancing strokes of varying power.

As you say, when it comes to instrument choice there's no rule book.
 
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