Today more so than at any other time drums of all levels have more choices as to which cymbal brands they buy. Gone are the days when all that was available were the big three brands Zildjian, Sabian and Paiste. Today drums can choose from many small very high end cymbal brands such as Meinl, Alchemy, Istanbul Agop, Bosphorus and TRX to name a few. These new lines give the drummer the chance to finally break away from the boring and generic offerings from the big three that have been shoved upon them for so many years and truly be different and unique. These smaller brands offer other advantages that the big boys do not. One they are for the most part completely hand made and of a much higher quality, second they generally have a richer and more satisfying tone then most cymbals and thirdly they are made in much smaller quantities and are more exclusive. For these reasons I believe every drummer should look at their cymbal options and see how much their cymbal set up can improve.

Most of these brands such as Bosphorus and Istanbul Agop hail from Istanbul, Turkey. Meinl is from Germany but has a plant in Turkey for their Byzance line. These compa

nies are mostly family run and passed down threw generations. The art of cymbal making is a centuries old process and is learned by working in these factories. Most new cymbal companies in Istanbul are started by former employees of other cymbal companies and follow very similar production methods. All Turkish hand made cymbals start with the molten metal alloy, from various metals, being cast into round ingots. Once the ingot is set the process of rolling the metal flat and round begins using large metal rollers. Once the round shape if achieved, workers begin the process of hand hammering and lathing the cymbal to achieve the final sound and appearance characteristics. Depending on the style of the cymbal lathing and hammering can vary greatly which gives customers many great styles and sounds to choose from.

Cymbalism Music is one of the few cymbal retailers to offer exclusively smaller and niche brand cymbals. We believe that the big three brands have dominated the market too long and have been offering mass produced and very generic products. These companies are far more concerned about quantity than quality and unfortunately most drummers will be stuck playing these cymbals unless they take the step to explore what's now available to them. Regretfully the smaller cymbal companies don't have the marketing budget of the big boys and don't have the exposure that they need. We can only hope that as popularity grows for their products so will their availability. As for now check out Cymbalismmusic.com for a full selection of all the top niche brands.