what cymbal to choose

[rohlson730]

I'm ready to update my crash cymbal to a new one and want to head in the direction of the bonham sound that he had, and the toughest part is that I want to spend not much over $100. Any ideas?

[RyanV]

I'm pretty sure that's what he used for a while. No smaller than 18". Make sure it's not one of the re-issued ones that they sell now......those are different.

[memo]

Cymbals are a very important factor of the drumset. If you have a bad sounding tom, you could always make it sound better by tuning it, replacing the heads or whatever. But with a bad sounding cymbal, it will always sound bad. You could tape it, but that only takes away some of the overtones.

Granted that, you are not going to get a good crash cymbal for $100 (need $50 more). You might get a good used crash cymbal but it is best to hear a cymbal before buying. I'd suggest that you save upto $150 and go into a good music store and look at the higher models of crashes (Zildjian A, A Custom, K, K Custom, Z Custom. Sabian HH, AAX, AA, Signature, etc.)

[rohlson730]

Well,
If I gotta spend $150, then so be it. But, am I better at getting a medium crash, heavy, or what? What can I use to somewhat approach that heavy, full sound with long decay that bonham got (despite recording techniques).?

[Tim Brown]

Originally posted by rohlson730
I'm ready to update my crash cymbal to a new one and want to head in the direction of the bonham sound that he had, and the toughest part is that I want to spend not much over $100. Any ideas?

Well, I'm a "Bonham head", and here is the one that I would suggest:

19" 2002 Medium.

You should be able to get this new for about $150-180 depending upon whee you look.

The one that is REALLY "Bonhamish" is the Paiste Sound Formula 20" FULL Crash. It's just got that sweet "spread" that Bonham's cymbals have.
Unfortunately, Paiste discontinued this line last year, you may be able to find one in a music store as "New Old Stock", meaning it's a new Cymbal, but it's just been sitting in the store-but this cymbal is going to run you about $200 or so (I paid $234 for mine) but it is sweet!

Bonham didn't really use "heavy" Cymbals, he just used big Cymbals.
Actually, alot of what you hear on tape is a set of 602's, which were a bit lighter/thinner than the 2002's-especially on the first 4 or 5 Zep releases.

I personally don't like the 2002 18" Medium-I have one, and it's just not a good cymbal in my eyes.

Also, check out E-bay, just go and type in Paiste.
Don't buy anything except for the Signature, 2002,Sound Formula, or whatever their new line is...I can't think of it at the moment.
Stay away from Rudes (too heavy-they're just "clangy"), Alphas, 802,502,302 etc-these are all "beginner" cymbals, meaning that you could probably get away with some of them live-but not on tape-because they will sound like crap...


Tim