Ahh man, for some guys it's a certain brand of drums, for me - my "drum fetish" is Paiste. Hell, I should go to work for them. I definitely know a lot about their cymbals. LOL! When i was a kid, the big line to own was the 602 line, and man - they were the Signature Series of the 60's and 70's, simply incredible sounding cymbals, but part of that was also the reason they were discontinued - they were extremely thin cymbals. Unfortunately, they were easy to break - we're talking not much thinner than perhaps a few sheets of paper at the edges! They were designed for unamplified music, and when Hard Rock began to come out, guys were breaking them like crazy - so they earned Paiste a reputation of being "easy to break". I always tell guys - if you are breaking a lot of cymbals, then there is either something wrong with the cymbal placement, or your technique.
The Sou8nd Formula's just weren't selling. Sound Formula was a part of the Signature line - they were made from the same pateneted "Signature metal formula", but people saw them as being "inferior" to the Signature line because they were priced a little less (Less hammering was used, so they were sold at a lower price), which is a shame because I have several Sound Formula's and they are perhaps my favorite Crashes. I have a 20" Sound Formula Full Crash that sounds like I stole it from John Bonham, it has a great crash and a nice long low spread to it that is really sweet. My Bass player was a trained percussionist from the time he was a young child, and I hit that cymbal the first time we practiced after I bought it and he tiold I needed to buy a whole boatload of them - and he's super critical about how everything sounds.
Everyone has "that Crash" cymbal that they hear in their mind that is their perfect, ultimate crash - for me, that cymbal is this 20" Sound Formula Full Crash. Luckily, I found several more of them, so I snapped them up as well "just in case"!
Now, some people jst aren't into them - and that's great, because that means more for me!
I'm sure Paiste will be rolling some of these models into the Signature line, and to be honest they may have already done so - just as they did with the 3000 line - they simply rolled the 3000 series models into the 2002 series.
Tim
. O well... If you find it, you have to try it, the thing is beautiful, makes for an excellent all purpose ride and a great power crash (replaced my cracked 2000 series power crash and serves as a great jazz ride... killed 2 birds with one stone)... and yea Tim, lol I agree, Paiste is amazing.