Sunday 5 May 2013

Cymbal Review: Istanbul cymbal review

Well, I recently was given, to keep, a full set of Istanbul Samatya cymbals, so I decided to do a review, with a bonus one at the end. So first what do I have to review:
14" Istanbul Samatya Hi-hats
16" Istanbul Samatya crash
18" Istanbul Samatya crash
20" Istanbul Samatya ride

So, lets get started:
Hi-hats. I found these rather fantastic. They are heavy cymbals and mean you get a beautifully crisp sound out from them with a lovely washy sound when opened. They had great stick definition and were quite bouncy. I really enjoyed these, they were very pronounced and quite bright despite their weight. Overall, I really enjoyed these.

16" crash. I loved this, very bright and immediate response. The decay wasn't too long but the overtones were lovely. It's quite a dark sounding cymbal, the hand hammering was because of this.

18" crash. A lot like the previous but with a deeper tone and slightly longer decay. It had an almost gong like property, still much darker than standard crashes of this size.

20" Ride. Amazingly pingy ride. Lots of wash and rather heavy. A very dark sounding cymbal with excellent stick definition. It's a fairly controlled cymbal and the ride doesn't get away from you. Has plenty of overtones and a very bright sounding bell.

Bonus Review:
Istanbul 20" Sultan heavy ride. Now this is an interesting cymbal. It is the darkest ride I have ever played. Hitting the bell produces a gong like sound that cuts through any piece of music, and playing the actual ride results in a washy dark sounding ride. Personally the best sounding ride I have ever tried. It is also totally uncrashable due to its sheer weight. Hitting near the bell creates quite a bright tone, near the centre creates the lovely dark ride sound, and near the bow brings a very washy uncontrollable sound, great as a crash ride.

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