Cymbal Basics

A cymbal is made up of a combination of metals that is shaped using heat, pressure, and stress. Different cymbal materials include brass, steel, b8 bronze, and b20 bronze to name a few. However, b20 bronze is the most common cymbal alloy for mid to high-end cymbals.

A cymbal makes a sound due to the tension that it’s held in through the pressing, hammering, lathing, and burnishing processes. Think about how a guitar string is tensioned up. If you detune it, at a certain point it becomes limp and makes no sound. The tighter you tension it, the higher pitched it gets and at a certain point it will snap. Cymbal metal acts in a similar manner. Little to no tension equals little to no resonance and a low pitch. The more tension a cymbal has, the tighter the feel and the higher the pitch.

Then there is the thickness of the cymbal (determined by its weight) and the taper (where the thickness/weight is distributed). This aspect is hugely important as well. The thicker/heavier a cymbal is, the higher the pitch will be. Heavy, bright cymbals are loud and cut very well in a mix, but many drummers nowadays seek darker, more complex tones. Many vintage and high-end cymbals were designed to be thinner and more expressive. That doesn’t necessarily mean that one is “better” than the other. It all comes down to preference and musical application.

The next aspect is the profile (or shape) of the cymbal. There is the bow, the cup (bell) size, and the circumference. They all affect the sound in various ways. Essentially the flatter the cymbal’s bow, the lower the pitch, the darker, and the longer sustain will be. If the bow is more extreme (or “umbrella” shaped), the effect is a higher pitch and shorter sustain. The bell size affects the resonance of a cymbal (among other things). This is why flat rides (w/ no bell) tend to have a very short sustain. The bell allows the cymbal’s pitch to ring out and the size/shape of the bell determines just how that pitch sounds and how it resonates. The circumference is one of the simplest aspects; the smaller the cymbal, the higher the pitch and vice versa.

These aspects (alloy, tension, thickness, taper, and profile) combine to create the overall sound of a cymbal. Every element affects every other and that is why cymbal-smithing is no easy task.

Big cymbal companies can produce thicker, machine-hammered cymbals for cheaper and with more consistency than they can produce hand-hammered cymbals. That distinction is evident in the cost and accessibility of “brighter” cymbals in today’s market. That, combined with the advent of amplified instruments and louder music in the 70s and 80s, created the perfect environment for these kinds of cymbals to take center stage in the product catalogs of many big cymbal companies.

However, many drummers these days are looking for more expressive cymbals. That’s partly why I started “Timothy Roberts Handcrafted Cymbals”. I was consistently unsatisfied with the cymbals I purchased online, and I found that the sound in my head didn’t exist.