Meinl Classics Custom Series Cymbals

EXCLUSIVE
100 RHYTHM MAY 2011
PRICES
From £60 (8" splash)
to £278 (22" ride);
Matched cymbal set:
Medium 14", 16" and
20" with professional
22" case, £560
CAST OR
PRESSED
Pressed
ALLOY USED
B10 bronze
FINISH
Polished Brilliant
HAND OR
MACHINE
HAMMERED
Machine hammered
COUNTRY OF
MANUFACTURE
Germany
MODELS
AVAILABLE
Splashes: 8", 10", 12";
Hi-hats: Medium 14",
15"; Powerful 14";
Rides: Medium 20",
Powerful 20", 22";
Crashes: Medium 14",
16", 17", 18"; Powerful:
16", 18", 20"; Chinas:
16", 18"
SUITABLE FOR
Indie, pop, rock, hard
rock, metal, extreme
metal, punk
CONTACT
Active Music
Distribution,
Unit 7, Goose Green
Trading Estate,
47 East Dulwich Road,
London
SE22 9BN
Tel: [phone]
Email: info@activemu-
sic.co.uk
Website: www.meinl-
cymbals.com
ESSENTIAL SPEC
heavy stick and big tip – which I suppose is the
idea. And the strident pitch probably does
help to cut through. But I’m not fully
convinced – the sound is simply too toppy. And
the bell on the 22" is lumpen. Dead. I’m being
hard here, but I’ve encountered so-called HM
rides before that don’t fully deliver. I preferred
riding on the 20" Powerful crash and it had a
much livelier bell too. As did the 20" Medium
ride, which is the best of the three rides for
me. (And it makes a great crash too.)
I felt the hi-hats were also a little muted
when closed. The 14" Mediums sounded
quite soft, deep and not particularly loud.
Open them up a half-inch though and there is
plenty of power. Played hard with the stick
shoulder they become meaty, much brighter
without being nasty. The 15" Mediums are
different. Playing them closed I had to be
careful about the amount of weight on the
left foot as I was getting some strange high
whines and peculiar overtones. Like the 22"
Powerful ride, it seems these hats are best
played hard, using jumbo sticks. Open them
up again and swish them about, then you
M
einl’s Classics cymbals have been
around since 1996, a trusty
Euro-style B8 bronze range for
the budget-conscious. Now Meinl
has upped the tin content by a couple of
percent to produce the B10 bronze Classics
Custom series. Meinl has also taken the
buffer to the cymbals, giving them a glossy,
shiny fi nish. The resulting Customs are 17
percent dearer than the straight Classics and
slot in at number nine of the 12 series that
Meinl currently produces.
Build
Time was when all proper cymbals were
made from B20 bronze. Then Paiste
introduced B8 and today Meinl and Paiste, in
particular, experiment with several bronze
alloys with varying tin content. Thus the
Classics Customs have 10 per cent tin (B10).
Meinl makes no bones about the
manufacturing style, which it describes as
‘high tech computerised’. In other words,
automated machine-controlled hammering
and lathing, etc, which leads to a high level of
consistency. This is evident in the cymbals’
appearance with totally regular fi ne lathing
on the upper surfaces and neat half-inch
circular hammerings all round, though not on
the bells. The cymbals are polished to a high
shine and look decidedly professional. There
is also a good range on offer, with a choice
of 18 different cymbal sizes and types,
categorised Medium or Powerful, most of
which Meinl has sent along for us to try.
MEINL
CLASSICS CUSTOM
SERIES CYMBALS
From £60 Meinl’s Classics are updated with a new
alloy and a serious polishing, says Geoff Nicholls
Hands On
And what an interesting mixture
they are. Let’s start with the crashes,
since these are the least controversial. I
loved them. Clean, responsive, effective,
attractive tone. The 16" and 18" Mediums
feel surprisingly almost like thin crashes, they
are so fast to react and you can crash them
with your stick tip. The 16" is an incendiary
delight, almost trashy. The 18" and 20"
Powerful crashes are brighter, but equally
explosive with more body. The 20" is a little
more complex with some wavering
aftertones, and both it and the 18" could
easily be used as crash-rides, extending their
versatility to less heavy players. All the
crashes have good projection and sustain.
Complementing the crashes there are
three splashes: 8", 10" and 12". The 8" is too
small for anything more than a short,
high-pitched dink. The 10" has considerably
more substance – a proper splash with
modest sustain and a pleasing note.
On to the rides then, which I was less taken
with. I liked the 20" Medium but I didn’t like
the two Powerfuls – 20" and 22" – anywhere
near as much. Maybe it’s harder to make a
good budget ride than it is to make a good
budget crash? Or is that stating the obvious?
Rides are complex and good ones should be
subtle. These two aren’t. They are fairly
heavyweight, but they sound tinny and thin.
There is a sharp stick response but no great
depth. They do open up if you pile in with a
CLASSICS CUSTOM
Meinl’s Classics are updated with a new
alloy and a serious polishing, says Geoff Nicholls
RECOMMENDS
Like the 22" Powerful ride, it seems these hats
are best played hard, using jumbo sticks
CLASSICS CUSTOM
Series cymbals are made with
10 percent tin content (B10)
CYMBALS ARE
polished to a high shine and
look decidedly professional
RHY189.gear_meinl 100 3/21/11 2:27:44 PM