How do you view cracked/repaired cymbals?

  • Thread starter Jazzhead
  • Start date
    • This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
Jazzhead

Jazzhead

DFO Master
Joined
May 30, 2015
Messages
3,383
Reaction score
2,358
Location
Los Angeles, CA
Not talking about cymbals that generally appreciate in value like old Ks.

This is about regular cymbals like modern As or Ks.

Nothing major, just repaired edge, no changes in sound.

If you can get the cymbal for $100 with a repaired edge, would you get it or spend double ($200 or more) and get the same cymbal in excellent condition that was never cracked?
 
I personally would never buy a cracked modern cymbal, but I have one old alchemy crash that a sit-in drummer cracked while playing my kit at a gig. Still have it (it's just a 15) and sometimes use it for a trashy accent but would never think to sell it because it's essentially a broken instrument. eventually I'll either give it away or toss it
 
Well I recently bought a 13” K/Z pair where the K had an edge crack removed. It was $25 for the pair. The only reason I considered them was it was so cheap and when the K finally dies, I can replace it and still have the hi hat. When I was young, I was much more willing to take a chance but not anymore.
 
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.
My hi hat bottom is an old cracked 16" Zildjian A. It has 2 drilled out edge cracks and one body crack that I had to dremel out.

Despite all that, it must have originally been a crash/ride or a small ride because it's heavy and works great as a hi hat bottom.

That's the only cracked cymbal I own. I would be okay with a cracked ride, but not a cracked crash.
 
As a rule, I would never buy a cracked cymbal. But this one time I did and heres why!
I bought a 22"Zildjain ride cymbal that had three 2"inch cracks spaced out around the bell keyhole, and it also had some keyhole wear from years of being played. It was on a stand in this shop I went to from time to time. I took a drumstick and played it all around the edges and all over the cymbal surface. It had a good sound a little on the dark side I think it was a Medium.
Store owner came over and made me a real good price that included the tax out the door, So I bought it.
At home I went into my junk and tool shed took a large pean hammer and small hand held anvil and hammered all around the cracks in order to get them lined up with the bell took some solder heated it all up with a small hand held torch to clean that area real good, and while it was still hot i took some lead solider Fill'd in all the cracks I let it sit overnight, then put it on a stand, it still sounded just as good but the bell had a slight tone change, didn't matter to me I seldom ever play the bells on any Cymbal.. Thats been about 10 years ago, I still have the cymbal and sometimes use it. If it had been cracked on the edges are top surface, I would not have bought it at any price. and the store owner couldn't have run fast enough to catch me to give it to me. Now! that's that, Norm
 
i can't get used to a 'warped' or 'cut out' repaired looking cymbal edge, then i would look further
than that cymbal.. cracked bows, edge are a no go, key holes might be repairable though..
 
In short YES. But the details matter.

How severe is the repair? How much was cut out? How different is the sound? What are the chances it will come back (almost 100% for an edge crack)? What's the price?
There's a mental scaling I do on all this. It either fits my value model or it doesn't. There are too many variables to just say "yes" to any repair.
The variation in price can run from 1/4 to 2/3 price of the original "used" cymbal price for "repaired" or "slowed down" lathing cracks, edge cracks, or severe bell cracks.

More often than not, the $200 cymbal in excellent condition is the better value vs a repaired/cracked one at $100. Resale down the road on "crackers"
can take you quite a while to resell. Generally I'll look at cracked modern A's and K's in the $30-$75 price range. It better be sort of a semi-cool or interesting cymbal for me to want to pay $100 for it.....
or the repair would have to be very small, with little chance of failing again.
 
Last edited:
I tend to stay away from repaired cymbals because of the potential for future failure. It would have to be stupid cheap, as someone else said maybe 1/4 of retail, and something I really like and could see myself using, for me to consider a purchase.

That said, I don’t mind at all cymbals with rivet holes drilled, a few of my best ones are like that and I got them cheaper than the ones without holes.
 
I buy them any chance I get. I repair them, then sell them to those seeking cymbals on a budget (alot of students/youth). They end up with cymbals that sound awesome compaired to when I was starting (the 80s). Sometimes they even turn out sounding BETTER than one intact. 2 of the cymbals I play at church are repaired....and sound great.
 
I have a nice cut down vintage 18 602 crash use as a 14 bottom hat . Sounds really good. It had a 2” edge crack I’m not fond of the scooped or scalloped cymbal vibe so I cut down anything with an edge crack to the closest diameter. I certainly don’t go looking for broken cymbals I generally prefer to break them mice elf!
 
No way. Can’t do it. At least not without trying it. Little flea bites don’t bother me but that’s my tolerance limit.
 
That's always a little bit of a tainted cymbal to me. I have used a couple of things with very small cracks at the hole-- maybe 1/8-1/4"-- that never developed, so I might buy something like that. Anything larger I feel like it's a dead cymbal, even if it's completely playable.
 
drummerjohn333 said:
I buy them any chance I get. I repair them, then sell them to those seeking cymbals on a budget (alot of students/youth). They end up with cymbals that sound awesome compaired to when I was starting (the 80s). Sometimes they even turn out sounding BETTER than one intact. 2 of the cymbals I play at church are repaired....and sound great.
Click to expand...
I'm with you. I understand that a lot of people don't like to use repaired cymbals for whatever reason. OK, fair enough.

But I have many examples where I liked the cymbal MORE after the repair. Two examples:

18" Paiste Dark Energy Crash. It had a few fairly extensive edge cracks that I Dremel'd out. Probably 15% of the metal was removed. Now it sounds very quick and trashy. A perfect little trash-crash. I never heard this particular cymbal prior to the damage, but I have heard other 18" DE Crashes and I prefer my trashy one.

22" Trans Stamp. It had an radial edge crack about 1.5" long. The crack was not scraping and the cymbal sounded fine. However, I was very concerned about the crack spreading, so I Dremel'd out a roughly fist-sized notch. The repair loosened up the edge tension, so the cymbal opened up more easily when crashed. It also made the decay quicker and added a touch of trash. All in all, I liked the cymbal a lot more after the repair.
 
If it is a cymbal I have use for (18-22" hand-hammered thin to medium) and the price is right, I'm always interested. Cracked 16" rock crashes not so much.
 
drummerjohn333 said:
I buy them any chance I get. I repair them, then sell them to those seeking cymbals on a budget (alot of students/youth). They end up with cymbals that sound awesome compaired to when I was starting (the 80s). Sometimes they even turn out sounding BETTER than one intact. 2 of the cymbals I play at church are repaired....and sound great.
Click to expand...
That’s actually pretty cool.
 
In the dark....beauty is only a light switch away!

Seriously, I have bought only a few cracked ones. My 18" old K has a concentric 1" crack. It works fine, doesn't sizzle and hasn't grown. I have not drilled it out, but have just marked it with a sharpie. If I had the bigger brothers in 20 and 22, my cymbal hunting days would be over!

I did buy a badly cracked up modern 18" K dark crash ride. I drilled most of the cracks but also added 5 or so rivets to use it as a washy ride since it sizzled badly. The rivets masked that sound. For $10.00, it was a no brainer and I used it with my suitcase kit. Unfortunately, I left it at a practice and it disappeared.

I bought a Sabian Artisan light ride once but it had more of a chunk taken out (about 1" wide x 4" deep perpendicular to the edge, and it was professionally cut out with smooth edges) but it did not sound like a ride at all. It was like a funky (bad!) China. Not a ride. Not a China. And it vibrated weirdly, plus it was very thin and I felt like it was going to break under crashing. I returned it per seller's return policy (I got my $150.00 back). It would have been killer if it was a whole cymbal, but would have been 2X+ the price, too.

I've bought a few key-holed cymbals and my problem with those is that you are married to the way they sit on the stand. Sometimes when I play, the cymbal rotates and I can hit different sections, but with those cymbals, you are stuck with the one way they hang and that's it. I don't like that.
 
My crashes were all cracked, and I just saved up for new. I don't even have the heart to try to sell the cracked ones - I'll just offer to give them to whoever buys the old kit "until they get others"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top