DanielWilliams
Active Member
Thanks for the advice! There's another local guy selling a pair of 14" Mehmet Nostalgia hats that are also pretty interesting-looking to me.
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Recommend me some dark, quieter hi-hats?
- Thread starter DanielWilliams
- Start date
Larfboy
Member
Agop OMs, Sigs, or 30ths are all pretty dark and pretty ‘quiet’ I guess
equipmentdork
DFO Master
I like 14" Sabian HHX Groove Hats for some darker, mellower sounds.
Dan
Dan
Traditional Dark hats are great (I have a pair of 15s), but I think what you really want is the New Orleans series. I have an 18 and 20 and used to have a pair of the hats that I miss. In my opinion, these are what I wish Zildjian K Special Dry cymbals sounded like. Those can get clangy, but the Bosphorus are WAY more musical. Forum member @Nubs has a set available and if I were you I'd grab them.
14" Bosphorus New Orleans hats for your something
These are awesome hats, I just don't play them enough. 14" in mint condition. Primarily looking for 14" Bos Antique hats, but will consider other items:
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The other suggestion given in the thread that I could agree with would be a sweet and thin older pair of Zildjian As, but I think you may still find them too bright. And they will cost more.
Nostalgia hats are like really sweet old Zildjian As. Nice but maybe too bright for you.
The cheapest option would be to just look out for a different 13” bottom hat to pair with your K top. The Z bottom adds a lot of volume. Bottom hats are relatively common on eBay, likely due to the higher likelihood of cracking a top hat vs bottom.
Otherwise, on the Zildjian side, K Cons or Keropes will def give you a lower volume in a given size. But they are pricey.
Otherwise, on the Zildjian side, K Cons or Keropes will def give you a lower volume in a given size. But they are pricey.
16” K Light hats. Pairs excellently with my kcd cymbals. Sounds very close to my 14” kcd hats. Just has a bigger feel, and quieter.
DanielWilliams
Active Member
That’s an interesting idea! Does it have to be a bottom hat? I see a few used 13” K tops on Reverb, but no used bottom hats.
Top over top should be quieter than a top over bottom. In general bottom cymbals are heavier/brighter/louder
Blue Zurich
Well-Known Member
I use a 14 NB bottom and an A Avedis top, almost as versatile as a NB pair but a little warmer and quieter. Far better slosh with a loose top hat as well. For the next step into darkness I'd get Agop Signatures.
DanielWilliams
Active Member
Sounds ominous; the step after that is killing a man, I’m told.
But seriously, thanks for the suggestion. There’s some local 15” Xist hats near me, are those pretty similar?
We have a pair of those on the set at church and they are nice — not super quiet but not loud either. I tried another set of them I didn’t like but they were more matched in weight instead of a heavier cymbal under a lighter one. If you can try them in person and you like them, get ‘em.
DanielWilliams
Active Member
I just listened to a demo of 14” K Custom Darks and they are wonderful.
nk126
Well-Known Member
Following on a few earlier posts…
Also have a set of 13” K/Zs. The Xist Dry Darks caught my eye, but I thought they might be too dark. So I bought a single 13” dry dark crash and pair it with the K, which is labeled as a top (there’s a joke in there somewhere).
Xist on top, K bottom is nice for a modern dark dry sound. Lower volume, less sizzle, less sustain played semi open or on foot splashes, but a cool sound.
K on top, Xist on the bottom is like a much mellower version of the K/Z combo. Brighter than what I want them for, but might work as a softer option in your setting.
And FWIW I also have a set of 15” dream bliss that I love. More of a soft, traditional hi hat sound and feel than the Xist. Great bang for the buck, as well.
Also have a set of 13” K/Zs. The Xist Dry Darks caught my eye, but I thought they might be too dark. So I bought a single 13” dry dark crash and pair it with the K, which is labeled as a top (there’s a joke in there somewhere).
Xist on top, K bottom is nice for a modern dark dry sound. Lower volume, less sizzle, less sustain played semi open or on foot splashes, but a cool sound.
K on top, Xist on the bottom is like a much mellower version of the K/Z combo. Brighter than what I want them for, but might work as a softer option in your setting.
And FWIW I also have a set of 15” dream bliss that I love. More of a soft, traditional hi hat sound and feel than the Xist. Great bang for the buck, as well.
Yeah, 14's are really good too!
Framecode
Well-Known Member
I've been using a "supra" 14" crash/splash/borderline china type cymbal (it looks like chinese B20, has the sort of dream/wuhan-ish wavy hammering pattern) as a bottom hat under a light A top and its actually working better than I could have imagined. I get the stick feel of a more normal cymbal but the foot / splash / semi open sounds of super dark modern light cymbals.
I owned a very early pair of 14” Agop 30ths anniversary hats - they may have been a prototype or first run, not sure. They were super dark and quiet, with both hats in the 600g range. I liked them but ended up selling them because neither the stick sound nor the chick/chup was defined enough for my purposes. But they were a great set of hats that in other contexts would be killer.
