Cymbal Brand Loyalty and Sabian

If you're like me you'd have to agree, a drummer can never have too many cymbals. Some drummers are brand loyal. I don't know why exactly, but my guess is that most drummers see the pros only playing one brand of cymbal and they figure, well... that's how it's done.

The thing is, the touring pros only play one brand because they get paid to play only one brand, and on top of that, they get their cymbals for free. The rest of us don't need to play one certain brand, we need to play the cymbals that have the sounds that are right for the music that we're playing, and the cymbals that have the sounds that we want to hear when we're playing them.

Just because I personally own and play cymbals from five different cymbals manufacturers, that doesn't mean I think that I'm somehow superior to drummers that only play one brand. I'm just saying that I don't subscribe to the "one brand only" philosophy, and I don't think anyone else needs to feel locked into brand loyalty, unless they happen to have a contract with that maker. I suggest you buy your cymbals based on the sound you get out of them, not the name that's stamped on them.

Well, enough about that... now for a few interesting tid bits about the cymbal maker, Sabian. You might not know this, but Sabian was established by Robert Zildjian. Yes, a member of the Zildjian family actually established Sabian, the cymbal company that is Zildjian's biggest competitor. Robert split from the Zildjian company in 1980 and started the Sabian cymbal company in Canada. The name Sabian is actually a combination of the names of Robert's children: SAlly, BIlly, and ANdy. Sabian's website is one of the three most visited sites for drums in the world, check'em out at www.sabian.com.

The Drummer's Den