What are the little splashes to your left (bells)?
Gavin Says:
I've had a lot of questions about those cymbals and how they were made. Now comes the big secrets.
First off they were (if I can remember clearly) 16", 17", 14" Zildjian crashes from the '80's.
They all have the same 'medium' cup size that is standard on those types of Zildjian cymbals. I had split them on the edge so I thought it doesn't really matter if they come out good or not - I had nothing to lose.
First I marked the size I wanted to cut down to with a felt marker. About 6" or less. Then I cut around the mark with "tin snips"
Then I modified a cymbal top holder to act as a clamp
Then I attached that to a drill
And once the cymbal was reasonably close to the required size from the hand cutting procedure - I clamped it REALLY tight into the cymbal holder and began to file it out smooth onto some heavy duty emory cloth (metal work sand paper) that was on the floor. (Cymbal pictured is a 13" hi hat just for demonstration - the real cymbal would have been about 6" in diameter).
Let me say straight away - DON'T TRY THIS YOURSELF WITHOUT PROPER PROTECTION AND PRECAUTIONS. PIECES OF CYMBAL METAL WILL FLY UP INTO YOUR FACE - BELIEVE ME. YOU REALLY DON’T WANT TO INJURE YOURSELF DOING THIS BECAUSE YOU WILL NEED ALL YOUR LIMBS/FACE/EYES ETC. TO BE ABLE TO PLAY THEM PROPERLY AFTER YOU'VE MADE THEM.