SWISH.....PANG.....KNOCKER!!

If you are an old-school drummer like I am you probably knew right away that the onomatopoetic headline above was not me simply rattling off sound effect words but a list of "Special Effects" cymbals once offered by Zildjian.  Of course the full-color, close-up photos accompanying this post should have been a major clue as well but you might not have zeroed in on those yet, being so incredibly anxious to read the witty and totally pointless copy I employ to take up the blank space inbetween them.

Nowadays you can go to the Zildjian website and get lost amongst the myriad pages of cymbals in various lines, sizes and types, BUT BACK IN MY DAY the Zildjian catalog (which was an actual paper catalog that you could hold in your hands, thumb through at your leisure and lust over like a pervert with a porno) only had about twelve pages and consisted of one kind of cymbal: that which is now casually referred to as the "A" line.

The company slogan back then was "Zildjian: The Only Serious Choice," and when it comes to their cymbals today, the "A" line is the only serious choice for me.  I don't care about "ZBTs" or "ZHTs" or "LMNOPs" or even "A. Customs."  I want the good-old-fashioned, plain-vanilla, natural finish A. Zildjians that God and Avedis intended.

Drummers from my generation will remember.  You started out on "crap" cymbals.  They were called Cambers.  They were awful.  But if you practiced hard and played well, you worked your way up to Zildjians.  Damn right.  You earned those cymbals, and you could be proud.

But just like everyone else in this wussified country, Zildjian makes the limp-wristed liberal decision to take the low road and declare, "Hey!  You want crap cymbals?  We can make crap cymbals, too!!"  So that's why you now have to specify "A" Zildjian.  Not just any Zildjian.  An "A" Zildjian, bub.  Not those other jumbled letters that symbolize mediocrity, cacophony and inferiority.  I want the original, good stuff that Zildjian made, back when all they made was good stuff.

Man.  Way to totally degrade and disgrace the Zildjian name.  Nice going, Armand.  No wonder Robert bolted to go make Sabians.

Anyway, in the back pages of that aforementioned classic catalog one could find pictures and descriptions of the wild and exciting "Special Effects" cymbals exclusively offered by the Avedis Zildjian Company.  There were only three but they were awesome:  the Swish, the Pang and the Swish Knocker.  The lattermost, I am happy to report, is still manufactured by Zildjian if you have three-hundred-and-forty dollars to invest, but the other two, despite being used extensively and made famous by Neil Peart for decades, have been discontinued.

But of course EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD can be found for sale on eBay and antique Zildjian "Special Effects" cymbals are no exception.  As evidenced by the trio of photos above, I have been busy as of late tracking down auctions for these signature cymbals and adding them to my collection.

As a matter of fact, in addition to those three I also have a second Pang that is quite unique.  When you nest it against the first (which is 18 inches in diameter) and line up the center holes, it actually comes up short, measuring only 17-1/2 inches in diameter.  Why is this?  How did this happen?  Was this a manufacturing defect of some sort?  I don't know, but I thought the point was interesting and I wanted to work in that photo of the two Pangs together, you key-holed center-hole.

And so here we have the "After" photo of my Special Effects Trio.  Pretty nice.  I am still perfecting my cymbal cleaning technique which has been about a year in the making.  When I get my methods down to a science, I'll be sure not to post about it here and give away my trade secrets.  Why should I help you?

As you can see, the smudgy fingerprints all over my Swish did not come out completely, but at least they are no longer green.  At certain angles you don't even notice them.  The Swish Knocker, which is a HUGE twenty-two inches (the largest cymbal I've ever owned in my life), was especially difficult because of its size and weight, and because of the twenty rivet holes I had to work over and around.  It is quite an impressive instrument.



This particular cymbal has lost seventeen of its rivets, but that's nothing I can't solve with a little searching on eBay and a ball peen hammer.  That I will post about here whenever I feel like it.

TO BE CONTINUED.....