It all comes down to a matter of personal taste I think. Paiste's have a washy, brilliant sound with fast response and long sustain. My Paiste 3000 heavy ride is a proper beast, the sort of ride you can whack away at and it's so heavy it barely moves, if it moves at all. And if you stick the bell good and hard it sounds like a gong, lol. And being made in 1990, it's older than some of the people on these forums, lol. Paistes are made from a special bronze that's normally used in manufacturing called "CuSn8 alloy," so without question they can outlast most other cymbals.
Sabians on the other hand have a sharper (but not faster) response with more sustain than Zildjians (but less than Paistes), and more volume than the Zildjians or Paistes. They tend to be brighter and lighter in weight than Zildjians. So if you play hard rock, metal, or punk, you'd probably want Sabians for their strong attack values.
Zildjians have faster response and less sustain in most of their brands, with less sharpness. They don't really "cut" when you hit them, if that makes sense. They're usually a bit darker and dryer in tone, the obvious exception being the Zildjian K's, which imo is their best line. As I understand it, Sabian was founded by the son of the Zildjian guy in a family fued, and so the Sabian HH series and Zildjian K series are virtually identical. I might be wrong about that though.
Quote: "all i know is joey jordison uses them lol he is teh drum master"
I've never heard of him, but I'm pretty sure I can safely disagree lol. John Bonham of Led Zeppelin is by far the best drummer that I've ever heard, with Tim "Herb" Alexander of Primus taking a distant second place. Paiste's are arguably the most successful brand of cymbals, and yet somehow they aren't the most popular lol. John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Stewart Copeland of The Police, Phil Collins of Genesis, Kieth Moon of The Who, that Van Halen guy (I always mix up the Van Halen family lol), they all use Paistes
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Quote: "That's a pretty nice setup though, but i'm getting tired of replacing snare skiks now because I ripped the brand new skin on my snare, and I didn't even hit it that hard"
What heads are you using? I used to use Remos but they don't last that long, and Evans just don't sound that great to me personally. I found Aquarian heads in the late 1990's and never looked back, the Performance II's are my favorites. Give them a try
. My floor tom is still in good shape, with the Aquarian Performance II head I put on it back in 2001 lol. Even after being stored for that long, it's still in tune! So yeah, trust me, give Aquarian a shot, you'll thank me lol.
So what sort of kits do you guys play, or did you used to play?
My first drumkit came out of the basement of a friend's house. She had this old drumset down there, covered with dust and whatnot. I paid $25 for it with allowance money (I was about twelve years old) and brought it home one piece at a time, lol. I set it up and played the crap out of it, teaching myself how to play over the course of a year or so, and then my brother's friend Jack came over to see how I was coming along. That's when I found out I had a vintage 1967 Slingerland drumkit!!! I restored it, learning a lot about how drums are built during that process, but sold it knowing I'd destroy it if I kept playing on it. When I was 16 I got my first Ludwig kit, and then when I was 20 I got my third kit, another Ludwig, and that's the one in those videos I posted before. So this will be my fourth drumkit lol. Maybe this time I'll be able to keep it in good condition for a while
. I came dangerously close to making a switch to Premier drums in the past week or so, but yeah, I have to get the Ludwig hehe.