Categories: Cymbals

Bosphorus 18″ Traditional Jazz Crash Ride Cymbal

Bosphorus cymbals are a little hard to find, mostly because they make up part of the 10% of cymbal sales that are not Paiste, Sabian, or Zildjian (“The Big Three”). But, they are out there, you just have to look.

This one is 18″, and it is classified as a jazz crash ride in the Bosphorus Traditional series, meaning that you can use it as a crash cymbal as well as a ride cymbal. So, I measured the response both ways.

Specifications

Manufacturer Line: Traditional
Type: Crash/Ride
Style: Medium Thin
Alloy: B20 – CuSn20 – 80% Copper, 20% Tin
Diameter: 18″
Metal Work: Hand Hammered, Hand Lathed, Buffed Finish
Weight: 2.5 Pounds
MSRP: $455 USA; Street Price $273
Bosphorus

This close-up photo shows the deep lathing and irregularly spaced hammering, both of which are done by hand.

When crashed, it produces a spectrum (first spectrum shown below) out to 10 kHz, peaking at 4 kHz, and then slowly declines to about 45 kHz. The crash peaks at 0.23 seconds (first Level vs. Time spectrum, below).

When used as a ride, the ping has a slightly flatter response (second spectrum shown below), and all the way out to 15 kHz before it declines sharply. So, the ping of the ride has higher frequencies initially than the crash. I suspect this is because I used the wooden side of the stick to crash it, but the nylon tip to ride it. The ride has a shimmering wash that is quite musical and nearly as loud as the ping. That is why it is classified as a jazz cymbal, rather than a cymbal where you have to ride it hard and the ping has to cut through loud guitar amplifiers. The ping decay is shown in the second Level vs. Time spectrum, below.

This is one of the most beautiful sounding cymbals I have yet heard. I am sure that Bosphorus will say this is because it is totally hand hammered, and the person who does the hammering listens to the sound of the crash as he progresses with each set of hammer strokes, and stops when he is satisfied.

Click HERE to listen to an audio sample, which will include crash (when appropriate), ride, and bell sounds (these are 24 bit, 176.4 kHz wav files, so be sure your sound card is capable of handling these high resolution sound files).

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John E. Johnson, Jr.

Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. John E. Johnson, Jr. founded Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity in 1994, shortly after publishing a hardcopy book of the same title. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity until 2022. John has been involved in audio and video for more than 50 years, having built radio transmitters, amplifiers, turntables, and speakers from scratch. He was also one of the founders of the Northern California Audio Video Association, now The Bay Area Audio Society. John holds four university degrees, including a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, and has published numerous scientific books, along with dozens of scientific articles on biomedical research topics as well as imaging technology. He was the founder and Editor-in-Chief of two medical/scientific journals for 20 years. John holds several patents, including one on high resolution image analysis and one on a surgical instrument. He has been affiliated with NASA, The National Institutes of Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Stanford Research Institute, and The University of California at Berkeley. He is President of the consulting firm Scientific Design and Information, Inc., which is based in Redwood City, California. John resides in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and multiple kitties! His daughter, Cynthia, who was an integral part of SECRETS for many years, resides in San Francisco.