Categories: Cymbals

Meinl 22″ MB20 Heavy Bell Ride Cymbal

Meinl, whose home base is in Germany, produces some excellent cymbals. Most of them are forged in Germany, but some, such as the MB20, are forged in Turkey and then finished in Germany. This MB20 Heavy Bell Ride cymbal produces some mean pings that will be heard above all the amp stacks and the crowd noise. It has a gorgeous sound, and beautiful appearance, that will make a drummer’s smile as bright as the cymbal itself.

Specifications

Manufacturer Line: MB20
Type: Ride Cymbal
Style: Very Heavy
Alloy: B20 – CuSn20 – 80% Copper, 20% Tin
Diameter: 22″
Metal Work: Hand Hammered, High Density Shallow Depth Hand Lathed, Brilliant Finish
Weight: 4222 gm
MSRP: $770 USA; Street Price $400
Meinl

The hammering is done by hand, judging from its irregular placement and depth, as is the lathing, again judging from its irregularity. The bell is large, but not as large as some other heavy ride cymbals. The bell makes a huge difference in the sound, and this large bell gives the cymbal a very neutral, wonderful, tonality. It would be suited for any style of rock, but the ping vs. the wash (I would call it a “roar”, see below for explanation) would be a bit out of place with classic jazz, unless you ride it very gently with a 7A wooden tip stick because you just have to have one of these cymbals. Since Meinl calls it a “Heavy Bell Ride”, I will obtain the standard 22″ MB20 “Heavy Ride” for comparison at a later date. The bell of the Heavy Bell Ride is lathed but not hammered.

The spectrum shows a flat response between 300 Hz and 8 kHz, then attenuating 30 dB, where it continues out to 30 kHz before dropping another 20 dB to 50 kHz. This relatively smooth response between 300 Hz and 8 kHz is what gives the cymbal its neutral tonality.

I rode this cymbal hard, and the ping was never drowned by what would be called a “roar” rather than a “wash”. The roar type of sound is common with heavy cymbals. It is more like a hum, whereas with the wash of thinner cymbals, the sound is more like a shoosh (like white noise with some peaks).

The attack is fast with a modest decay time.

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.