Categories: Cymbals

Meinl 20″ Byzance Jazz Club Ride Cymbal

The bell of a cymbal contributes much more to the sound than one migh realize. Nowhere is this more illustrated that in a cymbal that has no bell, such as this 20″ Meinl Byzance Jazz Club Ride. It has a dry, light ping that is perfect for small club venues. It has four rivets that add a subtle note to the wash, which is very intense compared to the ride ping.

Specifications

Manufacturer Line: Byzance Jazz
Type: Ride with Rivets
Style: Medium Heavy
Alloy: B20 – CuSn20 – 80% Copper, 20% Tin
Diameter: 20″
Metal Work: Machine Hammered, Fine Lathed, Brilliant Finish
Weight: 5 Pounds
MSRP: $560 USA; Street Price $300
Meinl

The lathing is very fine, irregularly spaced, and therefore hand done, as is the deep hammering. You can see that the lathing continues right up to the center mounting hole.

The spectrum has peaks at 400 Hz, 800Hz, and 1.7 kHz, then slowly rises to a crest at 10 kHz, drops precipitously at 14 kHz, then is level again from about 15 kHz to 30 kHz before attenuating to 80 kHz. It is a very unusual-sounding cymbal that will certainly get some attention. It is possible that the buzz of the rivets is responsible for the very high frequencies. They are placed about 1″ in from the edge at 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock, and 9 o’clock.

The attack is immediate, but the decay is very little up to 1.5 kHz, then again between 15 kHz and 80 kHz during the two second test sample period.

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). In this case, I have included a crash, along with a ride sample near the edge and also where the bell would have been located had there been a bell. The crash sounds almost like a China.

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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.