Categories: Cymbals

Zildjian 18″ A Custom Fast Crash Cymbal

There are so many lines of cymbals manufactured by most cymbal companies, it is difficult to imagine what they sound like from their name. If someone asked you what is the difference in sound between an 18″ thin crash and an 18″ fast crash, would you know the answer? I wouldn’t. That’s the sort of thing we will be working out here at Percussion Reviews. The current article is a review of the 18″ A Custom Fast Crash from Zildjian.

Specifications

Manufacturer Line: A Custom Fast
Type: Crash
Style: Thin
Alloy: B20 – CuSn20 – 80% Copper, 20% Tin
Diameter: 18″
Metal Work: Machine Hammered, Machine Lathed, Buffed and Brilliant Finish
Weight: 2.3 Pounds
MSRP: $431 USA; Street Price $235
Zildjian

The lathing is fine, and includes the entire cymbal. Zildjian states that they use a special rotary hammering technique for the A Custom line, and certainly, the hammering and lathing procedure can result in very different sound, even though the alloy is the same, and the hot ingot is handled through the rollers in the same way. But, of course, we don’t know all the details. That is part of the secretive culture belonging to the cymbal making process.

Spectral peaks occur at 60 Hz, 120 Hz, 200 Hz, then rises to a peak at 480 Hz, followed by a trough in the 1 kHz – 3 kHz region, then flattens out through 8 kHz and slowly declines to 50 kHz. The crash is indeed very fast, bright, but has some dark undertones. The thin nature of the cymbal does not lend itself to riding the body, but the bell ride sounds excellent.

The peak of the crash occurs at 0.12 seconds (that’s fast!), then decays quickly.

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).

If your sound card cannot play the high resolution file, click HERE to listen to an MP3 sound file.

RETURN TO ZILDJIAN INDEX.

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.