Categories: Cymbals

Zildjian 18″ A Custom EFX Crash Cymbal

It used to be that about the only special effects cymbal available was the China. All that changed in the past few years when lasers acquired the capability of cutting holes in metal. Recently, there has been an explosion of cymbals with several shapes of holes as well as the number of holes. In a few cases, it almost looks like there is more hole than cymbal. The Zildjian A Custom EFX has its own personality, and it is very agreeable. I suppose “trashy” is appropriate, but that word is used with a lot of cymbals that don’t have holes in them, nor are they classified as special effects cymbals. You just have to listen for yourself. This one is 18″ in diameter and thin in weight.

Specifications

Manufacturer Line: A Custom EFX
Type: Crash
Style: Thin
Alloy: B20 – CuSn20 – 80% Copper, 20% Tin
Diameter: 18″
Metal Work: Machine Hammered, Machine Lathed, Brilliant Finish
Weight: 2 Pounds
MSRP: $431 USA; Street Price $245
Zildjian

You can see that the A Custom EFX has a combination of oval holes and small round holes. There are several hundred hammer strokes on the cymbal, and the entire cymbal has fine lathing lines.

Spectral analysis illustrates peaks at 420 Hz, 1.5 kHz, 2.1 kHz, 2.8 kHz, and 3.4 kHz, after which the response declines out to 55 kHz. It works beautifully as a crash, but is not for riding on the body, as the ping is buried in the wash. However, the bell rides very nicely.

The cymbal is very thin but does not respond as quickly as one might think. The peak level of sound is reached at 0.2 seconds, followed by a moderately slow decay, which occurs throughout most of the frequency range. This cymbal surprised me, and it is one of the most pleasant sounding special effects cymbals I have yet heard.

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).

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.