Holiday Message from our President

Season's Greetings everyone. I cannot believe another holiday season is upon us. The economy is in the beginnings of it's long waited recovery. But still things are not that good on main street. Despite all that Cymbals & Snares experienced a year of solid growth. Last Christmas we went into the holiday season with about 25 product offerings, this year we've increased it by 5 fold to around 125 items. More goodies for you too choose from.

We could have more items but instead have chosen a more steady path to growth. We will continue to grow and add brands and products as long as our ability to keep the level of customer service you've come to expect from C & S remains the same. If you begin to sacrifice what has made you successful in the end we wind up being just another Internet drum shop. That's not gonna happen on my watch. We have just been awarded EBay's top seller award. each listing now will have a gold icon saying were a Top Seller and in our listing eBay lists the reasons for it. Consistent high marks from customers, consistently fast shipping. Were proud of that and we worked hard for it. We aim to keep it that way.

To help stretch your holiday dollars even farther C & S has eliminated shipping charges on all cymbal packs. Being these are our heaviest and most popular items it can add up to some real savings for some of you. We have not raised our prices to compensate for the cost to us. We have made the choice of simply doing with a little less income this season, and a way of saying thank you for patronizing our store before you even purchase anything.

Don't know what to get that special drummer in your life ? Cymbal & Snares introduces our personal shopper program. Simple email us with your name and telephone number and a sales rep will get back to you within 24 hrs to discuss gift ideas. The only thing we ask is that try to familiarize yourself at least a little bit with his/hers set up it will make picking out the perfect gift much easier. Try to see what type of cymbals they play ( the logo is usually on it) and what brand and how many drums he /she has. It will help us greatly. So don't worry about not getting the right thing. A friendly sales rep will help guide you to getting what your drummer needs on your budget. Not what we want to sell you. That's a C&S guarantee.

We have several more deliveries scheduled before Christmas. They will include products from Wuhan, Silken, Taye, TKO, cannon & attack so there's lots more on the way. Now take a deep breath and relax your holiday drum shopping is in good hands.

As President I and the entire staff at Cymbals & Snares would like to thank all of you who patronized our site this year. We look forward to an even bigger 2010. We hope you have a great thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa or a Merry festivus for the rest of us no matter what your beliefs are or wehter you have any beliefs at all have and enjoyable holiday. Thank you

Tony Patrizzio
President
Cymbals & Snares

Music Store Faux Pas

Used to be when I walked into the local Sam Ash the manager although not instantly recalling my name always greeted me in a friendly manner. If he was with a customer a nod of the head and a wave and a "I'll be with you when I'm done here" was a given. Of course those were the days when there just a few SA outside NYC.
I remember having the manager throw a drum key or a pair of sticks in my bag every now and then. I distinctively remember him asking me to try a new brand or style of stick they had just picked up, and let me know what you think. What exactly it was is lost to time were talking late 70's folks.
I remember looking at the Zildjians and paistes ( that's all there were then Sabian had yet to come into existence) Trying a Zildjian whatever kinda crash and having the manager tell me we just had a guy return the same one if ya like it let me know it will sell as used and I can save you a bunch of coin.
Those days are gone forever. Now whenever I walk into a Big Box store there's a different manager. Usually a whole new crew. You know the guy. The Drum managers today are by and large embittered Drummers in their late 40's early 50's who music careers were about as successful as the Titanic. They hate the record labels for not recognising their genius. They hate the company they work for and they pretty much hate life and you.
It's attitudes like that help me decide to found Cymbals & Snares to re-establish a retail practice that has long been dead Customer Service. Some of the things that have happened to me at Music stores are just unbelievable. I know we all have stories and we wanna hear them. Just recently I accompanied a Friend to Guitar Center ( he's a guitar player) I strolled over to the drum department. No one in their except me and 2 clerks. One guy was chatting to his girlfriend on the phone. I approached him and said" excuse me." He put his finger up indicating he'd be with me when he was done. Not saying to his girlfriend "hold on a second honey I got a customer" I turned an approached the guy behind the counter who was practicing his paradiddles. I asked for some sticks to try some Pies out. Without looking up he reached down and gave me a stick. A STICK. all the while intently reading his music notes. Eye contact was established after I asked for a pair. I was there 20-30 minutes playing Cymbals in the sound room. Playing pearls new demon drive $600 set of pedals. Neither of these guys asked me a single question nothing Nada zip. I thought to myself not much has changed here.
A few months ago I asked the bitter drum manager about Agazarian cymbals. GC has ditched Wuhan for Agazarian it's their house brand. I asked why the switch ? how did they compare a few shop talk kinda things. Now this guys has no idea I'm an Authorized Wuhan dealer. First response from him was Wuhan quality was going down hill. Wuhan is/was going out of business. Wuhan was only making china's from now on. Of course all three answers are wrong. But I wonder was he intentionally lying ? Was he misinformed ? Or did he just not know ? Any way you slice completely unacceptable for a dept manager.
Several years ago at Sam ash ( Now you Knew I couldn't leave them out) I was looking to purchase a new kit. My first new one in years I did my research I wanted to make sure I was making the right purchase. After talking to the clerk who recommended a DW kit (of Course) he then began to make his sales pitch For his personal Kit !! I politely told him I wasn't interested in a Canary yellow Birch kit from some boutique maker I never heard of. But on he went Every parameter I has laid out for my new kit was ignored as he kept talking about his kit and what a deal it was. Over the next two weeks I was in and out of that store 8 times looking and relooking and each and every time he talked up his kit. he even got my telephone number from a stick purchase I made and called me at Home !! I screamed at him " I DON"T WANT A USED KIT !!! " That became my first on-line purchase I wound up getting a Mapex Mars pro series kit. That I still use today.
Now my last story from the big Indie shop around here. This was my last big purchase before opening Cymbals & Snares. I decided to re-head my entire kit get a new crash some new snare wires felts I mean a real kit tune up. My first purchase was the heads . Now I have 11 drums on my kit so you know quality heads are gonna set you back a little coin here. Evans G2 coated for the batters and G1 Clears for the reso's. The kid Told me big mistake. I'm thinking "oh boy" They talked me into a Emad bass drum head. I wish I has stuck with my original Idea another Aquarian super Kick 2. Oh well. Off to the Cymbals. I grabbed a beautiful Meinl MB20 med/hvy 16" crash which was well over $200 bucks. Felts, washers a set of 14" 20 strand purseound Blaster series snare wires. a few pair of sticks and I was ready to go....... Almost I spotted amongst the snare stands 2 matching boom stands that are huge The biggest boom stands I'd ever seen. Besides my 11 drums I use about 20 cymbals on my kit. These had the height , telescopic arm perfect to bring 2 more cymbals to within reach of me. I also noticed they were used. I thought Great Bargaining room especially with what I bought.They were $40 a piece I offered them $25 for the set. The kid went nuts. "that's nuts " what do you take me for, are you crazy " I looked at him and quickly reminded him I had just shy of $600 in merchandise on the counter. His response was swift "So what what has that got to do with this" I thought Salesmanship not being emphasized here that's for sure. I told the kid "look you gave the guy store credit for these anyway you ain't loosing nothing and what your making off of me should more than make up for giving me these stands for $25. A Senior employee walked over listened to us I again emphasised my $600 purchase. I was soon loading them into my car. But the point of all these stories are the same Customer service is dead. Stores look for the single deal as we at Cymbals & Snares look to build relationships with drummers for the long term.
But enough about how Cymbals & Snares does things. Let's hear some of your music store fiasco's. T

Comming this fall.....

Summer is over.Tthe kids are back in school and time to back into that old routine. Which for some of us means buy stuff for the old drum kit! We like to keep our customers up to date about the happening at Cymbals & Snares so here's a quic rundown of what you can expect in the fall.
TAYE DRUMS: We will expand our selection of Taye snares. Over the summer we sold out of our shipment of rockline entry level snares. We will be bringing in some mid-level snares mainly the rock-pro line. Don't worry there's plenty to choose from. The colors, finishes and materials in which to choose these are very solid reasonably priced drums. Taye also makes some great award winning bass pedals. Were not kidding last year at Namm one of Taye's bass pedals won best in show, Look for an extensive selection of entry level to doublekick pro level pedals from Taye
SILKEN : We currently have a pretty good selection of 2 of their lines. The Vintage and Hansun are well represented. This fall see us expand our Silken offerings with a number of Cymbals from a 3rd line called Dark Energ. With additional selection in the two series we currently carry.
TKO : This company makes some really good entry level products a great exampl of that is the TK101jr drumkit. Probably the nicest most well built kids drum kit on the market. They also make some of the nicest and affordable cymbal stands on the market. TKO's 1200 series has many pro features including that massive counterwweight for the boom stands . look for us to bring in TKO 1200 series this fall.
DIRIL : These goreous hand made cymbals from Turkey are among the best pro-grade cymbals on the maket. We are currently carrying the D and ICE series look for us to pick up their jazz line sometime this fall.
Cannon : these guys make rock solid hardware that is very fairly priced. Equipment from their Road pro and their 820 line of equipment. HH's thrones and assorted standslook for more of these things from Cannon. We also are considering brining on the all Maple version of Cannons popular concert toms. These are all custom toms which color matching you exsisiting is an option !
Wuhan : We will continue to to fully stock every Wuhan they make. We are currently working on a deal that wil allow us to offer every china they make. stay tuned
ALL OTHER BRANDS : from puresound to attack we will expand our offerings from all the brands we carry. well that;s it for now T

1 years old

It was a year ago we opened our virtual doors. Our first day in business saw a total of 8 people visit our store. Once at our site they had a total of 5 cymbals to check out. Our opening day inventory included 3 splash, and 2 china cymbals. they were all Wuhan brand to boot. Not exactly what I had envisioned, but we were open for business and nothing would ever be the same.

Over the last year we have grown from 5 listings to about 100 ( as an average) We carry an extensive inventory of 3 brands of cymbals 3 brands of drums and atleast a dozen assorted other brands for specialty items such as heads, sticks ,snarewires ect,ect. It has been both a learning and growing experience for us. We are greatly looking foward to our second year in business and completeing our first calander year ( 2009).

We have big plans for the up comming year. We've already begun to incorporate these social networking sites into our overall web presence. Like Blogger for instance. We have a presence on myspace and facebook is next. Finally we plan to get our own proprietary website within the next few months. This is something were very excited about. It will feature it's own drummers forums, lessons, drumming tips, product reviews and of course a store.

All in all we think our first year has been a success judging from our feedback people overall seem to be happy with our products and our customer service. We aim to keep it going.It's hard for us to believe we've been in business one year already, but we have and we are really excited about our second year. We'd like to thank everyone who has patronised our store and help make it the success that it is. We look foward to the up comming year it's going to be a very exciting one. T

250 feedbacks so far so good, we think

Feedbacks are a great way to gauge sellers integrity. Especially if your looking to purchase a higher end item. When Cymbals & Snares first opened our doors we intentionally kept the items we stocked to lower and mid priced items, Not quality mind you just pricing. Figuring we needed to establish oursleves as a reliable, honest company before bringing in much more expensive items. It's a strategy we think has paid off.

We didn't consider bringing in full size drum kits, higher end cymbals until we reached well over 100 positive feedbacks. To us at 100 feedbacks especially in a few months show's potential buyers this is a company that is serious a company that is looking to grow a company that is trying to establish itself in the online market place. In actuality we waited till we hit 150 positives before we expanded into the already mentioned items.


We have only one negative feedback sometimes it bothers me sometimes it doesn't. It's virtually impossible to please everyone. I have a freind who is the most demanding consumer on the face of the planet. He's arrogant, obnoxious I would never want him as a customer. Thank god he doesn't play drums. The point being any complaint he has about any company he deals with ( and he complains about every company he deals with) you gotta take it with a grain of salt. Our negative feedback boils down to the fact we inadvertantly sent a customer the wrong cymbal. He was from spain spoke no english we had no idea what the nature of his complaint was. Finally we got an email stating in just one line of english "dosen't look like picture". We thought is that all ? Now we offered to send the correct cymbal to spain at our cost told him to keep the other cymbal as a way to apologies for our mix up and we got zero responce.

Now how many companies would do that ? Not tooting out own horn but honestly very few companies would be so accomodating. What did we get for our effort ? a negative feedback. Oh well. As potential buyers checking someones feedback should be part of every transaction. Would you rather spend a few dollars more on a cymbal or drums from us or from someone who has shakey feedback ? Or how about someone who sells whatever they have accumulated from antique bottles to old magazines in amongst his items are some drums he's come across. Both companies have equal feedback who are you gonna by from ? The company that specialises in drums of course !!

We just hit 250 feedbacks and were proud of that. Of course we've had as many customers not leave any feedback at all. Ebay should really address that issue. Why not say they're automatic positives with not responce or something. If a person has an issue they'll let you know. Most times a satisfied customers don't do anything but enjoy there prodcut. Were looking foward to hitting 500 feedbacks and when we do we'll revisit the feedback issue. T

Wave from the East --- Silken Cymbals

If nothing else the Chinese are probably the most pragmatic people on the planet. If something isn't working they change it. With their economy moribund the worlds most populated communist nation did what no Marxist state would ever think of doing. It became capitalist, ( sort of ) and in doing so set off an economic boom felt around the world. Industry after industry would feel the unbridled enthusiasm of a people who's work ethic and ingenuity lay stiffled under decades of one of the worst aspects of the communist economic model centralized planning.

Your saying that's all well and good T, but what has this got to do with cymbals ? Everything !! The explosion of private manufacturing has ushered in a period that I personally believe will be the beginning of a Renaissance of Chinese Cymbal production. The strides that the Chinese cymbal makers have made in just the last 5 years is astonishing. Until then the only good quality cymbals to come from china were Wuhan's (Universal supervised) china's. Their western style cymbals left much to be desired.

An absolute perfect example of the "new" Chinese cymbal companies is Silken Cymbals. Under the leadership of Master Cymbal smith Chengken Silken produces Cymbals that are easily on par with it's American, European and Turkish counterparts. The Chinese are a quick study from sheet brass stamped cymbals sold on kits at sears and walmart to hand made B20 bronze high end cymbals in 10 years is pretty amazing. For those of you who doubt Silken is the proof.

Originally making gongs and supplying blanks to companies like the euro uber cymbal maker Paiste Chengken decided it was time for him and his company to enter the cymbal market with it's own brand. Originally marketed under a different name, the name Silken was adopted last year and since then there's been no looking back. Silken Cymbals are not manufactured they are created. From some of the best B20 bronze available today it is reported that bronze is created in batches as small as 1 gallon at a time to ensure the resulting alloy is absolutely an 80/20 mixture guaranteeing the bronze is exactly B20 all this done under the watchful eye of chengken.

It is often said a poor cymbal comes from a "bad pour" at Silken that ain't happenin. Each cymbals is completely handmade from as we've already established B20 bronze. Considered by many to be the premium alloy for cymbal making because of it's superior sonic characteristics and Musical tonalities. The cymbals themselves are hand cast, hand hammered, lathed, shaved and buffed resulting in a one of a kind instrument who's voice is of a unified theme, But each posses it's own uniqueness and individuality. No mass produced cymbals here.

Silkens are both visually and sonically pleasing. Just look how nice the pics of the ones are we posted. You can see the craftsmanship and care that has gone into each one. The splashes are explosive with a nice aggressive attack and a quick decay exactly what you want in a splash/accent cymbal. Silken currently offers 4 lines something to please everyone. At the moment Cymbals & Snares is offering 2 the Vintage series a dark , smoky almost brooding sounding line of cymbals very K ish in sound and reminiscent of the cymbals of the 1960's. We also carry the Hansun line clearly made for rock they are brighter and peppier the crashes are aggressive in attack and classic in sound while the rides have a clearly defined bright ping allowing for excellent stick articulation.

Our next order which we will complete in a few days will include a number of cymbals from Silkens other 2 lines the Jazz and Dark energy for obviously our jazz and alternative customers. As well as more of the Hansun and Vintage series. One of the best things about Silkens is their price. They are so competitively priced the BIG3 had better watch themselves or they will wind up like Detroit. Cymbals & Snares prides itself as being the "home of the other name brand" and Silken fits our corporate philosophy perfectly. Offering products who's quality is at least equal too or exceeds the larger brands but who's price is often lower. Bringing Drummers the world over the best possible value for their money. Silken cymbals are clearly some of the "best of the rest"

Companies like Silken shatter the price to value ratio in cymbals. Price is simply no longer a barometer to quality. The Chinese can bring excellent quality Cymbals to the west at good prices because the cost of living is lower. It's that simple. Silkens are inexpensive by western standards but they are not cheap. There's a huge difference. As President of Cymbals & Snares I am overjoyed to add Silkens to our product offerings. I know every time we sell one a drummer somewhere has just purchased a great looking great sounding cymbal, and who's value may be unparalleled in the Cymbal market at the moment.

I encourage everyone to visit us at www.cymbalsandsnares.com and check out our Silken offerings. Each listing has an in depth description of the cymbal and has a Audio/video presentation of that cymbal. You get to see and hear it before you buy it. In closing I am very enthusiastic about Silkens future as a major cymbal player there just too good and priced perfectly for a newer company entering the US market. For alot of Drummers the jury is still out for Chinese cymbals in general. With the quality chengken turns out of his factory, Silkens can only help tip the balance in their favor. Until next time keep rocking T.

Wuhan "New Traditional" Series--A homerun all the way

In the closing weeks of July Wuhan has released it's latest line of Cymbals , called the "New Traditionals". This series of cymbals has replaced Wuhan's three previously available lines. The Rock, S series and Traditionals all have been discontinued as Wuhan decided to concentrate ( for the moment) on just one line of cymbals. Wuhan has bucked several of the ongoing trends of cymbal companies. Offering more and more supposedly specialized lines of cymbals, and within those lines are a plethora of sizes and weights to choose from. One of the larger cymbal companies in a particular series has 4 or 5 different versions of just the 16" crash to choose from Heavy, medium, med-hvy, you get the point. Here again Wuhan diverges from the masses and offers consumers just one line a very straight forward but complete selections.

There's 3 splashes available an 8, 10 & 12" . In crashes there's a 14, 16 & 18" the 18" is a crash/ride ( In retrospect a very wise move it gives the line a little more flexibility) there's one ride it's a 20" medium and one 14" set of Hi-hats also a medium version. At first I thought this was a risky move for Wuhan. Their line of China's which are unaffected by this move are wildly popular, Their western style cymbals you either loved them or hated them, still in this competitive market a single pared down line of cymbals didn't sit well with me. Was I in for the surprise of my life.

If I were an executive at one of the BIG3 cymbal companies I'd be worried , very worried. The rising tide of excellent quality inexpensive cymbals coming from the east is soon going to be a flood. Companies like Silken, Dream and Wuhan ( they started it all way back) from China and Diril and several others from Turkey will soon begin to eat away at market share of the BIG3. But for now let's concentrate and Review Wuhan's outstanding New line of cymbals.Which of course are available at our retail site www.cymbalsandsnares.com as are all of Wuhan's products including their wildly popular China cymbals

In my opinion Wuhan has single handedly made entry level sheet bronze B8 cymbals from the BIG3 completely obsolete. For essentially the same price ( If not Cheaper) you can get handmade Wuhan's from B20 bronze. Why would anyone want sheet stamped massed produced B8 cymbals ? Wuhan's new product entry is not just good they are excellent. It's the kind of product Wuhan needed to come up with to keep competitive if they wanted to be considered a serious cymbal manufacturer. It's equivalent to hitting a home run in the bottom of the ninth. They did just that. Wuhan has done more than just release their best line of cymbals ever, the company itself underwent some consolidation on the corporate level. Moving all manufacturing to one facility instead of two. The factory that produced their excellent China's now makes all Wuhan's. That facility also produces Dream cymbals. So Wuhan's and Dreams are made by the same factory. Just to different specs. It begins to get a little clearer why Wuhan's new line sounds so great and why their china's are the leading brand of that style cymbal. This is a line we use at C & S to describe our products including Wuhan's. It's especially true with These New Wuhan's. They are inexpensive not cheap. Cheap is a poorly made low cost item. These are totally the opposite. There's a big difference between cheap and Inexspensive, get one of these new traditional cymbals and you'll understand what I mean instantly.

The New Traditional are brighter and warmer overall than anything Wuhan has previously produced. The splashes as previously stated are the standard 8-10-12 sizes each one has it's place the 8 and 10 are explosive and bright with a nice sonic signature and presence, followed by a quick decay the perfect crash and accent cymbal. The 12" splash is almost a mini crash it's bright and loud but with a longer sustain and decay. Still perfectly able to fill the roll of splash but with a nice glancing blow with your stick or a good head on hit it will mimic a mini crash. a very versatile splash indeed.

The crashes are also available initially in 3 sizes 14", 16" and a 18" crash ride. If your line is only gonna have 3 crashes in it those are the sizes to pick. As each crash is two inches larger (or smaller) than the next that leaves just enough sonic spacing to justify buying all three ( plus the pricing is right). Each crash covers it's "zone" in the line up perfectly hitting the three sequentially one quickly realizes how well balanced and evenly distributed their sound signature is. The crashes are extremely direct, bright well balanced with a nice cutting attack. However there is a subtle warmth and complexity that eliminates and high end harshness common in cheaper cymbals. Wuhan's NT crashes attain a high end devoid of that ear splitting shrill. These are nicely done. One of the nicest features of the crashes goes to the 18" crash ride. To help fill the gap a bit in it's NT line up the 18" C/R does both better than average. Sometime the C/R loose a little on both sides, Wuhan does a better than average job on the C/R. When crashed the 18" fills the room with an explosion with a little longer decay than the other crashes which are fairly short. When riding the wash and overtone can get ahead of you a bit if your riding fast and hard. I find a small piece of moongel cures that for any C/R or ride and this is no exception. the 18" ride capabilities really shine on a ballad or slower piece.

There's only one true ride to this line in it's initial release and it's a 20" medium. Of all the cymbals in this series the ride is Wuhan's most improved cymbal by far. It plays surprisingly smooth and buttery not stiff at all, yet offers enough resistance to your sticking that it produces a woody sounding stick definition that should please most drummers. It's bell is bright and fairly large having a definite visual presence on the cymbal while producing a classic "rock" sounding bell sound. Oh that B20 sings nice and loud and crystal clear when she's struck.

The Hi-hats are available in the most popular size for hat's 14" and like the ride it's a medium weight. a good choice when it's the only one available for the series. These also show definite improvement over previous Wuhan hat's. Although in all fairness the S series hats were decent hat's in their own right. these just go further. They are very versatile producing a nice well define brite "chick" when played with your foot for time keeping and can vary from sloppy messy loud at half open for some classic rock or produce excellent clarity for intricate stick work on a more complex musical score.

Overall Wuhan's New Traditional series is a home run. All handmade from B20 bronze from start to finish. These not only are Wuhan's best sounding effort so far they are also they're best looking. Hand buffed to a brilliant finish the cymbals have a mirror like quality to the finish. They look as good as they sound. This should give a reason for many drummers to take a look at Wuhan's in a whole new light. It's like a whole new company. Consolidating to the one factory was the way to go. It's results can be instantly seen and heard.

Priced like entry level cymbals but believe me they are anything but. There look and sound quality suggest a cymbal that should be more expensive. If they had another label on them they would sell for more. Speaking of the label although unchanged it's much more subdued and smaller than previous lines giving the cymbals a touch of classiness to them. Like I alluded to before there's no longer is any good reason to play entry level B8 cymbals any longer. Not having the cash for pro level cymbals is gone. At MINIMUM these are as good as any mid line priced cymbal from the BIG3 easily. These easily outclass in sound , looks, quality and performance any entry level cymbal from any company. These are in the same price range as B8 but put them to shame. I urge any newbie looking for his first set of cymbals get these you can cut out an entire category in your cymbal evolution. Experienced players like myself , hobbyist and guys on a budget will love how little it costs to add some excellent new pies to your set up. It's nice to see the brand that started bringing western style cymbals from china literally re-invent itself and release such a great line of cymbals. My hat's off to Wuhan and Universal percussion. I know these are going to be a succesful line for Wuhan, I'd love to see it get expanded. some 13" hats 15 & 17" crashes. Oh I know Wuhan's first Flat ride how cool would that be? Again Congrats to Wuhan and Universal percussion for producing one great sounding and looking but most importantly affordable line of cymbals yet.