Short or Long sustaining rides?

[naturalbluesky]

Is having a light ride necessarily a bad thing? Like right now I am using a Sabian B8 and it’s just so damn thick and clunky. Also, I am still not sure if I want to go with a ride that has short sustain or long sustain. Like if I went with short sustain would it be loud enough to hear at a show, but with long sustain it just feels like all of the strokes get slurd together like my drunk German friend trying to tell me he wants the vodka in the blue bottle.

[ulank]

I practiced last night and when I get home from work today, my ride will still be ringing. It's cool.

[Actionsquid]

Originally posted by naturalbluesky
Is having a light ride necessarily a bad thing? Like right now I am using a Sabian B8 and it’s just so damn thick and clunky. Also, I am still not sure if I want to go with a ride that has short sustain or long sustain. Like if I went with short sustain would it be loud enough to hear at a show, but with long sustain it just feels like all of the strokes get slurd together like my drunk German friend trying to tell me he wants the vodka in the blue bottle.

Sure, you should try some light rides.

I don't even use any crashes, just hi-hats and a Zildijan Sweet Ride ride that also serves as my crash.

[Old Steve]

Couple things....

Any good ride should have several sounds to choose from. So if you need things to cut through, you can play up near or on the bell. If you want more wash, play more toward the edge. With this in mind, you can pretty much make any standard ride work for you.

Personally, I really don't like overly "dry" rides. To me, some of these unlathed frying pans sound very one-dimentional.

Still, that's my preferece. Other preferences of mine include Diet Pepsi over Diet Coke and Nacho Cheese Doritos over Cool Ranch. So what I like might not match for what YOU like.

Fortuneatly/unfortuneatly I've been playing the same damn A Zildjian 20" rock ride since 1983. I've played a bunch of other rides in that time and like some more than others, yet at the end of the day, I still compare them to what I'm most used to.

Still, it all goes back to using your technique (where to hit the cymbal, how hard to do so, and with what part of the stick to do it) to be able to coax the widest variety of sounds out of any ride. With technique, I feel confident that I could play my "Rock" ride at small jazz club, and/or use a very washy and light K signature ride for metal.