Sabian Chad Smith Holy China - from £315 - www.sabian.com

Sabian create a unique china for his holiness...

Chad Smith worked very closely with Sabian to produce his signature china, with many prototypes flying back and forth between Meductic and Los Angeles. His brief was to create a cymbal that was incredibly loud and would cut right through the mix. If you’re going to put your name to a cymbal, it has to be right, right? We thought we’d give Chad’s chinas a try, to see if that brief was met.

Holy Moly (again!)

Part of the Vault series and produced in B20 bronze, Chad’s Holy Chinas are available in 19” and 21”. Both cymbals are in brilliant finish (but available in traditional finish) and have the traditional china shape. Each cymbal has a series of small holes cut out of the bow of the cymbal (to be exact, 64 in the 21”, 57 in the 19”) in rows, which go up to the flanged edge. Both cymbals are thin in weight (although they feel a lot heavier and thicker than that), but with a heavier bell which is unlathed, unpolished and earthy-looking, upon which Chad’s signature ‘signs off’ this cymbal. Them babies are good-looking, alright …

Loud!

I tried both cymbals reversed (i.e. the flanged edge facing up, bell upturned – which is the usual way for most). Starting with the 21”, give this cymbal a hit and it is LOUD. Really, really loud. The cymbal is explosive and quick to react, very bright, high-pitched, explosive and aggressive. The wash is so loud that it leaves your ears ringing (check YouTube for the video where Chad plays this cymbal with Michael Anthony. My reaction mirrored Mike’s exactly!). The overtones are equally bright, which helps this cymbal to ‘ride the mix’ of other instruments in the band, and the sustain is balanced. Upturned and played in the traditional way (cymbal edge facing up, bell mounted regularly) the cymbal was slightly faster to react again. The 19” version is still incredibly loud, still high-pitched, but the overtone is a little darker and slightly more exotic. Played the traditional way up, the 19” is superfast and superloud. This is the more musical of the two chinas.

Conclusion

These two cymbals are kind of one purpose: as loud as you like and made for rock/funk/metal. The 21” version wins in the all-out volume and aggression stakes, the 19” is much more musical. In fact, I found some really exotic sounds by playing the bell and the bow, and in using mallets with the 19” version. But this isn’t a cymbal a jazz player is going to rush out to buy by any means. If it was, Chad may not be playing it. It’s hard to know which I would choose over the other as I like them both for different reasons. In any case, if you want a loud china that will cut it when it counts, you have it here. If you’re in any doubt as to whether Chad’s original brief was met … yes, yes it was. In abundance. And if they’re good enough for him…