I bought this Zildjian A Custom 16" crash second-hand cheap, knowing it had a10-12mm crack on the edge. I've never repaired a cymbal before, and never used a Dremel tool either. So after watching a couple of YT videos, here goes...
Safety note: probably everyone but me knows this, but just in case:
When you cut left-to-right, the high-speed cutting disk throws the metal dust downward. If you cut right-to-left (DON'T) the metal dust goes upward. If your head is over the job at this point you'll probably feel tiny bits of metal hitting your face at high velocity. Of course you're wearing eye protection, but these particles could easily force their way between your goggles and your cheeks and get in your eyes. So cut left-right only, or else keep your head well back and out of the way.
Process: having enough else to worry about, I didn't video it. There are plenty of people who have done, though.
Head-to-head: they alternate, and it's obvious which is before- and after-repair so I didn't label them.
Still photos:
You can see the cracked piece of cymbal in the palm of my hand, like an extracted tooth. I was pleased this remained in on piece when it came out, because if it'd broken in two I'd know to cut further into the cymbal to make sure I got past the tail of the crack.
Mask: I had my Covid mask on. Not a good choice. Used a proper dust mask from a hardware store.
Recording:
I tried to keep this as clean, consistent and true as I could, so no changes in the before- & after-repair settings or processing, and no compression applied.
70% of the sound is on a Roland R-26 field recorder using both sets of built-in mics. The other 30% is from a small Sony stereo condenser mic directly into my Nikon D600 DSLR, with its sound recording level set at 1 (scale 1-15). Both devices 1.2m in front of the cymbal at around cymbal-height.
Related video: DrumFuckery no.194 pt1 features the same cymbal before my repair: [ Ссылка ]
So what do you think of the change in sound before and after? Comments welcome.
