Zultan 17" Rock Beat Crash

I bought this after buying other cymbals from Zultan and this is the best sounding of the set. I paired it with a 16” Paiste Signature fast crash that costs more than double and i am really satisfied. Bright and rich sound, similar to a K thin crash from Zildjan. In my opinion better than the A custom crashes that i have heard from Zildjan. The attack is quick, the sustain not too long, the volume is medium and the sound is good in the whole dynamic range, from low to very high. Although i play rock with a quite aggressive band i am suspicious when i see the name “rock” on a cymbal as often means an harsh metallic sound, this is not the case, this is a cymbal with a bright presence that comes out very well also in very loud musical environments but with a sweet balanced tone, with a rich texture. As this is an handmade cymbal maybe i was lucky to pick a really good sounding, balanced one, but as i have other 4 Zultan cymbals i have to say that the quality is quite consistent. I’ve played this cymbal a lot for the last 6 months with no cracks and the brilliant finiture is still brilliant. In my opinion the graphic carachter of the “rock beat” sign is quite shitty and depressing but this is the only thing i don’t like in this cymbal. I’ve ordered other two rock beat crashes in 18” and 19” and i’m looking forward to see if they sound as well as this. For this price Zultan is an absolute bargain that could compete with cymbals that costs two or three times.

Got this crash after being impressed with the 21" Q series ride from Zultan, and I wanted to try more of their cymbals.

I removed a star for quality because the tone of the cymbal I received is noticeably lower than the audio sample, not hugely I must add, but it is a little more deviation than I expected.

The dish is medium loud and quite loud when given a harder hit. There's plenty of brightish overtones with good sustain. It's got a deep, warm and slightly mellow sound to my ears which pairs nicely with the soft & hard rock, funk, psych and shoegaze elements in my 1st band's music.

It's a little thinner than I expected and has a fair wobble to it, so I'm cautious about hitting hard when constantly crashing on it. Because of this, and what I perceive to be the warmer, mellower tone of the cymbal, I'm finding that for me, it isn't quite suited to very heavy or raw music like punk, thrash, or metalcore.

Given the superb price/performance ratio and the overall pleasing sound of this pool, I would recommend it especially to anyone who's on a budget and looking for a cymbal that can tackle most situations from quite soft to relatively loud. Maybe not quite the cymbal for the absolute heaviest of situations though.