Cymbals & Snares Percussion Blog

Workin Out The Bugs

2012-02-07T06:03:00.000-05:00

Hello again my friends, T here. What a tumultuous first few day's it has been. It was so much easier expanding the company item by item adding products and websites as we went. Trying to get everything up and running at once is a daunting task at best, Holy shit is their a ton ( and I mean a ton) of things to do.
Going through our inventory re-doing all the listings, taking photo's product descriptions ect,ect is enough to drive you insane. It's only because I absolutely LOVE our instrument and I love selling great products to my fellow drummers keeps me going. We will continue to list products for the next few weeks and begin shooting some new vid's within a few days. I have also made a commitment to keep this blog much more active and current than we previously had done previously.
Clearly this is a great way to stay in touch with and keep everyone posted about the comings and goings of Cymbals & Snares. Plus it is a great place to go into depth about our products, of which some brands you might not be familiar with. So things are moving well, I have gotten an awesome response from virtually everybody who has written me. I honestly can't believe so many of you were really into what I was doing, In just the few day's C&S has re-opened for business I already know I made the correct decision. I will speak more on that in my next Blog. Until them my friends keep it 4/4 time. T

Cymbals & Snares We have returned .

2012-02-01T08:13:00.000-05:00

Well hello everyone, It's T here. I'm delighted to inform everyone that Cymbals & Snares "The home of the "Other Name Brand" has risen from ashes and is back in business. Our Ebay store will be up and running any day now. For the time being we have begun to list our various products as individual items. If you click on any of our products you can simply click the " see sellers other items" tab and it will bring up a page where all our items are llisted.

After two false starts last year (2011) I have finally put the disasterous year of 2011 behind me. IN an earlier blog I explained in detail what exactly transpired. All I can say it was a nightmare, but I cannot dwell in the past, fret over what I could and should have done. It's too late for that and I must concentrate on moving foward. For the first time in a year I'm excited and pumped to have the opportunity to once again serve my fellow Drummers.

Playing and selling Drums is what I love to do and I'd like to think I'm very good at both. As far as C&S goes I will be following the exact same philosophy that brought me success and earned me so many very cool customers.

That being said I have always had several guidlines I run my business by :
1) Treat all customers like I myself would want to be treated.
2) Never sell a sub par product simply because it is profitable to do so.
3) If I wouldn't use it I won't sell it.
4) Be honest and accomodating and constantly strive to provide customer satisfaction.
Now you think the above would be a no brainer , unfortunately it's not and in general customer service today simply sucks. C&S has always had good customer relations and we will continue to strive to provide that to each one of you everyday and for every transaction.

There's a lot of companies you can purchase products from both online and at your local percussion retailer. Most are big monolithic companies who don't give a rat's ass about your business or your satisfaction. I humbly ask all of you to give Cymbals & Snares a shot at your business. I garauntee your complete satisfaction for one important reason above all, I care. Let's not forget I'm also a drummer and I know what it's like making a desision about purchasing new equipment. It can be a tuff and daunting task , at least with me you'll get an honest answer and not a hustle to seperate you from your cash.

Well I really just wanted to fire off a quick blurd that C&S is back and rarin to go. I just wanted to give a shout to everyone offically informing them and to give everyone a really big Hello. Thank you. T president Cymbals & Snares.

Another Christmas - Come & Gone

2010-12-26T11:19:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone T here,
                                            I sincerely hope everyone has an enjoyable Christmas. Mine was kinda weird. For starters I lost my mother several years ago to pancreatic cancer on Christmas day. So for me , it doesn't ruin the holiday but I always remember. I mean how could you forget your mom passing away on Christmas day ? Among a string of personal fiasco's I dealt with this year, my marriage of 16 years completely collapsed. So this was my first real Christmas alone. I'll admit I did not deal well with it, to be honest with you it sucked. Your first holidays going through and dealing with a loss is tuff, but you get through it and get on with things. Still I will admit an empty house void of Decorations and my wife and dog made for a less than festive atmosphere.
           We are currently dealing with an Ebay issue so we were limited on how much we could list. As far as total sales went it wasn't too bad. If we had everything listed we could have we probably would have surpassed last years Christmas numbers. We chugged along holding our own, but that was it. 2011 will be a make or break year for C & S, We will either firmly establish ourselves as the " Home of the Other Name Brands" or we'll collapse. It's either or for us. We need to recoup some lost ground we suffered in 2010, Hopefully an expanded selection of products and our own website will contribute to a healthy sales increase. We also will be really launching our wholesale division this year , Which should contribute to an increase in our bottom line.
             As much that went wrong for us in 2010 we need to go right in 2011. That's a tall order, I'm willing to put in the time and work, I just hope we can keep attracting a good customer base. We are assembling a really good customer mailing list with some new software we have purchased. Transferring and categorising all of our past transactions for the last 2 years is a daunting task, But I have someone in mind who needs work and to get paid. I have the work and somehow the money to pay her to do it. This will allow us to really work our past customers with special mailing and the like.
       Now just a quick word about the comings and goings of the C & S store. Our Ebay store has a new logo in our header check it out when you get a chance. Our new Audio/Video system is an absolute smash hit with our customers on You Tube. The positive feedback and accolades we have received is really amazing. We will use this new piece of equipment to it's full potential. I even enjoy watching our video's now. You gotta remember I film it , edit it, post it, update it so they get old pretty quick. The newness and increased quality of our recordings still hasn't worn off on me and there's still lot's to learn to really master the system. So that occupies alot of my time. We also will be launching Slide shows for product's that don't warrant a Video, Thrones Cymbal stands, HH stands Pedals and the such. This will allow us to visually reinforce our written description of the products. It's just another tool to make the time someone spends on any of our sites more engaging. Till next time..........T

New Audio/Video System a Hit !!

2010-12-23T22:35:00.000-05:00

Hey how's yous guys doin tonight ?
                                                               T here it's kinds late at the moment, Tuesday night/Wens morning. It's about 2:50 am and among other issue's I have to deal with is sleeping. Some night's I'll just toss and turn the entire evening. I figured I'm up let me bang out a blog or at least part of one.
        Today Cymbals & Snares Debuted our new Audio/Video set up. It's visual capabilities are shooting the Video in Hi-def. Now our old system had hi-Def capabilities but it stopped at the 720 setting. This new rig were using goes as high as You Tube will allow, when your watching our Vids from here on out make sure to set the You Tube Video player at a maximum 1080p. The Picture is crystal clear, for those of you who have upgraded HD monitors It's gotta look great.
        The big and most important change is the Audio. We now have the capacity to shoot in Digital true Stereo, and what a difference that makes. Things just got away from me today so we only finished 6 Video's shot on our new system. It has about a million and a half settings and took us the better part of a day and a half to settle on what we felt was the best Audio/Video presentation we could produce. We asked our subscribers, friends and passers by to leave a critique of our new set-up.
          It was obvious to me instantaneously when I played back the first Video on the settings we agreed upon, Just listening to my voice it was crystal clear . I anxiously awaited the first blow, when it did come a few seconds later all I could do was smile. I said to myself all alone and outloud WOW !, That sounded dam good. Apparently 99.9% of you also agree. It was a rousing success and an upgrade sorely needed. It was money very well spent. As I listened to the New Size Wuhan China's The shortcomings of our "old" system became obvious. It's kinda funny in a way, our old system is a nice system shooting video's in Hi-Def with very clear audio. It's only when you compare it to our new system you can really here the difference.
         I think the several major factors that separate the New from the Old is the Dynamic range this new system encompasses. Our old system and for that matter most other Instrument Video's on You Tube do not come close to being able to record and reproduce the dynamic range that is involved with Drum & Cymbals. This new system makes easy work of it and what a difference it makes. Alot of video's on you tube involving drums and or Cymbals are essentially "FLAT". meaning to a large part the volume of a cymbal stays static through most of the recording. Yes when someone smacks a Cymbal hard it gets louder, But that's all that usually happens. The subtle nuances of that smack are not reproduced correctly leaving the listener wanting more. Most times I'm sure they are unaware that this situation exsist's but it does.
        By upgrading our Audio/Video presentations everyone wins. We are a company and we are in business our Video's are meant to show off our product line. However that's not the only reason we do it, We also want to contribute positively to the Drumming community at large, and by putting our Vids on You Tube anyone can watch, listen and learn a little more about the Brands and products we feature. It cost nothing to watch our Video's and since we specialise in the "Other Name Brands" it's not like there's 10,000 other Vids on YT showing the same product. Our Niche in the Percussion Retail Business is unique, We are the only store who concentrates on the angle we do, so there for so are our Video's. To us it becomes critically important to present those brands and Products with the highest quality Video's we can.
        I think we can say we have attained that goal. We have decided the Sound and picture quality is so good and allow's the viewer a better than average YT viewing experience. We now begin the task of re-shooting 150 or so Video's because we want every video on our channel to be shot with our new system. I don't mind one bit because it will only enhance our contribution to You Tube and the Drumming community at large. Till next time............T

Overdrive Cymbals, Starts production & gets new Logo

2010-12-18T23:57:00.000-05:00

Hello again dear friends,
                                            Got some interesting stuff to update you guys on. First Our little blog now is read a little over 800 times a month. I'm happy with that, I just still wish some of our readers would sign up and subscribe to our Blog, but as long as there reading it I'm happy. It's really gratifying to know so many people share the same intrests as myself. Sometimes you think to yourself "Am I the only Drummer who feels this way ?" apparently not and that makes me feel good.
        Our wildly succesful You Tube Channel has broken 300 subscribers. Last night we hit 300, I had put out a call to everyone on of our YT subscribers, Our Blog subscribers and those on our Cymbals & SNares mailing list to make a push to family freind and aquintences to subscribe tou our YT channel I wanted to hit 300 subscribers by the end of this year. Inleass than 3 weeks after my request we achieved our goal. Honestly I was in awe we picked up nearly 30 subscribers inless than 3 weeks. The USA led the new signee's followed by Australia, United Kingdom and Canada all three of thos countries are large markets for us. Infact the way they are listed is the position there in regarding our overseas sales. Thank you to everyone.
        Overdrive Cymbals begins production next week and we are physced if they sell nearly as good as the responce weve gotten about them they should be a succes. We also have finalized our Overdrive Logo. It's really hot and was designed by our friend Brendon from South Africa. The new logo is on the new picture when you open our blog that's what the Cymbals will look like. We'd like to know what you think so leave us a comment. that will wrap it up till next time.......T

New Website Nearing Completion

2010-12-12T20:51:00.000-05:00

Greetings and Salutation everyone,
                                                                The Christmas selling season is in full swing, Were moving and grooving ourselves. We also have our plate full without the X-mas selling season, when you add that into the mix we are streched to the max. Our Turkish partners are going to give us a start date for the manufacture of our own Overdrive Cymbals, We are preparing another order for Diril Cymbals, They are our most expensive Cymbals we carry and are truly a Pro-level Cymbal in every scence of the word. We have decided to use Diril as our " Flagship " brand of Cymbals. They are every bit as good in quality, construction, and sound as anything the BIG3 put out, we plan on throwing the gauntlet down sorta speak at the BIG3 and get very aggresive in our internet adds and promotions of Diril, They really are exquisite Cymbals some of the best if not the very best Cymbals I have ever used.
        The really big and exciting news for us is that our own proprietary website is nearing completeion. We are tweaking it right now, adding and customising our listings. For those of you who have asked Paypal will be just one of several ways to pay for your items. We will be accepting credit cards directly, which is something alot of you guys have asked for. Were also trying to allow you the buyer to decide on what type of shipping service you want to use. The options for sure will be at least The Post Office and Fed Ex, we use both of them now and have accounts already set up so intergarting them into our store's shipping section should be fairley easy.
         Aftre so many starts and stops and the issue's that have plaged us on and off all year it would be really nice and give a mental lift to us here at C & S to start out the new year with our own brand new website. However my 49 years on this God forsaken spinning mudball in the middle of the Universe has taught me not to get too excited about anything until it actually happens. It's looking very good at this point and hopefully we will open by Jan 1st. That's the day were aiming for, but if we can open sooner we will. I certainly hope it's no later. It will be a little more interactive than our Ebay store and more colorful with some really neat features. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Till next time.........T

Uniform Standards For Cymbals & Sticks

2010-12-08T23:42:00.000-05:00

Greetings my friends,
                                  T here again. Today's blog is going to bring up an issue I have always felt should be implemented in the percussion world. Namely uniform standards for Drum sticks and Cymbals. There's a bewildering array of choices in both categories. It's sometimes difficult to compare products because there's no standards or uniformity any company must conform to. You can essentially produce a drum stick and call it anything you want.
        Sticks, There are a few major players in the stick scene and many many smaller ones. Now I have no idea how stick identification or categorization started or what it was based on. But I do know it can be a bit confusing for even a seasoned player, a newbie has got to be overwhelmed and bewildered by his choices. He also must be thinking to himself ( as I once did ) who the hell decided on what to call the different size sticks. let's take a theoretical newbie looking at sticks the 5a's are to heavy or fat or whatever, It's just the opposite for the 7a's. To skinny or light for him/her to use. Now logic would dictate that the 6a's would probably be the perfect size, good luck trying to find them. How come there's no 6a's ? If there is I've never seen them.
      The way sticks are sized and marked is just stupid. The lower the number and letter the heavier and fatter they are a 2B is gigantic compared to a 7A, I will be honest and tell you I haven't the slightest clue on how companies arrive at the designations they do. But they indeed do, a simplified and uniformly codified system needs to replace the half assed system that's in place now. If the 7a is the next size up or down from a 5a there's room for improvement. Now if that isn't bad enough once you start to move past the sticks that are designated by numbers and letters you start getting into named sticks. Rock, Extreme Rock, pro rock it just goes on and on. Then you have the Hybrid sticks with names and number/letter designations. Los Angeles 2B's, I ask you what is the difference between that and a regular 2b ?
    This type of helter skelter designations hurts the consumer because it becomes very difficult, and at times near impossible to compare different brands of sticks when calculating cost. I use to have a Drum instructor who purchased sticks once a year. That's the way he did it and it becomes even more imperative when purchasing a large number of sticks that you be able to accurately compare pricing on sticks. This is where the codification comes into play. You must be able to compare apples to apples to get an accurate idea of which brand is priced better or lower.
     Now I'm not suggesting imposing Nazi-like rigorous standards. I'm not saying the Consumer affairs division of your states government send out the weights and measurements teams to weigh and measure drumsticks, like they do when they pull a surprise inspection on gas stations or the deli counter at your local supermarket. However I do feel some basic guidelines should be adopted by manufactures of drum sticks and guidelines that follow some sort of linear alphabetic or numerical pattern that is obvious and functional. Today drum stick manufacturing is for the most part done on computerized machines, How hard could it be for the various companies to all calibrate there machines to fit the same standards for the same style sticks ? It wouldn't be all that difficult and like I mentioned earlier lets ditch the stupid stick ID standards we currently use for something more user friendly so we won't have a situation like we currently do. Going from a 5a to a 7a where's the 6a I ask you again !!
     Moving on to Cymbals, you know when I first started playing drums nobody seemed to care what a Cymbal weighed or if they did it wasn't nearly as prominent as it is today. This is going back 30 years keep that in mind. Somewhere along the way the weights of a Cymbal became important to alot of Drummers. I don't think this is a bad thing at all, and like most aspects of Drumming it's a personal choice. personally it's not that big an issue for me with the exception of the high hats. There I think the weight differential is fairly important other than that just the designation of the Cymbals weight is OK for me. A few years back I wanted to add a 15" or 16" med/Hvy crash to my set up, not having one in that size Cymbals. Mine were all medium to light sizes and I desired something with a little more meat to it. While checking out various brands of Med/Hvy 16" I couldn't help notice the weight difference from brand to brand. What company X called Med/Hvy was Hvy with company Z. Pretty dam close in weight but with different designations I began to think this makes choosing a Pie even harder than it already is. For pricing purposes it could easily lead to a bigger disparity between brands than it had to be.
        A simple solution is setting up guidelines along the same lines as my drum stick suggestion. First come up with weight name designations. Paper thin, Thin, medium, Med/Hvy and Hvy Then set parameters on where those Cymbals should fall weight wise. Now of course there's alot of factors that need to be considered. A automated sheet stamped Cymbal's weight is more easily controlled than a hand made Cymbal so an issue like that needs to be addressed. That is easily accomplished by giving each weight designation a certain parameter to fall within. let's use made up numbers for the sake of ease of understanding. For a paper thin 15" crash lets use 400grams to 450grams if it comes in Higher than 450g than it would automatically be designated in the next weight class. For the consumer this would allow for a better comparison in pricing Cymbals. If you know whatever brand of cymbals your comparing and they are the same size ( Diameter ) and have the same weight designation ( Thin ) you know they are all going to weight within a specified parameter, then pricing becomes easier to understand. Now the difference in pricing falls with quality, workmanship and other factors. With what we have now,there's no telling what the difference is in weight for the same designation cymbals from brand to brand. A medium ride can vary hundreds of grams from brand to brand which absolutely will effect it's price. Thus skewing your perception of the brand that is more costly or conversely the cheaper one.
     I just think a little more uniformity in the stick and Cymbal scene would benefit the consumer in the long run. If two medium rides essentially weigh close to the same are the same diameter ( 22" ) and both are made from the same alloy, let's say B20 ( what else ? ) Now a companies ride that is $125.00 more than it's competitors needs to justify why this is so. I think the consumer is the big winner here, making Cymbal companies be more competitive for your dollars. Perhaps lowering their prices to be more competitive or making higher quality Cymbals to compete with their competition. I don't know for sure if any of this would happen, and what I'm suggesting is just the seed or the zygote of an idea. I'm open for any and all suggestions, My intention is just to open up a debate on the merits of this idea and anything I have suggested in this blog can and should be scrutinized, added to or deleted and replaced with something better. Nothing written hear is in stone. The whole concept of some sort of standardization is fluid add to it or detract from it, this is how things change and develop. I personally think some type of standardization would be a good thing in these two particular areas. What the end result would be is any ones guess, So now a little feedback from the readers of this article I'd love to hear what my brother and Sister drummers feel about this. Till next time.............T

Is Guitar Center Intentionally lying ?

2010-12-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hey Friends, followers & fans,
                                                       T here, In this blog I'd like to go over and give you guys the complete 411 on Wuhan/Agazarian/Guitar Center connection. It's kinda funny how things develop sometimes, I never realized how big apart of our business Wuhan would become. In fact I have become the go to guy for allot of people about Wuhan's, since there really is not a whole lot of info available on them considering how big of a brand they are. Now one question I get asked weekly is about what I stated in the first sentence. So much so I have decided to do a blog solely dedicated to that question. So I can reference people to this blog that will answer every question.
         First and foremost Wuhan and Agazarian are in no way connected. They are complete and seperate brands. Agazarian is Guitar Center's house brand, It has replaced Wuhan in their brick and Mortar stores. Almost always displayed NOT in their Cymbal vault, but at their percussion counter either in it's own display box or in counter space Wuhan's and now Agazarian's are put their intentionally for what is called spontaneous purchases. Because of their very affordable pricing this works, you'll spring for a $20 China or a $30 splash at checkout time on the spur. Laying out $200 + for a BIG3 pie is another matter altogether.
        If you've ever noticed there were always just a few Wuhan's on display, maybe their splashes and the old standby their immensely popular 12" china. As an impulse purchase you can't beat these. A year or two ago Guitar center replaced their Wuhan's with Agazarians, but only in their stores. They wisely still carried Wuhan's in the catalog and their Internet sites. It's called hedging your bets, I suppose if Agazarians bombed or for those of you who decided you wanted to stick to the original and ( IMO ) superior Wuhan's they could still be purchased from Guitar center. It's when one inquires about Agazarians or what happened to their Wuhan's the water becomes muddy. I have come to the conclusion GC has directed it's employees either indirectly or intentionally to deceive customers in giving out false information about Wuhan.
         This is what I have personally heard. " Wuhan is out of Business", Wuhan only makes Chinas anymore" or the best one " Wuhan and Agazarian are the same brand " now these aren't isolated statements they have been made to me and others I know in more than one Guitar Center. The theme of the comments themselves are so similar that I begun to think this info was coming from GC's corporate offices. Could GC the largest Instrument retail chain in the country be intentionally misleading customers ( my fellow drummers) into giving out false information about Wuhan to steer any potential sales to their new house brand Agazarian ? I really began to wonder, it just seemed the info giving out by GC employees in stores to me in widely varying locations and states had too much in common to be coincidence.
        Of course Proof can never be conclusively established unless a GC whistleblower steps forward with some kind of internal memo instructing it's sales staff to do just what I have accused them of. It may never be proven conclusively but I just can feel it in my heart that I'm right. 2 weeks ago I was in a GC with a guitarist friend and while looking at the drums I asked what happened to the Wuhan splashes ? The sales clerk gave me an answer I heard before, but it was a hybrid of several of the misconceptions rolled into one. Well Wuhan and Agazarian are the same brands made in the same factory and Wuhan doesn't do splashes anymore, there only making China's. That's why we switched to Agazarians there better they make more stuff and Wuhan is kinda dead he said. Hmm I inquired didn't you just say they were the same brand ? Well he clarified his position there made by the same company. I smell conspiracy.
        Enough with circumstantial evidence let me give you guys some facts. :
1) Wuhan and Agazarian are completely separate brands. They are owned by different companies and have no connection whatsoever.
2) Agazarians are Guitar center's new house brand. By contracting a Chinese Cymbal maker to produce their own brand and purchasing direct GC has a higher profit margin than they do with Wuhans.
3) Wuhan last year during the development of their "New Traditional" series also consolidated Cymbal production to one factory. Previously Wuhan's were made in two separate factories. One factory made their China's and one made their Western style Cymbals. In an effort to improve efficiency and streamline costs, in addition Wuhan felt if Cymbal production were in one facility,better quality control and consistency could be achieved. I believe they have improved immensely in both of those area's.
4) The factory Agazarians are currently produced in was producing Wuhan's before Wuhan consolidated it's manufacturing. I believe this is the root cause of much of the misperception about Wuhan & Agazarian. That and piss poor info given out by the staff at GC
So I can state for the record unequivocally that the only thing that Wuhan and Agazarian have in common is Nothing. It's really funny when I ask about What happened to your Wuhans at GC ? The last conversation I had with a sales clerk , I was told " Your getting some bad info bro ". Ok , right I just don't have the heart I own a percussion retail business. But there is the story, They're not one in the same. They aren't related, they are as different as Saluda and Stagg. OOHhhh ! Now that's a whole different post altogether. Till next time,             T.

B-L-A-C-K F-R-I-D-A-Y ! ! !

2010-11-26T10:28:00.000-05:00

Hello Dear Friends, Subscribers and Lurkers,
                                                                                  It's T once again. I sincerely Hope everyone had an absolutely wonderful Holiday. Mine was just OK, Hopefully next year will be better for me. Well here we are once again and it's BLACK FRIDAY, The day that kicks off the Holiday shopping season. Contrary to popular Myth It's not the busiest shopping day of the year. That honor is usually bestowed upon Dec 23rd of every year, experts believe the last great " Surge " of last Minute Holiday shopping gets into full Blast. For an online operation like ours our " Surge " Kicks in about a good week before Christmas day so your precious goodies can get shipped and delivered before the " BIG " day.
       Although, we have had some operating difficulties this year, Your holiday orders will be shipped ASAP. I have several extra people trained to pitch in at a moments notice. So stock and staff wise were looking pretty good. I'm looking forward to having a stellar year end blitz for the company. We are sorting through and already laying out our game plan for 2011, New brands and more products will join C & S's offerings. Our long awaited and terribly overdue proprietary Website will be up and running in the early part of 2011, I'm going on record and saying sometime by February 15 th.
      As our Sophomore year ends we take with it many lessons any young growing company could learn from. We have made some big mistakes this year, but we realize that and we plan to learn from them. We have made mistakes dealing with Mistakes and accidents and other issue's. Like the Great Hack Attack, How we responded was admittedly poor. I was complete unprepared for it, severely underestimated it and didn't have enough cash reserves to deal with it properly. That will not happen again, Not on my watch. As long as I'm the Head Honcho here, Generalissimo T, We will not be pearl harbored again.
      We had alot of good stuff happen to Us also. Our ancillary sites really came into their own this year with a really active Blog and a very popular You Tube channel. When our own website opens shortly we will finally be able to bring all the C & S family of sites to a centralized Locale, that will be nice. I personally consider many of you friends, The regulars who frequent the store or YT channel and converse with me regularly. It's very cool, something I really didn't think about when I first founded C & S.
    OK enough BS lets talk about some product. We will be listing some new stuff over the weekend. A snare kit and Jr snare Kit, for you newbies and baby newbies out there. We are gonna Dissect a TKO 101 jr Drum kit for you with lots of Video and Pictures. These are one of the nicest jr kits on the market, If you or someone you know is looking at a " First Act" brand Drum kit stop Them !! These are so much nicer, really in a completely different league. A true drum kit only scaled down. So many times these jr drum kits are just absolute Crap. It's nice to no for even a very young starting player there is some decent and affordable equipment out there. Splash/Cymbal arm Packs will be available for both Wuhan and Silken. There will be some additional Cymbal packs Available from Wuhan.
        We also will be permanently carrying TKO's 1200 series line of Cymbal stands, These are absolutely fantastic. For the money these are the nicest stands we have found. They are an excellent buy and we are happy to sell them, if your not happy with these you won't be happy with anything HONEST !! That is why we have decided to add these permanently to our inventory. We also will be unveiling Cannons 800 series HH stand, Like the TKO stands they are well built and very affordable. With some basic care and maintenance you should get years of use out of it. We like to cherry pick products from different companies, trying only to bring you what we feel is a good solid product and priced accordingly. That's the basic idea anyway. Lastly as the New Wuhan's become available we will be adding them to our line of products. So that ends today's Blog have a great weekend everybody.           T.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone !

2010-11-25T17:45:00.000-05:00

Hey Everybody,
                           T here, Just wanted to fire off a quick blog and wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. So far this hasn't been the best year for Cymbals & Snares. I was sick and need a few surgeries in May/June which seriously sidetracked the company. My personal life completely crumbled with the separation and pending Divorce from my wife. The Hack Attack of September is still having repercussions as we still have a few discounts to issue. With the numerous neutral and negative feedback's we received from that complete debacle, it's amazing were still in business.
       I am very grateful for all the emails and messages of support we have received from our supporters, friends & subscribers to our Blog, You Tube Channel and our store Newsletter. We are just gonna have to work our way out of it and through it and put this disastrous year behind us. I can only hope and work hard to ensure 2011 is a better year for the company and myself ( personally ) It really couldn't get much worse. In fact for it to be any worse than this year the company would have to go belly up and I would have to die. Which lately doesn't really seem that bad of options. To be honest I would be more upset about closing the company than Being Deceased. Who would be the voice for the " Other Name Brands " ???
     Okay, enough with crap about me let's talk Drums & Cymbals. C&S has just signed on with a new distributor among the products were looking at to carry are moongel and some cool little knick knacks for your kit. Some novelty Items that I think, if not functional are totally cool, Dice knobs for the top of your Cymbals, Bass Drum tuning rods that are Hands holding the front drum head on, Nothing earth shattering but very neat little stuff. Hopefully we will be signing a distributorship agreement with PEACE drums and begin to carry their line Of drums after the first of the year. We also will be one of the first companies to carry a quick release HH clutch from a new company. They have some pretty interesting products which we think look really nice. However like all Products C & S carry we will give it a rigorous testing before putting it up for sale. We have always maintained " If we ourselves wouldn't use it then we won't sell it " that's not a line of marketing BS. That's a fact. and that's it for this blog have a great holiday        T. Cymbals & Snares

The Great Hack Attack, It's aftermath Continues

2010-11-18T15:05:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone T here,
                                          Just a quick update for our loyal readers and supporters. The true cost of the great Hack Attack continues to mount. The attack effected over 100 orders, and made our ability to operate and comunicate with our customers nearly impossible at first. As we slowly began to emerge from the damage that was done, It became apparent to me this was going to be far costlier than anyone had envisioned.
          Our reputation on Ebay is at an all time low. The flurry of negative feedbacks has effectively dropped our feedback rating to 98%, the lowest it's ever been. That in turn has resulted in a drop in sales, which then begins to affect our ability to operate effectively. We have finally cleaned up almost everything from our disaster. A few more refunds and we'll be completely passed the physical damaged incurred. However, building our reputation up is going to be a long and hard process.
         So here we sit, It almost feels the last two years were for nothing. All we put into building this company and the idea's we espouse sit precariously on the edge of oblivion. I hope we can fully recover. We are pressing ahead with Overdrive Cymbals, developing our Wholesale company and continuing with work on our own Website. I hope we can pull this off. I have never felt less sure of myself or Cymbals & Snares since I first hatched the idea of doing my own thing. I hope it wasn't for nothing. Till next time.        T

Stands, Pedals & Other Hardware

2010-11-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

Good Morning Everyone,
                                              It's a cold dark and rainy morning here in Jersey, Perfect morning for a blog entry. I figured I would update you on our product selection this Morning. I was looking at a double cymbal stand from Pearl yesterday, It was beautiful and well made. ( Only a drummer could think a Cymbal stand was beautiful Right ?) Then I looked at the price take $179.00 !! Yikes ! Holy Shit I exclaimed to myself. That is a lot of money for a stand. I was checking it out for a reason, C & S is doing a major expansion into the hardware arena. It's probably our weakest area, One section of drumming that is poorly represented. That is about to change.

        We just got a delivery in from TKO. This company has long been associated with entry level drums and Hardware But late last year they introduced their 1200 series stands. These things are unbelievable for the money. Sturdy, well built double dipped chroming, Euro style on off switches replace the normal wingnut tightening system , double braced there's really nothing to not like on these stands. The best part ?? The price their top of the line 1206 Boom stand with a telescopic lens and large counterweight so even your largest most precious cymbals are safe tops out at $79.00 retail. IMO it's a deal and a half. There are alot of inexpensive stands on the Internet and Ebay, be very careful because you often get what you pay for.

       We should have most of the 1200 series listed by the weekend. Anyone looking for stands whether it's a straight stand or boom should give these a good looking at. They are a fantastic value as is there entire 1200 series. We like variety and so we also will be bringing in Cannon's 800 series and Howitzer line of stands and bass drum pedals. Like TKO's both of these line bring excellent quality and value to the drumming community. There bass drum pedals in particular are single or double chained and have precise and smooth fluid like movement. These Pedals can compete with the big name brands in their categories very easily. Both TKO and Cannon offer great double bass pedals for under $200. This presents to every drummer a very affordable way to expand his capabilities by incorporating a double kick into his playing.

       We can't leave out a mention of Taye drums. Taye who's drums are without question great. It also makes really nice hardware. In fact they have some really neat innovative hardware that you won't find anywhere else. Their Snare " Boom" stand is just one example. Other companies have attempted this type of stand but Taye has mastered it. The boom extends far enough and is stable enough to place your double kick pedals connecting bar INSIDE of the snare drum stand alleviating a real nightmare for alot of drummers including myself. No more trying to get the pedal configuration just right. Now there's nothing blocking it. I swear by that stand. What a great little idea. It has really had an impact on how I set my snare/hi-hat combo. My double kick is infinitely more comfortable. So look for some great selections in stands this holiday season.       T

Overdrive Cymbals Launches Website.

2010-10-29T10:13:00.000-04:00

Hey Good Morning all,
Gonna be a quick posting today. I just wanted to let everyone of our average 600 readers a week here, That Overdrive Cymbals has launched a informational website. It has basic background info about the company. Expected launch dates, contact information and the like. We will be adding some video's to it this weekend. We will be keeping you informed about all the happenings at Overdrive over the next few weeks. So log on and to your favorites and check it out OVERDRIVE HAS ARRIVED !! the link to the site is as follows. www.overdrivecymbals.com As always were are interested in some honest feedback. Just remember it's just an informational site. It's a work in progress. T

The Great Cymbal Controversy To Clean or not to Clean ???

2010-10-29T00:07:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone T here,
                                        I was reading a blog the other night and couldn't help think about how divided the drumming community is over Cymbal care. Do you clean your Cymbals or do you allow that much hallowed " Patina " to build up ? This of course is strictly a personal choice. One way is not inherently better than the other. It what you like to do. However there are so many theories around supporting both sides I find actually comical. Especially about buring your Cymbals. I'm not going into each theory but I did want to mention that one in particular. Sabian buries X amount of Cymbals a year and then sells them at an exorbitant price. Sonically it supposed effects the Cymbal from my understanding from lab test done it just gets the cymbal dirty.
         I like brilliant finished Cymbals, I like shiny Cymbals So I clean mine. It actually brings out the high end a bit. Supposedly not cleaning them has the opposite effect. I won't argue that it doesn't. It probably does. I just prefer nice clean and shiny Cymbals. Don't get me wrong it's a pain in the ass doing it. I'm currently using 23 cymbals on my kit, so I just gradually grab one or two a week and clean them. I work my way around my kit.
          A friend of mine is in the no clean camp. He prefers the Patina that builds up and says it mellows out his cymbals. I'm not so sure that's his reason or he's just lazy, he also doesn't clean his Kit, car, or anything he owns. perhaps he's hoping for a Patina to develop on his car ? Now if your in the not cleaning camp your done hear For those who do read on. There's all kinds of products to use to clean your cymbals, and all kinds of ways to do it. Here are some of the technique's and products I've employed successfully over the years.
         Every major cymbal company has a cleaner that is specially formulated to clean there cymbals. Bullshit, plain and simple. It's just some kind of metal polish they contract out and have their label put on it. Then they sell tiny bottles for $10 bucks a pop. I have used a brand called " Weinmans" It's available at Wal-Mart and it's like $2.00 for a large bottle. It works great I've used it for years with no adverse effect on my beloved pie's. This is not a recommendation I'm just telling you what I use. I also use their scouring pads for really stained spots. It's like those scrubby pads for pots and pans. But wait T !! won't that scratch my Cymbals ? NO just make sure you get the ones that are formulated to clean Glass cook tops. If they don't scratch glass they ain't scathing a Cymbal.
         If I'm really into it or got a good buzz going I take my car buffer and lightly I mean LIGHTLY buff your Cymbals I leave the buffer on a spot only a few seconds if you do it too long you can heat up your Cymbals and change the molecular structure and ruin your Cymbal. I then finish it off with a nice hand buffing One of those buffing pads they use for cars. Slip your hand into a holder on one side and buff away. In the end you get a gorgeous looking Cymbal. To me It actually sounds a little better coaxing a little bit of high end out of it. Just curious Are you a cleaner or not ? Till next time        T.

Cymbal Line Named !

2010-10-25T11:09:00.000-04:00

Good morning everyone,
T coming at you yet again. We have decided on a series name for Overdrive's first line of cymbals. We have decided to go with the ego-centric and simple T20 name. It's not just because it's a nick name of mine, I really like how it sounds Like a Russian WWII era tank or something. So it's now official The official designation will be Overdrive T20 line of cymbals.
I'm pretty happy with that. It's easy to remember it will be easy to market ( as is the Overdrive name itself) So all in all That worked out well. I think I myself added the 20 to someones suggestion of just the T series. We are looking through our records to see if that was the case. Although we didn't use any one's exact suggestion if you are the person who submitted the T series as a suggestion your going to win the Cymbal anyway.
Now don't disappointed if you suggested it and don't win. We had a surprising amount of Duplicate suggestions and hundreds of responses. Who ever suggested it first wins. We had hundreds and hundreds of suggestions, and we would like to thank each and every one of you for participating. So that really it for today folks just wanted to disseminate that info out there as soon as possible. Till next time, T.

Overdrive Customized Snares

2010-10-24T08:52:00.000-04:00

Gutentag,
I got an interesting email this morning concerning yesterdays blog content. Among other things I mentioned that Overdrive Percussion is considering building a line of custom snares. Perhaps I didn't explain it correctly, or make it clear to what exactly we are attempting to do. So allow me to elaborate a little on it this morning.
One of the issue's I have with the hundreds of Drum Boutique manufacturers that have popped up over the last few years is among other things low resale value. I don't care how " custom" a drum is if it's from a small or unknown company, when you sell it generally your gonna take a bath. That being said it seems to me that many of these companies do little more than assemble a drum. Aside from the finish they all appear pretty much to function the same.
Many use Keller shells which you can purchase from a variety of sources. You can get these shells pre-drilled and the finish already applied some companies just slap on hardware and they're done. I want to emphasise not all boutique companies do this, some make your kit from scratch. They do everything from bending and gluing the ply's to drilling the hardware holes, in short they are true manufactures.
I'm not saying either approach is wrong nor did I mean to imply that yesterday or today. I do feel that many of the smaller companies the main differences between them is in the finishes. As much as I would like to be a Percussion manufacturer at the moment we have our hands full. What I did allude to was in reference to Overdrive Percussion which is already engaged in producing Cymbals that we are also working with a company to produce a line of snare drums for the US market. We are also considering offering our customers a line of customized snare drums, and like everything else we plan to do it a little different. Let me elaborate.
What we plan to offer sometime next year is regular production model snares under the Overdrive brand. We also are planning to offer drummers the opportunity to create their own " customized " snare drums. Here's how we plan to approach it. We are going to have a line or lines of snare drums manufactured, when we receive them we will then strip down the snare to the shell and existing finish. We have decided to forgo the purchasing of shells and hardware and drilling sanding and blah, blah, blah. You get the picture. Instead we have come up with a novel approach to offering drummers the opportunity to customize their snare drums. To create a truly one of a kind instrument.
Cost is always a factor in business, in an undertaking like this it's everything. We are going to have a OEM manufacture a snare drum, we will then strip it bear until only the factory finish is left untouched. This is where we differ greatly with the boutique companies, many their claim to fame is there unlimited choices of finishes. We then plan to retro fit these snares with parts purchased here in the United States from percussion hardware companies. We will do this for 1 or 2 regular lines of snares, these upgraded snares will be our " Top of the Line " snares.
At the same time will offer our customers a chance to order the exact type of hardware he wishes to " Customize" his snare. The choices will be everything from Rims, 1.5 mm, 2.7 mm or 2.7 mm power hoops. To choices in hardware style, coloring, snare throw-offs to tuning rods long, short, medium, coarse thread or fine. even the choice of drum heads will be an option. The choices are limitless and drummers will have an opportunity to create a " Customized " snare drum that won't run them $800 and take 7 months to complete. I hope I have made our idea a little clearer and stated it in a more precise way. That's the plan for now until it changes. and like always till next time. T.

New Products/Brands update

2010-10-23T11:26:00.000-04:00

Hello to all,

Good afternoon everyone. I just wanted to shoot out a quick products and brand update from your favorite Percussion retailer. First let me speak about a brand that's near and dear to my heart Overdrive Percussion. On our You Tube channel there's 3 video's of our final Overdrive Cymbal prototypes. If you haven't already checked them out go to www.youtube.com/ilduce61 to see the videos. They are the final models which will go into production sometime in November. Initially we will be offering 8", 10" & 12" splash. a 14", 16" and 18" crashes, they will all be medium weights. Also of medium weights will be a 20" ride and the 14" HH that will comprise of the first release. Like all our other brands of Cymbals we will be putting together Packages, pretty much along the lines of our Wuhan or Silken packages. We will announce pricing very shortly.

Overdrive Percussion is modeled after Meinl . A percussion company not strictly a cymbal company. We have been working with a manufacture to release a line of snare drums. We have whittled the selection down to 6 models, They will include 2 all maple, a poplar walnut hybrid, a steel snare and a piccolo snare. They will be available at first in a limited number of colors. Like our Cymbals based on sales and demand we will expand the colors and selection if need be. We are just waiting for the first prototypes for us to inspect to arrive.

We also have a half dozen snares coming from a small company in Europe. We are having them only partially manufactured. When they arrive we are going to strip them down and upgrade the hardware from a US Drum parts supplier. It's actually more economical to have them manufacture the snares and then us strip them down and re-tool them with US made hardware. We will also be able to offer our customers custom made snare drums. Essentially we will strip the snare down to it's finished shell and refit the drum with a variety of hardware. Different hoops, Lug styles, Tuning rods and head selection. whatever the buyer chooses. It will be a way for any drummer to essentially create his own custom snares, at a fraction of the price boutique drum companies charge. Were very excited about this particular project.

We have alluded to this deal for several months, but not really wanting to let the " Kat von D " out of the bag before we really had things button up. Cymbals & Snares has inked it's second exclusive distributorship, starting sometime between November and the end of the year we will take delivery on our first order of Coreelo drum heads. We have secured the rights to be their sole US distributor. To say were a excited about this deal is an understatement. Coreelo produces excellent quality drum heads easily on par with any of the big name drum heads currently available in the US market. They make everything from Coated snare drums heads to Heads for High school marching bands. We will do an entire blog on the history and products that Coreelo produces and our plans to market them.

Peace Drums will be joining the roster of brands C & S carries. Some of you may be familiar with them. Doug Rezak, Terry Conway & Nick Mason are all Peace endorsers. In my personal opinion Peace drums along with Coreelo drum heads are just perfect examples of the " Other Name Brands" C & S specializes in. Peace Drums is a full service drum company Making everything from excellent entry level kits, Cymbal stands, bass drum pedals, HH stands to their Highly acclaimed top of the line professional " DNA " series drums. Peace is also known especially to industry insiders for their large and varied amount of snare drums they manufacture. We are looking forward to having them join Cannon, TKO, Taye and Howitzer in our Drum offerings to our fellow drummers.

Also look for Aquarian Drum heads and Moongel as new brands to join the C & S team. I love both products myself. Aquarians Super Kick II bass drum heads IMO are the best bass drum head in the business, It delivers a nice low end punch and unmistakable " Thump" drummers have nocturnal emissions over. As far as Moon gel goes I often talk about it in our product demo videos and we have several video's featuring the effects moongel has on Cymbals. I use moongel on almost every ride cymbal in my personal collection . On my drum heads I use zero rings on every head except my snare for that I use a piece of Moongel. For my money it is absolutely the finest sonic resonance dampening device on the market bar none. We are happy to offer this excellent product to our fellow drummers. Well that's a wrap for this blog I hope the 629.5 people ( that's are average) who read this blog enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. Till Next time Ciao !! T.

The Holidays are Coming..........Again

2010-10-23T09:26:00.000-04:00

Hello subscribers,
T is in the room. Is it just me or does it seem like Christmas was just here ? I suppose as I get older time really does start to fly. I personally look forward to this holiday season with a certain amount of trepidation. I don't mind sharing a little personal info with you guys. My wife and I have ended a 21 year relationship. It was her idea not mine, although I freely admit I was the major cause in the collapse of our relationship, I still love her dearly. Love is not an on/off switch unfortunately mine is still on.
This will be the first holiday season in 21 years I spend without her. No thanksgiving day dinner with her and my family oops her family. See it is so ingrained in me I kinda feel lost. No Christmas and all the trappings that go along with it. The only family I have left is really you guys. My C & S family. So I will pour myself into the company and hopefully that will keep me occupied. I do not mind admitting to you, at this conjuncture in my life I am very sad and very lonely.
Couple that with all the shit that has happened to the company, sometimes I really do feel like shooting myself. However that's just an expression I think the company and it's various websites and interaction I get with all of my customers friends, subscribers and the such really keep me going. Even if it's a self made illusion I keep saying to myself they need me. In the end I know that's not true. If I and C & S were to just drop off the face of the planet today, what real impact have I had on anyone ? You all would simply move on to other drum retailers, other Blogs and other You Tube pages. Up until this moment I think my impact on the drum world and any of you has been negligible at best.
C & S is really all I have, hopefully it will be all I need. I plan on pouring my heart and soul into the company this coming year like never before. I still need to clean up the mess the hacking has caused but once that is cleared up it will be full steam ahead. This morning I'm feeling a little down and overwhelmed. I didn't write this for anyone to feel sorry for me. I made the mess I currently find myself in. I just think writing it down is a little therapeutic for me. I'm so glad I have the company to focus on without it I honestly do not know what I would do. That's all I wanted to say for now. Look for my next blog which will give alot of details of what's coming up site wise and product wise next few months. Till next time. T

Just a qwik Update..........

2010-10-21T10:43:00.000-04:00

Greetings and Salutations,
T here, Unfortunately our Silken order which we were originally scheduled to receive in Roctober is now scheduled for a January delivery. This does not make me very happy, But there is little I can do. Wuhan's expanded New Traditional series is also delayed in arriving. Retailers such as ourselves have been told for almost two months now there coming, there coming. When ? I asked inquisitively. Soon very soon , It's really nobodies fault these things just happen. You know what they say " Stuff Happens" that's not exactly what they say, but I think most of you get it. So we'll just bide our time and hope they arrive before Thanksgiving.
Overdrive Cymbals begins it's first production run in November. That is something that should happen on schedule. However I have been in this bidness long enough to know there's no such thing as a sure thing. Our line is secondary to this companies primary line of Cymbals, technically were probably third or fourth string production level. This company also is subcontracted by one of the BIG3 to produce one of their lines of cymbals. So we aren't that high on the totem pole just yet since we are only just beginning our first production run, but if the response in sales is even remotely like the response we received on You Tube we will sell a thousand pies our first year.
We are starting to really crunch the numbers for our line of cymbals as to what they will retail for. These are Pro-level cymbals all the way that we will offer at a price point that will be in the intermediate pricing level. We'd like to offer the best cymbal in it's price range. To do that we will simply have to make less money than competing brands. That presents challenges all it's own. We still need to make enough money to make it worthwhile, which I'm confident we can do. We may look into another manufacture to produce a line of " High-end" entry level cymbals sometime next year if we have any success with Overdrive's initial offerings.
Hopefully if all goes well we should be offering a full line of products under the Overdrive brand within the next year or two. Most wholesale companies offer it's customers a "house brand" the quality can vary widely. We'd like to offer more than just a "house brand" but a True marketable stand alone Destination brand. That's a lofty goal I know and will take sometime to accomplish but with a lot of hard work and a little luck we should carve out a niche for ourselves and our brand. We will be starting to offer Moongel to our customers by mid November, along with some other handy little items. Our long awaited and much anticipated Web site's debut will be delayed yet again do to some personal issue's that need to be sorted out. look for a spring opening. Well that's it Muchacho's and Muchacha's just a qwikee blog this time out. Till next time............. T.

Worlds Fastest Drummer contest, What does it mean to you ?

2010-10-16T17:07:00.000-04:00

By This time any drummer who is not aware of " The worlds fastest drummer" contest is living under a rock. Just the fact that your reading this blog at all, indicates to me you are NOT ones of those living in yesterday's world. This Phenomena began probably about 10 years ago, and has gotten bigger every year. I'd like to know what your personal take is on this ? One thing is a indisputable fact there are some Kats out there who can play the drums at supersonic speeds. I mean fast real fast so fast that they have to be recorded so a computer can count how many beats he/she plays on there bass drums. When a computer is needed to count your beats you are really moving.

I personally think the whole thing is just silly. Who cares how fast you can play, what is the point of it ? Simply to go fast for the sake of going fast ? Does it enhance the drumming community as a whole at all ? I really don't think so, again I ask what exactly is the point these super speed demons are trying to prove. I'm not opposed to the contest at all, I'm not opposed to being competitive. I just think the title is about as important as being the 1st man to Kayak from South America to Africa or something along those lines. Yeah you did what ? So what.

There's no doubt in my mind it is an accomplishment, But to what level is this accomplishment and to who is this accomplishment important too ? I don't know, certainly not me. Maybe you ? What exactly the reward is for being the undisputed fastest drummer in the world get you ? Maybe a new kit from a sponsoring drum company ? Perhaps the same from a Cymbal company ? Heads, sticks a life time supply of juicy fruit ? Ya got me. I've never seen an add featuring TWFD so I do not believe endorsement deals are pouring in. I know several drum publications make a big deal out of it. Good I'm glad. But eventually the technology will arrive so a robot will be able to be programed to do this. It may take another 25 or 50 years to accomplish this feat but the day will come.

Will they split the contest into different categories ? Human and android ? Or will the robots start to win every year ? I can just see a Drum magazine of the future featuring a picture of a robot on it's cover. THIS YEARS WFD-- A NOKIA ANDROID SAY HELLO TO THE MODEL XRT 4000. eventually it's going to happen. But I'm dangling dangerously close to my next blog. When will technology replace most if not all musicians. That day is coming to. But back to WFD. I don't know why the drum publications make such a big deal out of it. Probably to sell more magazines. I mean after all that's what they do. So my dear friends and subscribers what is your position on the WFD contest ? Do you aspire to this lofty goal ? I certainly don't. Does it interest you a little, Moderately, or alot ? or is your every waking moment obsessed becoming the next WFD ?

I've seen the video's on You Tube and I usually will watch a small snippet of the video for a bit. I'll make a comment to whoever is watching it with me or just to myself saying something like " Holy shit that guys is moving " and then I'm off to watch something else. Sometimes I'll laugh a bit not at the drummer or in a disrespectful way but because it looks funny someone playing so fast. There's no question it takes loads of practice and discipline to get your playing that fast. Everyone should concede that point. The one fundamental question I still must ask myself is Why ? and what in God's name is the point ? Perhaps it's like Mount McKinley it's not the biggest Mountain in the world. The WFD is not the Best drummer in the world. But people who engage in either activity do it because it's their and they can. That's okay by me. Until next time T.

The Art Of Cymbal Making

2010-10-16T00:55:00.000-04:00

Cymbals have been around for centuries. In ancient times they were used in ceramonies, celebrations and war. In many way the prppocess for making cymbals has remained unchanged for centuries. Yet in other ways it has changed considerably. Let's look at the various metals used in Cymbal making.

Copper is the most important metal and makes up the largest portion of most cymbals. Tin is the second most widely used metal in cymbal making. In general student or entry level cymbals contain about 8% tin and 92% copper in it's make up. These are known as B8 cymbals. High end and professional level cymbals are made up of 20% tin and 80% copper. These are known as B20 cymbals and are generally considered the best alloy to use in the creation of cymbals.

Any level or quality cymbals can be made with various amounts of other materials. These can be phosphorus, gold,nickel,zinc,manganese,aluminum and silver. The type of sound required of the cymbalsmith will dictate what types and in what amounts these other metals are used.

A 20% tin and 80% copper alloy is known as Bell Bronze. This formula produces Cymbals that have excellent dynamic range. The 8% and 92% copper formula is reffered to as Malleable Bronze this can be made into sheets and stamped into shape. THis greatly reduced manufacturing costs. Cymbals made in this way are often used in student and entry level set ups. because of their relatively cheap price and they are not as sensative as B20 cymbals making them a little easier to play for the beginner who's hand coordination has yet to develop.

Two-phase or double phase alloy is always B20 bronze or Bell bronze meaning some of the tin is not completely dissolved into the copper grains,but exsistbetween them. This makes the Bronze stronger , harder and more brittle than the malleable single phas bronze. THis is important because it effects how each type of metal is formed into cymbals. There are two basic methods for forming the basic shape of the cymbal.

Let's explore casting first. My personal favorite. First copper and tin are melted together in a furnace. This cannot be done in any old hap hazzard way. The prescious amount of each metal must be mixed in, the furnance must be kept at a certain tempature this is knowledged pass down from generation to generation. The molten liquid is then poured into molds This is the way bell bronze has been made for centuries. Large and small companies still use this technique today. The mold resembles the cymbals final shape and dimensions. But much more work is required before the final product is achieved.

Stamping is the second type of method to produce cymbals. The single phase maleable alloys are rolled into large sheets of bronze. A machine then stamps a " blank" sheet of bronze into a very near likeness of the final cymbal form. B20 or bell bronze cymbals cannot be manufactured this way because of its strenght and hardness it would crack. It can only be produced by casting.

So at this point the two methods of cymbal manufacturing have produced essential;ly two blank sheets of bronze. They were arrived at in very different manners. Now the refining of the cymbals takes place. The methods of shaping are universal but how there applied and done are not the same due to the metal types B8 vs B20 Cast vs sheet stamped.

There are 3 ways in cymbal manufacturing that are used to creat the sound and finish of each model. Hammering, this serves various purposes for the cymbal especially the cymbal. The bell is less formed in the casting process, the shape of the bell is formed litterally by blow anfter blow from a blunt hammer. In sheet bronze hammering has more to do with altering the attack and sustain. The sheet stamp cymbals shap was basically formed when it was stamped out early in the cymbal making process.

Hammering can be done by several different methods. The old fashioned way by hand or a more modern method by machine. machines today can be programmed for repeatable patterns or can be controlled by the cymbal smith. Hand hammered cymbals tend to have a darker lower and richer tones. Also each cymbal is a unique instrument because the hammer blows are applied at will of the cymbal smith. Cymbals hammered by Automated machines tend to sound much more uniformed since the machines are computer controlled and can replicate exactly each hammer blow. there is much less variation between cymbals of the same size in the same series. Machine Hammered cymbals that are controlled by a person naturally fall in the middle of the others when it comes to sound. Be aware that some companies claim their cymbals are " hand Hammered" when in fact they are hammered by a machine and controlled by a person !! That's pretty cheesy in my opinion.

Lathing is where the cymbal is spun on a machine and the metal surface is actualled peeled awayby a chisel. Like Hammering this can be done by the hand of a cymbal smith or machine. For Bell Bronze ( B20) Lathing is essential for creating the shape of a cymbal. Sheet bronze lathing is essential for sound developement.

Once a cymbal is hammered and lathed now comes the final step in cymbal making creating some type of finish. Some cymbals will be allowed to tarnish, The formation of an oxide on the outter layer of a cymbal it's surface tends to give the cymbal a more mellow sound This coating on a cymbal is also known as a patina. A recent development is what is known as a " Brilliant Finish" This is accomplished by using an abrasive polish adding metal plating a laquer or a combo of these to prevent oxidation from forming. Brilliant cymbals are by far my favorites. I hope this has shed some light on the creation of cymbals. T

The Holidays are Coming.

2010-10-14T11:10:00.000-04:00

Hey dear friends ,
T here As we approach the upcoming holiday season I cannot feel a little apprehensive. The Hack Attack of September 28th has kinda left me a little unnerved. We are still dealing with the fallout from that. Our tech who has helped repair our system believes we either caught a virus or one was intentionally installed. Suddenly our Ebay store's email is not working. We have not received a single email in 3 days, I thought it was very very odd the other morning when I went to check our overnight emails and we had none. Not a single one, This has never happened. We are way to big a company to not get one email overnight. We get a ton of emails everyday. Not to receive a single one was odd to say the least. I soon realized we had yet another problem. Ebay and our tech are working as I type to correct this situation.

Enough about the hacking I'm sick of talking about it. let talk about what's coming up for the holiday season. We should have a much larger inventory than we did last year. Curently, we stock between 100-120 items at any one time. We should be at at least 150 products for you guys to choose from. We will have Wuhan's entire offerings every China and every New Traditional they are offering. We will have more Diril Cymbals Bringing in Almost the entire D & Ice series. Hopefully we will have our First order of Overdrive cymbals in by then, Our Silken selection may be a little sparse It's looking like Silken won't be able to ship our new order until January. But were gonna make a push for at least a small portion to be delivered to us for Christmas. That's really the only potential bummer for the holidays.

We have just reached a deal with a foreign manufacture of Drum heads to be their exclusive US distributor. We will have them in for the holidays, these are high quality drum heads and we will be offering these with a special introductory price because we want everyone to try these heads. They are easily on par with anything currently on the market. We are very excited to work with this company when we receive in hand our first order we will announce the name of this brand. Along with Silken and Overdrive this makes the third product we are the exclusive US distributors for. We are going to kick our wholesale division into gear after the first of the year.

We will also be bringing in a more extensive line of student products, practice pads, metronomes and various other things the aspiring drummers needs. We will also be expanding our hardware selection for the holidays. We have been working for sometime with a drum manufacture developing a line of snare drums, we are in the final stages of development and will be placing our initial order by the end of the month. They will be marketed under our own " Overdrive" brand. Hopefully they will be ready for the holiday season. I just wanted to give you guys a quick update on the goings on here at C & S. Thanks everyone until next time. T.

Hacking Fallout & Repercussions

2010-10-12T18:35:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone,

This is T writing to you again. I gotta admit I'm down in the dumps today. This Hack Attack we suffered was a major blow to us. We haven't yet fully recovered from it. We are still behind in our shipping primarily because our Paypal account was emptied. It's hard to ship product when your funds are so low. Luckily we have secured a loan to get us through this dark gloomy period of C & S history. The problem is we don't get our cash for 2 more week, In business Two weeks can be an eternity. We have done the proper thing and informed all of our customers. Most have been great and more than understanding, a few however don't care in the slightest. They ordered a product from us and they want it--- period. I can't blame them but giving the set of extenuating circumstances you'd think most people would be at minimum understanding. Sadly some are not.

I think that's what bothers me most not being able to do anything about it. I'm just sitting waiting for our loan to come through. I'm just sitting waiting to be able to ship out people's purchases. It's really frustrating. I don't like negative feedback's let's face it who does ? I get allot of customers who mention our feedback approval rating as one of the reasons they purchased from us. It's important to maintain a good feedback rating. Now I wouldn't mind half as much if these negatives came our way because of something we did. I could accept the fact we screwed up and live with that, But to get negative feedback's because of a situation beyond our control is very irritating. It really pisses me off.

Our feedback is more than good, in fact I would go so far as to say many companies would love to have our feedback. Not for our 99% approval rating but more so the comments people leave for us. It's really gratifying to send someone out their purchases knowing you've sold them a quality product at a good price. It's part of the business I enjoy immensely. However when circumstances like the one we are dealing with interferes with the operation it's extremely upsetting, for both the customer and US. I cannot stand shipping stuff late. Especially when the circumstances are beyond our control. This Hack ATTACK is clearly a set back For C & S, We will undoubtedly get a few negative feedback's. On your Ratings section they stick out like a sore thumb and in the short run they will hurt us in the long run who knows ?

So you get an idea and you work hard trying to make it a reality. Like most things success doesn't come overnight. It comes one sale at a time, one customer at a time. You look for products making sure they pass muster. You list them fill the description in, Take your hi-quality photo's and make a video and you do this over and over. At the end of the day you price your product so people can afford it, so you can be competitive with other stores and hopefully turn a profit. Then after doing this for better than two years someone comes along and in one fell swoop literally destroys what you have built. To say I'm pissed off, frustrated or aggravated is an understatement. You can start at F'n livid and go from there. It is so debilitating mentally and physically you really are lost.

A soldier plows on which I plan to do. I cannot stop now, I won't throw in the towel despite what has happened. I'll deal with the negative feedback's and deal with the fallout from unhappy customers. It's just so aggravating that circumstances beyond my control were the root of the problem. Everything has new passwords, Our tech who helped us out of this mess has added a second layer of security, But I'm sure a determined hacker will bust through that. However I suspect this was a pseudo inside job so I don't think most hackers would bother with our site. It's not like there's a pot of gold waiting for them and this ain't the other side of the rainbow. I think after the dust settles and things finally clear up we should be okay. It's gonna take a little more than a Hacking to put us down for the count. I am determined to continue to build my company to it's full potential and nothing or know one is going to stop us. Thanks everyone T.

You Tube Channel Breaks 100,000 views !!!

2010-10-10T21:29:00.000-04:00

T here,

This is gonna be a quick one almost a blog-ette. As part of our efforts to build a nice drumming community online and increase our visibility and web presence. We knew we needed more than just a retail site. So back in February we started a Blog and a C & S You Tube channel. These avenues allow us to communicate in a more personal an indepth manner than possible with our Ebay store and until we get our own proprietary website ( where we can do anything) these sites are a godsend.

We decided right from the start that our YT channel wouldn't be just an ancillary site for C & S, we would allow all comments to be published with no censorship. A place where drummers can say what's on their mind. Unless a comment is derogatory or inflamatory in it's nature unless it critiseises someone personally other than me, we would let them stand on their own. It has proved quite successful.

We now have just under 120 video's on our channel. It has really begun to build quite a following with just under 250 subscribers and friends. Today we reached a milestone by breaking the 100,000 Views/hits mark. That is in just 8 months. I guess we must be doing something right. I'd like to thank everyone for making C & S's YT channel a rousing success. For me a total vindication that I'm on the right path and I assure all of you the very best is yet to come. Thank You everyone. T. president, Cymbals & Snares

HACKED & ATTACKED !!

2010-10-08T09:18:00.000-04:00

Hey Everyone,

T here again. This is a disclaimer for this posting there will be the use of bad language in this particular blog, there's just know other way to describe how I am feeling. My company Cymbals & Snares was hacked into on Sunday September 28th. To be honest some people are just Jerkoff's plain and simple. Who ever perpetrated this egregious attack will get theirs. I am both infuriated and devastated at the same time. I honestly hope whoever was behind the hacking gets killed in a horrible Automobile accident. That may be a little strong for some of you, but not me I'm just getting warmed up. It has caused irreparable harm to my company in both lost sales, money & reputation.

I have spent the last two years building a unique Percussion retail site. Trying to be everything that I thought was lacking in the drum retail market. Everything from product selection to customer service I not only know we can do it better, but for the better part of two years we have. Then something like this happens. Some really Fucked up individuals come along and screw with not only your company and business but your lively hood. This is not something I take to very well. As always I try to run a business that is open honest and transparent to it's customers, that's the way it should be.

Let me begin, September was a record month for us in many ways. We had a record number of hits on our website. We had a record number of transactions. We shipped a record number of products and naturally we set a new sales record. It was all good, We are just waiting on our holiday order from Silken. We just finalized a second distribution deal with a major foreign company, they make drum heads and we are quite anxious to introduce them to the US market. We received our final prototype of Overdrive Cymbals which have been warmly received by our customers. We were rolling and the tumultuous spring we had and it's issue's were squarely behind us. Then this happens and we once again for the second time this year face a disaster of epic proportions.

I went to turn on my computer Sunday morning. The website was having trouble coming up, This happens from time to time poor or a slow Internet connection are a hassle but usually clear themselves up in due time. I then decided to check our Non-ebay store email. Hmm that's not coming up either, don't ask me why but sometimes if I just reboot the computer it seems to clear a problem like this up. So I close everything down and hit the re-start button I'd come back to this in a little while. When I came back there was no difference. I finally got the computer up and running and I could tell instantly there was something wrong. I initially thought we had gotten a virus, soon I realized it was much more. Our analytics page did not look right, our shipping page didn't look right But I still hadn't realized the magnitude of what had happened.

It soon became apparent we had a serious problem. The magnitude was soon apparent, money had been purloined from our Paypal account, I grew both concerned and pissed off someone didn't just screw around with our computer someone had stolen from us, This was now a crime. Our computers were essentially frozen unable to access our store and soon we realized it was not confirmed to just our Ebay store. Our Yahoo mail account was compromised our Blog was screwed with ( you can access all our sites from a central point ) Once your " In " you can go just about anywhere Cymbals & Snares has a web presence.

A friend who's a computer wiz came over to see if he could straighten out the problem. After looking at it for awhile and me explaining what had happened including cash " Missing " from our account he uttered a phrase I would come all to familiar with " I think somebody Hacked into your site" At first I really didn't think that was correct. Who the hell would want to hack into my companies site ? For what ? We are a still a smaller company, but we are growing in every aspect. Sales, web presence and our wholesale business have all registered very healthy increases this year. Still what would you gain from it ? Slowly the picture became clearer. I started to form an opinion who and why this was done.

Legally I cannot accuse anyone unless I have proof who dun it. We do not. This has been such a setback for C & S it's not funny. Our shipping is in disarray, Our paypal account was emptied crippling our efforts to catch up on our late shipping. I don't mind getting the occasional negative feedback but to get negative feed backs for something beyond our control really pisses me off. I have been in contact with almost everyone who is waiting for their products and honestly so many have been more than supportive I can't ask for more. Still I do fear the inevitable 1or 2 or 3 negatives we will surely receive. I have one customer who already said he's leaving us a negative regardless of what happened. I offered him a refund with a free gift, not to "buy" him off but because it's the right thing to do. He turned it down he wants his cymbals and all I can do is wait for his negative comments. In a situation like this I feel helpless. It's just so aggravating. You work so hard to develop a company with a sterling reputation and it can get trashed overnight. Apparently some people could care less what has happened. It's aggravating and sad. So my friends that's it in a nut shell I really can't go on this is just to upsetting. I'll finish at another time. Before I go welcome subscriber 11. T.

Columbus Day !! Score one for the Eye- Talians !!

2010-10-08T00:50:00.000-04:00

How youz doin tonight ?

T here. Before I really get rolling I just thought I'd throw these useless statistics at you. Although this C & S blog has only 10 subscribers as of yet, Our You Tube channel just broke 200 subscribers last week With friends included it brings the number to a total of 245 subscribers. Add the 10 loyalist from this Blog , and we get 255 not bad at all so far considering we really only got both of these two sites under the company banner in the last 8 months. So effectively those figures represent 8 months worth of activeity, I say this not to laud any accomplishments this may represent. I just think to me it's gratifying to see so many drummers in just a short time climb on board the "Other Name Brand " bandwagon. I also think it's cool when a company/person/blogwriters or whatever share some info back with the people who stop by and read a blog. This blog is now read on average 500 times a month. September 2010 we set a new "Views" record, recording a total of 797 views.Our You Tube Channel has just shy of 99,000 downloads. Not too shabby for 8 months, operating as a true ancillary site for C& S's Ebay store.

I quote stuff like this from time to time, Because I know when I go for example to a drum forum. I get inquisative about the stats of that site , how many people have been here ? Am I alone ? I dunno I just find stuff like that interseting. Perhaps you do also. I find these statistics particularly gratifying because as I stated earlier it's nice to see an idea or concept that you yourself are working on or developing , being embraced by other drummers. Continuing with my useless statistics Our blog is most popular in the following countries The United States, Australia, Russia, Peru, United kingdom, Costa Rica and Luxembourg. That's right Luxembourg, For those of you who are unsure of where luxembourg is it's one of Europe's smallest countries wedged in between Germany and France. One of the things about running a Internet business is the far reach it has.

Later this weekend I will post a complete rundown on what exactly has transpired In the HACK/ATTACK of last month. T.

Overdrive Cymbals

2010-09-18T16:44:00.000-04:00

Today my friends Cymbals & Snares introduces Overdrive cymbals, This is C&S's own "house" brand of Cymbals. You may or may not realize it but C & S's is not only a retail company but also a wholesale company ( business to business). We are the US distributors for Silken Cymbals, Overdrive cymbals and all Overdrive brand products and we are in discussion's with an overseas drum head company to distribute thier products here in the US. But let me get into some basic about this whole other side of our operations, and give you some info on that.

Cymbals & Snares opened our cyber doors two years ago as a percussion retail business, but from the start I knew that we would eventually get into Wholesaling and hopefully Distributing percussion products. The wholesale/distributing " thing " sorta just happened a short while after our affiliation with Silken Cymbals began. Then another opportunity to retail/wholesale another product arose. We are still working on it. Any good wholesaler has it's own house brand of products. LPD Music has TKO brand, Universal Percussion has several brands under it's belt but It's true "house" brand is Cannon brand. It goes on and on. I knew that if C & S's Drumpire were to really flourish to all it's potential we needed to Wholesale and we needed a house brand.

The first product I wanted to develop was a line of Cymbals. Now there are several ways to go about it. Thier is what is known as re-branding where either you or the company you purchase a certain brand/line of cymbals from removes the original brand and series and is replaced by your own. This is a very common option. We choose the harder and more costly approach, working with our manufacture we gave them specific parameters to adhere to for each type of cymbal. It took quite awhile to finish but we are happy with the results. In looking back we probably jumped the gun by starting with a line of Cymbals, and not just having something re-branded. We're still new and we can error now and again. In the end I'm so happy how Overdrive Cymbals came out I'm glad we did what we did.

Funny how quickly things change. Financially and socially my life was as far away to where I am today as I could ever imagine. Due to unforseen circumstances our product development budget is pretty small at the moment. Hopefully with increased holiday sales we'll be able to start to fund our product development program fully again. We really have some hot Hardware and some pretty trick items comming down the line. Stick around were just getting rolling. T.

A Big Thank You To some great customers.

2010-09-06T12:57:00.000-04:00

When, I started Cymbals & Snares It was really a combination of feeling " I can do it better" and an over all frustration with the current state of affairs in the Instrument retailing business. Combined with the idea of a Store that specialized in the brands we do Could be a reasonable success. Along the way I have promoted the idea of a "community " A place were drummers could share idea's an opinions and just discuss products or drumming in general. It doesn't always have to be about a sale. It's gratifying to see that after two years , the business is still even here! And the idea's I originally started out with are still relevant and are really beginning to take shape and form.

The idea of building a loyal customer base a "community " of drummers is really taking shape and hold. I have some fantastic people who are loyal regular customers. There is really a kinda Tier system developing. There's the super regulars, and the semi regulars. Even the occasional shopper who returns is vitally important to me. In business the absolute best compliment one can receive is a return customer. That tells you he was satisfied with all the aspects of our transactions and has decided to do business again with you. There's alot of places to spend your money. I'm honored that people choose C & S to do it.

Now I'm gonna name some names. Don't get bent if I didn't name you. This blog is just the first in a series that I will be thanking my customers. These are the guys on my mind at the moment. There's AL from Brooklyn, He is a regular and a loyal shopper. Since he's not far from me I'd like to check out his band if they ever play S.I. or jersey. Bernie, a really good guy very interesting and intelligent guy, he's in the "industry" and also attempting to do his own thing. I wish him well. He's also doing some things for me that is just unbelievably cool. I owe this man big time. Thomas from Cali, a really big and loyal C&s fan. I'm lucky he found my store. When we finally get C&S shirts printed up He get the very First one on us. He deserves it. Wojtek from TX, He purchased from me when I was ill. He was so supportive it isn't funny. It took about a month to finally get him his products. But all he kept telling me was get better. He's looking for more Items and he will get takin care of. Just a super nice caring guy.

That is just a very few the tip of the iceberg sorta speak. I could go on and on. The point being with guys like that on your side, it gives you a feeling of " Vindication" sorta speak. That my ideas and hopes for a drum shop like I wanted is beginning to bear fruit. Oh, does that fruit taste sweet. Well just a quick blurb and thank you's today on Labor day. Everyone enjoy your holiday may it be a good one. Till next time T

Labor Day Weekend Sales

2010-09-04T05:08:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone, This is T , well Labor day is upon us and as the symbolic close of summer has decended upon us. So has another annual right of passage. The Labor Day Sale. I just wanted to let our growing family know that were having one too. Every item we have, Every Cymbal, tom set. Cymbal stand, Snare drum EVERYTHING IS 10% OFF !!! This is probably our most extensive and comprehensive sale we have ever had. If you have been flirting with a purchase This weekend is the time to strike.

This sale just doesn't pertain to the drummers themselves, Girlfriends, Boyfriends, Mom & Dads aunt's and Uncles Hell even your cousins Vinnie & Salvatore who are each doin a Nickle at east jersey state got paypals accounts. It's a thing known as presents. It certainly not to early to start shopping for that special someone for Christmas. FYI Cymbals don't go bad or spoil they be fine purchased today for a christmas gift. Not trying to push anyone I just feel obligated to bring up that point.

So If ya get a chance check out our website for some of the best prices on percussion equipment all year. Here is just a small example TKO 7 ply all Maple Piccolo snare, with triple flanged hoop just $120 something. TKO 8100 add on toms $125.00 Evans head packs starting at $ 34.99 !! All Wuhan Cymbal packs on sale including the super popular Mega Pack featuring 8 brilliant finished cymbals and a cymbal bag was $399 now $359 plus Free shipping, What I'm I nuts ?? My shrink said something like that last week.

I want everyone to enjoy your Holiday weekend and if your in the mood to add something to your kit or wanna just by a friend a gift stop by www.cymbalsandsnares.com for some of the absolute lowest rock bottom prices we have offered all year. Till next time T

Cymbals & Snares pulls a hatrick this week !!

2010-09-02T23:01:00.000-04:00

August, a virtual dead sea in retailing for us and many other business's it's the slowest month of the year. Many indie's and small mom & pop shop if they take a vacation and close up shop for a week or two it will be in August. It's the biggest vacation month of the year. One last shot at relaxation before the kids head back to school and the inevitable march towards holiday madness and mayhem ensue's. Unless your in a tourist area or your a general merchadiser like Target , Sears or Walmart who do alot of back to school business August sucks for sales.

This year we repeated our stategy for dealing with this in our 2nd annual DOG DAZE OF SUMMER SALE. It worked rather well. Our sales were up over last August but we also have a whole lot more going on than we did last year at this time. We have You Tube, We have this Blogger and we have more inventory. So for us in a year to year comparison we did satisfactry business. Our store traffic was up by more than double and page views at our store were more than triple.

For the first time last week all three sign on list we have ,one for our stores mailing list a blogger subscriber list and our You Tube subscriber list all added members. Two of the three always seem to add a subscriber or two. One will add a bunch another maybe just one the third will be dead. Last week a barrier of sorts was smashed as we saw enrollment lets call it at all three sites rise for the first time together. Kinda cool atleast from our perspective. Putting in time and effort to try and create good solid content for our fellow drummers and watching all 3 intertwined website's that make up The Cymbals & Snares world grow simultaneuosly. I don't wanna make more out of it than there is , but when a barrier falls it feels good. That's all I got for you tonight my friends just a quick blurb that a very small but important accomplishment has taken place. Thank you all who participate. till next time............. T

Happy Birthday Cymbals & Snares We turn 2 today.

2010-08-31T18:28:00.000-04:00

September 1st 2008, The virtual doors of my company opened for business. We offered exactly 5 products for sale. All Wuhan cymbals 3 "S" series splashes and 2 china's the 12" and 16" models. Not really to much to crow about sorta speak, but they say a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. That was C&S's first steps. It's not really anything to brag about anyone with an idea and a half a brain could accomplish what I have. In fact I think most of you would be far more successful than I. Whether we are a success or not is still a very much open question, I'm just happy that we are still in business.

In the two years we have been a company we have completed several thousand sales. Although are Ebay feedback is only now approaching the 550 mark. Even an Ebay rep I recently talked to remarked that despite what she said was " above average satisfaction" My company had a below average feedback response. Both she and I found that to be a bit curious. Over 99% positive feedback, yet so few bother to even give us feedback. I suppose it's just a quirk of doing business on line. The experience has offered me both elation and bitter disappointment. Overall it's been way more satisfactory than not, I have become friends with many customers. I have meet some extremely cool people and when they say how happy they are with their purchase it really gives me a sense of accomplishment. A satisfaction that really is hard to describe.

Since we opened our doors our steady in stock line of products usually is between 100-125 products. We've opened 2 ancillary sites a Blog www.cymbalsandsnares.blogspot.com/ and a You Tube channel www.youtube.com/ilduce61 Both serve as a way to communicate with customers and other drummers allows us to give really decent product video's and pretty pertinent written info. I set out into the world of E-commerce with an idea of building a community of drummers where information could be exchanged and a store at it's center to tie everything together. Has This ambition been achieved ? I suppose the jury is still out on that one, My own personal feelings is that we should be doing better and be bigger than what we are. Yet I cannot ignore the heartfelt support C & S has received and the number of people who have signed on as a friend, subscriber or however you'd like to refer to these people. On our 3 sites, It gives me reason to pause and say perhaps I am on to something, and two years is hardly time enough to declare success or failure.

So we plod through day after day trying to attract new customers and friends to be part of the C & S world. Statistics don't really mean squat they can be easily used for or against an argument just as easy, depending on your viewpoint. When you run a business whether it's an online or physical store you deal with tons and tons of numbers. The numbers of sales you made, the amount of each sale, how long was someone in your store, where did they come from, it goes on and on. It's really way more than I signed on for but I'm in the thick of it now so there's no going back. I wouldn't have it any other way, I enjoy it too much. I just want C & S to grow and grow and slowly but surely we have.

The central theme of C & S has been and always will be "The home of the Other Name Brands". It gives me great satisfaction to help promote and turn on drummers to excellent little known brands or products, and have them be completely satisfied with them. I get a sense of accomplishment doing that, seeing and building a company based on an idea you had and watching it embraced and supported by drummers all over the world is a good feeling. It has been successful enough to keep this entire operation a float for the last two years I hope we can keep on going as strong as we have been.

I don't have any plans on going anywhere anytime soon. I hope those of you reading this feel the same. We have some big plans for the future what company doesn't ? There are some very solid opportunities and avenue's we are exploring, there's a lot of hit and misses when you try and be the "alternative source" for percussion products. Not everything we order or try out makes it to the store, for various reasons. Quality, need, pricing there are as many reason for something not making it through are screening process as their are products. Still we try and are consistently looking for product's from the "Other Guys" to bring to you. There is just so much out there it's overwhelming at times. Quite frankly it wears you out at times. Sometimes I wonder how much easier it would be just to sell mainstream well known brands, But then we wouldn't be us and we'd be just another percussion site.

I could go on forever but I need to wrap this up. I would at this time like to thank every single person who has supported C & S either through purchases participation in our 3 websites or simply just talking to your friends about our company. Were Two years old today and I suppose in the scope of things it really is a little pre mature to talk in terms of success or failure. Just the fact I'm writing this must mean something what exactly that is I do not know. I do know that I will keep on doing what I have been for the last two years and with a little luck we will keep on growing and keep on doing what we have been. I sincerely hope you all stick around for the ride. Till next time my friends. T.

How is it you became a Drummer ?

2010-08-30T18:31:00.000-04:00

I really hope we get a few responses here, I'd like to hear how is it you all came to be drummers. I had always wanted to play an instrument, and from a very early age I had been attracted to the drums. In my grammar school they offered music lessons right after school. However the instrument's they offered didn't interest me at all, but learning how to play one did. I remember my parents telling me you can always switch to something else but at least you'll get the basics of playing an instrument. I thought about it for awhile and I was just so fascinated how people could do what they do with a piece of wood with strings or a head stretched across it, or a piece of brass twisted into crazy shapes I decided to take up the .......... Violin. I hated it. but I schlepped through a year or so of after school lessons and even did a concert with my class. After the show I realized I had reached the pinnacle, The Zenith of my Violin career it was on to bigger and better things.

Now our school for some reason did not offer drums or guitar lessons. The was after all the late 60's so maybe it was just long haired hippies who played those instruments I really don't know. But your choice was limited to what you could play. In about 5th grade I took up the Trumpet, I hated it. A year later and my trumpet career followed my Violin career it was over. it appeared to me at least I would never find a " cool" instrument to play. The next few years came and went All through Jr High I watched as my friends and kids at school took guitar, bass, drum and saxophone lessons. This was about the time Kids began to form Proto bands on their own.

I started High School in September 1975, I often would take a different bus home than the one I was assigned to if I were gonna hang out with some of my friends. My oldest and one of my dearest friend Antnie had an older brother Who was out of H.S. and had a job, Gerry was probably about 20 at the time. One day in school Antnie told me his brother had purchased a drum set and I should come over and mess around with it after school. His brother was cool and had no problem letting us fool around on it before he got home from work. For the first time in several years I was excited about playing an instrument again. I thought about it all day.

On the bus ride home all my friend did was describe the kit, what color it was ( Blue Sparkle) He talked about the cymbals the drum heads everything. It would probably be hilarious to listen to that very conversation today, two kids talking about an instrument neither one of us really knew anything about. My friend spoke with great reverence about his brother and how much the kit cost and how good a quality his drums and cymbals were. The bus ride seemed like it took 6 months to get us the 4 miles we lived from the school, I remember looking out the window to see if a dog sled team was pulling the behemoth of a bus. We finally got to my friends house and ran up the stairs , my buddy opened the door to his brothers bedroom and there lay before the coolest looking Blue Sparkle 5 piece pearl drum kit.

Initially the kit seemed to have a halo around it an aura if you will. I just stood there looking at it. My friend instantly jumped on the kit and began to play the one and only beat he would ever learn. We would take turns playing along with records, just messing around and having fun. I thought to myself now this is COOL. We had a blast on that kit. It wasn't long before I approached my parents and asked about taking drum lessons. My parents God rest their souls were always very supportive of my musical endeavors. They agreed to pay for lessons and I was soon taking Drum lessons at a music school in the next town over. The school sold practice pads and sticks, my first practice pad was 3 pieces of wood in an A frame tipped on it's side with a big piece of rubber on it. My first drum book was the classic " progressive steps to Syncopation for the Modern drummer By Ted Reed.

Who knows if I ever would have taken the steps to play the drums hadn't that happened. I was always interested in the drums, Drums and bass guitar were always my favorite instruments but I often wonder if I ever would have become the drummer that I am today. Perhaps I owe it all to a guy named Gerry Petoia. The drums came into my life in the fall of 1975 and have never left. Things come and go in my life but the one thing perhaps the only true constant of my life have been the drums. I honestly don't know what I would do without them. How about You ? Till next time. T

Cymbals & Snares You Tube Channel

2010-08-29T15:05:00.000-04:00

IN my opinion to have a truly interactive web based retail operation you need more than just a web store. In support of our Ebay store we also have a blog which if your reading this you probably have already figured out. We also have a You Tube channel Which of course we always put convenient links too. www.youtube.com/ilduce61 Like that. What I'm trying to accomplish is a comprehensive Internet Drumpire that is totally user friendly and interactive. Each day a little more gets accomplished, each day I learn a little more, each day things get a little closer to reality.

The Business itself which is the engine that powers everything gets a little stronger. Our customer base gets bigger as does our following on You Tube and Blogger. Our You Tube channel which I'd like to concentrate on has seen explosive growth since it's integration into the C & S store. Although The channel is a year old, it was unused it just sat there I put no video's on it I never even visited the site. Cruising YT one day I realized there were so many drum and cymbal video's on it I should consider utilizing this avenue as a way to advertise my products and company. We had been using video's on our Ebay store almost from the start, It was stupid and a serious oversight on my part not to utilize this avenue of communication.

So 6 months ago I began to upload our product video's to our YT channel and a literal explosion happened which has not subsided since. We now have approximately 125 video's on our Channel which have received tens of thousands of hits in that time. I have also interacted with questions from hundreds of viewers. We have built a following of over 200 devotee's and we grow bigger and stronger all the time. It's a good feeling to know an Idea that peculated in my damaged brain could come to fruition like it has. I'd like to thank everyone who has purchased product from us, who have joined our Blog and joined our You Tube channel. I'd also like to thank everyone who has signed up for our store newsletter. Although if you put all of the people together that I just mentioned it only comes to a little over 300 people. It's tiny by comparison to the big guys in the game. We will not stop until we are one of the big guys in the game.

Our next efforts will be to boost our inventory and work on expanding the reach and scope of our Blog. Thia is another excellent way to interact with other drummers and customers. It is another avenue which has been underutilized by my company. I work hard at building a reputation of honesty and trust with our store and the info I dish out on our You Tube channel . Doing the same on our blog is just a natural extension. Till next time T

Were getting there

2010-08-27T02:53:00.000-04:00

They say " Rome wasn't built in a day" well apparently neither was my Internet drumpire. It has taken a considerable amount of work and perseverance to get where I am today. I'm not complaining in fact I love every minute of it. We have certainly gained a loyal cadre of followers who consistently shop with us and visit and participate in our you tube site or our blogger site. It's gratifying to know as our companies reputation builds so does the trust and respect people have for it. It's nice that people will ask me questions about what to buy and why. It's really nice when someone writes back to me sometimes weeks later saying" hey T that advice you gave me was on the money " Being successful isn't all about dollars and sense.

It really gives me a sense of accomplishment when I can help out a fellow drummer. Whether he buys something or not, you did a good thing and that will be rewarded with maybe a sale from someone reading that exchange or a sale from that individual next time. Gratification comes in many forms. Instant is just one small part of it. As we quickly approach our second birthday I am thinking of doing a thank you Video to all who have participated in the growth of Cymbals & Snares. We have some really big things in the works, so big in fact if someone had said to me just 3 months ago just 90 short days ago this would be happening to you and your company I would have laughed. Speaking of laughing there were more than a few snickers among people I know when I announced I had opened a on line drum business. In a few months well see who's laughing now.

Anyway this is a short one tonight folks it's 3:09 am and I'm having a bout of sleeplessness, It's a terrible thing when it happens so instead of sitting around doing nothing I'd dash out a blog real quick. One that just says how much I'm enjoying the business, how much I enjoy interacting with everyone and how much I look forward to what the future holds. Till next time T

Our Audience, building one durmmer at a time

2010-08-24T07:13:00.000-04:00

Good Morning everyone! Today C & S hit a milestone of sorts, Our you tube channel hit 200 friends and subscribers overnight. Compared to many you tube channels that's nothing, but were not talking about any channel were were talking about ours. That's something I'm pretty proud of, after all weve only been up and running for 6 months. Technically weve got a year under our belt but for the first six months we were a channel in name only. No Video's no content nothing.

We were using a pic hosting site that didn't allow for inbedding of Video's on our Ebay store. One day a friend suggested I incorporate our you tube site as our pic hosting site and embed our video's into out listings. This way potential buyers never leave your site. It was a great idea and we never looked back. After we started to develope our You tube site and add content, we almosy instantly began to attract followers.

Alot of our content is unique brands you normally don't see are suddenly alive in front of you. It's as if drummers were waiting for this channel to come along. Our Video's are different than most drum video's. There a little longer, we get more into explaining about the cymbal from it's alloy make up to it's sound to it's finish. We try not to just sit there and play a pattern on a ride we like to talk about the ride and highlight any unique and interesting sttributes it may have.

When we first started Cymbals & Snares I honestly had no idea where it was gonna go. Deep down inside I knew it was a marketable I dea. I knew if we positioned ourselfves properly in the market place we could go somewhere and we have. There's been some mistakes along the way and they'll be more. It's the kinds thing that you learn as you go, and were learning. One thing is for sure if we've attracted over 200 pe0ple in six motnhs to out You Tube site, our Blogger sute and our store newsletter we nust be doing something right. Now if we can just figure out what it is...... Till Next time T

Add Campaign In full Swing

2010-08-22T13:31:00.000-04:00

Any Successful business must advertize it's exsistence and it's products. That would be especially true for a business like ours. It's not that having a drum shop is all that strange, It isn't. What makes us different is our product selection and our theme " Home of the Other Name brand" That makes us a little different. You want to educate any potential customer that's he's not gonna see Pearl and Tama kits as far as the eye can see. He won't be bangin on any Zildjians or Sabians. It's only fair to him and to us. If you have no intrest in checking out alternative brands then don't come in. Because you ain't gonna find anything you like in here.

So Last week C & S has launched a duall search engine campaign. Were advertizing on both Google and Yahoo. They are the true giants of the internet search engines. We figured adds running on both SE would pretty much cover everybody. So far we are satidfied with the results. However clicks need to turn into sales or your add isn't worth running. It's still too early to tell weather or not our adds are gonna be successful.

Probably one of the most effective advertizing for us has been our You Tube and Blogger sites. We have a very stong and active following on You Tube and it's begun to spill over into our blogger page. These two sites make our company very interactive with our subscribers and friends. From my view point it's nice to be able to interact with my customer base. I have really gotten to know some of our regulars and I'm a better person for it. These two sites couple with our active add campaign should at least get our name out there and known. Recognition is the first step to success. I know our subscribers and friends have used good old word of mouth to entice other drummers to check us out. I have been told so, and that my friends is the most gratifying feeling in the world.

Moving into the Holiday season we plan on running our adds right through the holidays. Even though this is when many companies who don't advertize jump on the band wagon that's ok. Were a uniques company with a unique product line, desoite the onslaught of opportunistic advertizers I think we'll hold our own. Competition doesn't scare me. When I listed my very first cymbal on ebay on September 1st 2008, there were nearly 5,000 cymbals for sale. If competition bothered me I would have folded shop right then and there. Bring on the competition our products can more than handle it. Till next time T

Internet Only Or Brick & Mortar Also ?

2010-08-19T06:57:00.000-04:00

Good Morning Everyone,

7am sharp on the 19th day of August 2010 Anno Domino. T here at Fort C & S. One of the many personal daemons I must fight is the occasional sleepless night, I had one last night Tossed and turned the entire night. It really sucks because the day is still coming whether your ready for it or not, You go threw the day tired and lethargic. I absolutely hate it. It's one of those issue's If you not troubled by it you'll never get it. Trust me it blows and it always seems to occur on day's when you really need to be sharp. I'll be lucky if I'm a butter knife today.

One of the questions that always seems to pop up from customers is are we ever going to open a physical retail location or always stay an Internet business. Truth be told Part of the grand master scheme is to eventually have a physical location from which to launch my fiendish plot for world domination. Any good businessman knows ruling out any possibility is foolish, As different opportunities avail themselves to Myself and the company each one has to be individually assets for it's positives and negatives as they relate to the company.

Part of the Grand Master Scheme for C & S would be to have a large and extensive Internet presence. Having both an Ebay store and a stand alone proprietary website. Optimize and utilize a Blog and social networking sites. To have a retail location with a music school attached. I think creating a warm inviting environment for student's to learn an instrument in is a key goal of mine. It's something I did not have, not by any one's fault. I was very fortunate my parents both supported my musical endeavors and when I expressed interest in drumming , Mom took me to the local music school and signed me up.

It's not like it was a bad place or their teachers sucked. It just wasn't a good place, not warm and or inviting not a place that motivated you to " go at it " sorta speak. In much the same way I grew disillusioned with the retail part of the business, I also grew tired of the almost haphazard way music lessons were given. As I decided to make a commitment to sell percussion instruments I also will make a commitment to change the teaching environment of instruments. Music lessons use to be offered when I was in Grammar school. I do not if this is true any longer. The instrument choices one had strangely left out the ENTIRE percussion field and guitar. These are some of the most popular instruments today.

I have absolutely nothing against traditional band instruments. Without them well we couldn't have a band. Just like C & S has it's niche retail market so will any school associated with C & S. It will be named " The School of Rock " for those who wish to learn Drums, Bass & Guitar. Any good musician should be exposed to other styles of music any school that does not do so in my opinion is remiss in it's duty and obligation To the student and the music community in general. There is however nothing wrong with a school that specializes in teaching this style of music. It's the most popular kind of music and there should be a school dedicated to teaching young musicians this genre.

So any retail operation would need to accommodate this part of the plan. Then the entire C & S operations can be consolidated under a single roof. I will admit this is an appealing aspect of the music industry one I think is terribly undeserved. For the moment are hands are full with the holiday season fast approaching and the Wholesale end of the business ramping up well look more into these type of opportunities , perhaps in the spring. So never say never but at least for the rest of this year we will remain an Internet operator. Till next time. T.

Hardware The Unsung hero of Drums.

2010-08-18T11:25:00.000-04:00

Hey Everybody T here with another Riveting episode of C & S 's percussion blog. It's no secret to anyone who has shopped at C & S, http://www.cymbalsandsnares.com/ read our blog or followed our immensely popular You Tube Channel www.youtube.ilduce61.com/ That we are the epicenter of " The Other Name Brands" . The alternatives to the big guys. Drummers can be fiercely loyal to brands especially when it comes to Drum's and Cymbal's. I can totally relate, although I have always been willing to take a chance on another brand or product to what I normally might purchase. That's me and not everyone is like that after all a product like a brand of Drum or Heads or Cymbals is part of our signature, We don't like upsetting the apple cart.

However If there's one place you can take a relatively low risk of change it's with your Hardware. Cymbal stands, Tom holders, Pedals and the like, They can be a low cost opportunity for you to explore what other brands have to offer with little financial or physical risk to you. Here's a perfect example of what I mean. A few years back I wanted to add a few toms to my Mapex mars pro series kit. That would be 2 toms and a double tom holder, Not really thinking to much about it I went to my local Drum shop to inquire about ordering and pricing. Was I in for a Shock It was $180.00 for JUST the double tom holder !! Forgetabout the two drums. It wasn't like I didn't have the money I just didn't think It was worth it. The finale price was over $500 for everything. I choose not to order them. I then saw Cannon's double Tom set up like we sell for less than $200 for everything so I took a chance and purchased them. I could not have been happier. I got 2 quality toms and an excellent well built solid as a rock double tom holder for less than half the price I would have paid for the Mapex set up.

This Typifies the C & S mission if you will. There's just a lot of great Percussion products out there for prices way below what the big boys get. My personal hardware set up is a conglomerate of at least 5 brands of stands and pedals. I use DW, Tama, Mapex, TKO, Adam and Pearl . Lately we have been selling Hardware by both Cannon and TKO, both companies makes excellent quality well built products at very reasonable prices. Cannon makes some of the most underrated under discussed pedals in the industry. Their bass pedals are everything a drummer could want or need in a pedal, Their top of the line double kick sells for just $249. In the double kick world where high end, big name double kicks now exceed $1000 retail price, Cannons DK pedal suddenly begins to warrant at least a look see. That's a $750 price difference !!! You can buy a whole kit with the money you save.

TKO has long been a bastion of entry level products. Not cheap skid row stuff, just entry level products. Last year TKO upped the ante by introducing their first really Pro level line of products. For some companies it's quite a leap by TKO managed to pull it off seamlessly. Their 1200 series Cymbal stands and HH stand represents an excellent value for drummers. These are well built good looking stands at half the price you'd pay for essentially the same stuff from a bigger name company. You'll find features and quality that are not normally found at this price point. Their 1205 Boom stand features Euro-style quick lock handles ( L-shaped) double braced legs, over sized feet for secure footing , nice composite gaskets in between the height adjustment poles to prevent metal on metal contact, An over sized removable 2 lb counterweight and a telescopic boom arm that extends to almost 36 " !! We retail this stand for under $75.00 let me tell you, For the money this is absolutely the best stand in it's price range. If it had a major label on it it could easily sell for $50.00 to double the price it currently sells for.

At the moment we have a hodgepodge of Hardware from both companies, in September we will be bringing in TKO's entire line of 1200 series stands and Cannon's Roadpro series stands and their Action line of Bass pedals. If your looking to get some great quality stands and pedals at very reasonable prices Check out both of these lines at C & S in September. Till next time T

Silkens/ Cymbals & Snares To Get Major Press

2010-08-11T20:02:00.000-04:00

Hey everybody Hot enough for ya ?!? How many times have ya heard that this summer ? Let's try something different How 'bout them Yankees huh ? Hey I'm in Jersey Give me a break. Seriously here in the northeast it has been a sweltering hot and humid summer. One good thing about living in jersey when I die If I go to hell I'll be all set. It just can't get any hotter or humid than it is here in the good old Garden State.

Like the heading of this blog says Cymbals & Snares is on the verge of getting some major press. It will feature a small spotlight of one of our brands Silken Cymbals. At this point I'm not sure what the etique is about making an announcement like this. There are some absolutely wonderful people helping me to make this happen. I will tell you this for people of this stature in the industry to take notice of Silken Cymbals is an endorsement of their quality right there. More importantly for them to take notice of my company which on the grand scheme of things is tiny by comparison to almost everyone ( But it won't stay that way) That they would even bother to consider it let alone give it the green light is more than heartwarming. Words cannot express my gratitude to these gentleman. When it comes time I will name names becuase their publication and they themselves desrve alot of credit.

When I get up every morning I don't feel daunted by the task that lie's ahead of me. I should My competition could eat me for breakfast any day of the week. Some of them have a bigger advertizing budget per week than my entire company is worth 10 times over for the entire years of sales. What really keeps me going is I absolutely love drums. Selling them and everything that goes with them put's a smile on my face. Knowing I did right by that last customer just gives me a great feeling. The emails and comments I recieve about our company the products we sell the service people get tells me I'm onto something. It's a niche that nobody else is in. That works out well for both you and I. In one way we have a ton of competition in other ways we have none. At C & S were gonna keep on plugging away doing what we do. The deciding factor wether were doing it right or were onto something is the cash register. No matter how noble your Idea's are unless you make a profit your not going anywhere. So far the cash registar has been ringing, let's hope it stays that way. T

Back in the Saddle.

2010-08-04T22:22:00.000-04:00

Hello again everyone,
It's time for a new blog and a Cymbals & Snares update. Well we have been offically re-opened about 2 weeks or so. It kinda felt a little weird at first But things have begum to rapidly fall into place. Our analytics data show an across the board increase. From visitors to pages viewed and every other data ebay collects we are up substantially over August 09. That's makes me feel good. Were getting a good amount of traffic in our store, It's only a matter of a few weeks now where sales begin to Rise. Hopefully we'll all have a great Fall selling season.

Wuhan Expands Successful New Traditional Series

There have been rumors for months that Wuhan was going to increase it's offerings in their successful " New Traditional" series of Cymbals. Wuhan announced today this is infact the case. Starting friday the Cymbals will be available to retailers and wholesalers. As of this writing only a partial list of new cymbals were available. They are 13" HH's Several new weights in the already relased 14" and 16" crashes And perhap a second weight classification for the 18" crash/ Ride. The crashes will exand with the addition of a 15", 17" and 19" crash No word on weights yet. There will also be a few more rides to choose from. Currently only a medium 20" rides is available, A few more weights will ne added in the 20" catagory. It's my understanding a heavy and a light ride will be added. Also a 21" or 22" ride will round out the expansion. This has easily become Whan's most succesful series of cymbals. Like the original sizes included in it's inital release, The pie will blend visually and sonically in a seemless fashion with it's original counterparts. Being handmade from B20 bronze and buffed to that gorgeous brilliant shine. Fear not dear freinds Cymbal & snares has already order a bunch They will be on sale ( hopefully) Friday

Wholesale operation expands

A lot of you may not know it but Cymbals & Snares has a wholesale division. We are not only the biggest Silken retailer we are also the North American Distributors. My plan was to promote and sell Silken strictky through the internet along with a google adword promo 's for a year. To build the brands identity to atleast familurise the drum shop owners and drum dept managers and drummers themselves with the brand. Well it's been a year and I have begun to pound the pavement bringing Silken samples with me. We've already nabbed 2 stores and more to follow. This is an exciting new field to get into and it will also produce another stream of income and that's good. For the record we also distribute coreelo drumheads There new to the Us market and last we carry Overdrive percusson, They make everything from stands and snares to sticks. This another example of finding a company that makes quality products at a lower cost than the big buys. All of these products will appearing in our store by early september . Well everyone that about wraps thing up for today. You've been told the latest and the greatest from your favorite Under Ground Drum shop _ Till Next time T

Sign up and Sound off ............Please

2010-07-26T22:24:00.000-04:00

How ya doin everybody ? It's T here with another quick Blog update. In order to keep those of you intrested I'm trying to do as many blogs a week as possible. Even if it's just to give you a tidbit of info. As our company grows the importance of our ancillary sites like Blogger and You tube become critically important to keep in touch with you guys. I don't want to loose you to another drumsite.
It's funny but on our you tube site we have over 150 subscribers and freinds. Yet here on our blogger site we have a total of 2 followers. Now on our Ebay store there's a thing called analytics it's for store owners to track were our visitors are comming from. It's actually very intresting information, for instance this month nearly 40% of visitors to our store either typed our store name in or it was bookmarked. That tells you conclusively we have really begun to have a following. That is very satisfying I put alot of hard work into my company it's nice to see I have struck a chord with alot of you.
There's another section that tells you what websites people show up from. This requires to click a link if there is one, I put a link to my various websites everywhere I visit. I am a member of atleast 10 drum forums and in my signature is links to our store, our blog and our You Tube page. Now I find this to be very intresting our blog came in 3rd in reffering websites our You Tube page came in 4th !!! So I know there's alot of people who read this blog then check out our store. So why are there so few posts here ? But on you tube we get 20-30 a day ? Why do we have only 2 followers here ? but over 150 on you tube ? If anyone can shed some light on this I'd love to hear it.
So if your a regular here or semi regular sign up as a follower if you have any idea why the situation I describe could be make a comment I'd love to here it. So That's it for tonight everyone. From a very confused and frustrated T.

I'm Back at the Helm --- T

2010-07-20T13:16:00.000-04:00

It's been a bumby ride these last 2 months. I would like to thank everyone who stuck by me and who took the time to special order products. Had I even an incling of how tumultuos the last two months were going to be I would have closed up shop temporarily. Unfortunately by the time I did it was too late for some buyers. Our perfect feedback of 500+ has 2 negatives on it. That just kills me. I don't blame anyone but myself, I'm just gonna have to buckle down and get back to what I do best Sell percussion equipment.

So I am as of today offically back at the helm. Our Store Cymbals & Snares is up and running at full speed. I just hope it doesn't take to long to get our momentum back. We are working on all kinds of projects one is expanding our wholesale division. We are begining to Wholesale Silken cymbals and we will announce a brand new drumhead to the US market shortly. We are also lining up to be the sole distributor of Overdrive Percussion products. So in that arena were looking strong.

On the retail end we will be bringing in several new lines for the holidays look for new arrivals after labor day. That's really all there is to say this time out I just wanted to let everyone know that Cymbals & Snares has a full time captain again.--- T

Happy 4th of July / Summer update

2010-06-27T16:30:00.000-04:00

Hey everybody, wanna wish everyone a safe and happy fourth of July. For the Drummers out there just use Fireworks safely, We don't need any 9 finger drummers !! Well quite a bite has transpired in the last few weeks so let me bring ( like we say in jersey) youz guyz up to date.
Our own proprietary website is getting close to completion. We have some really very cool and competent people working on it. Everything that's available on our Ebay store will be available in our own store. We probably will have more checkout options. Along with Paypal which is what we use on our Ebay store were looking into google checkout also. We want to make purchasing a product from Cymbals & Snares as easy as possible.
Our Site will eventually include sections for Product reviews, lessons, Customer submitted video's and a Drum Forum. We are looking to build a one stop shop Drum Portal. In other matters of interest C & S has moved into Wholesaling we are making our first wholesale sale of Silken Cymbals over the next week or two. A drumshop in Washington state has informed us of their intention's of adding Silken Cymbals to their product offerings and are formulating their first order from us. It was our intention from the start to become a full service retailer/wholesaler/ distributor and now it's a reality. We will begin to pound the pavement looking for additional stores to add Silken to their product mix.
We have reached an agreement and have been granted an exclusive territory with a brand new Drumhead company. Since we have reached and an agreement in principal and only verbally we are going to refrain for the moment from making an official announcement and naming the company. We expect to formalize our agreement within the next two weeks. When we do and make our deal official, we will give you guys all the details. We will not only be retailing these heads but also wholesaling them, Continued expansion of our wholesale division will just make for a stronger over all company.
In addition to the deal mentioned above we have been in touch with Meinl Cymbals about the possibility of Cymbals & Snares being added to their list of retailers. There are however some issue's with Meinl that need to be addressed and worked out before this can happen. If it does we will announce it here of course. Ideally we would like to bring Meinl's products for the 2010-2011 holiday season. If we can come to an agreement, Meinl would be the largest Cymbal company we are prepared to carry. Since they are in many peoples eye's the really "Big Company" alternative to the BIG3. Fear not Friends Cymbals & Snares has no intention of selling out and carrying the big boys product lines. We have been since day 1 and will always be the " Home of the Other Name Brands". That's our niche and will never change.
We have also been in contact with Aquarian drum heads and would very much like to add them to our product line. I personally love their Super Kick II Bass Drum head. They are one of the smaller Drum head makers which of course is a perfect match for us. We will see if we can work out an agreement with Aquarian. That's really most of the concrete news to report. Like always there's more in the works but we will let you know when it's more appropriate. So keep playing and until next time T. President, Cymbals & Snares

ATTACK Drumheads worth checking out.

2010-06-04T00:06:00.000-04:00

Hello again everyone. It's everyone's fav Internet Percussion retailor/wholesaler/entrepeneur T here. One great thing about being a Percussionist is that they're really are endless things to speak about. Always something new to learn , Limitless possibilities on how to set your kit up , what kind of Cymbals to use what brands to use . A double kick pedal or a double bass kit ? It just goes on and on I so love our instrument there's litterally hundreds if not thousands of different style drumheads to choose from. If you tried it probably would take you years if you could even do it to try out all the possible drumheads for your kit. Which brings us to todays topic Drumheads. Just picture me screaming that last paragraph out at the top of my lungs. If nothing else I'm very enthusiastic about selling drums.
We are going to discuss ATTACK brand drumheads. ATTACK is one of the smaller Top 4 brands of drumheads available in the US Market. Since Cymbals & Snares is the " Home of the Other Name Brands" We had to look into these guys to see what they offered. At the moment we have a smattering of Remo heads and a bigger selection of Evans but our largest selection by far is ATTACK heads. That should tell you something. To put it simply they are excellent heads. Since a cardinal rule at C & S is we will not sell a product we wouldn't use, These often overlooked Drumheads are no exception. They are well made good looking and absolutely the most importantly great sounding. Let me share with you my recent experience with ATTACK heads.
Speaking with one of our sales rep's we were conversing about drumheads. I mentioned I needed to change out my snare heads He asked if we still had any ATTACKS Terry Bozzio Signature snare packs in stock, I replied we did indeed. He told me that's what he used and he absolutely loved it, he recomended I try them out. So I grabbed a pack on the way home and changed out my heads. Just looking at the heads comming out of the box I was really impressed. Nice sturdy good looking well built head. The coating was applied perfectly and evenly. I did the tap test which produced a nice warm resonation. I was getting pumped. The TB snare pack comes with a single ply coated batter head and a thin clear snare side head. My personal prefrence is a single ply head for my snare and a 2 ply for my toms. Your personal prefrences are as good as mine. It's simply a personal choice.
After a quick and easy tune up I finally began to play that head It sounded great. I currently am using a 14x5.5 Mapex Mars series snare nothing fancy but a nice snare drum none the less. It never sounded so good. I can't tell you how impressed I am with these heads. ATTACK use proprietary technology and boasts there "Glueless Locking collar" is garaunteed to hold the drumhead perfectly tight and not let it slip out of the collar. They also claim there coating last longer and holds up better than any other brand. Well after using this head for several months I am begining to believe all their claims. That's not just some slick advertising lingo. After a quick break in period and some periodic retuning the heads really seem to hold there tone quite nicely. Of course that is partly due to having my kit in a climate controlled enviroment. When I was a teenager I had my kit in a uninsulated garage the weather played havic with my heads.
My Conclusions are as far as their snare heads go the TB sig heads are outstanding. I get an great crack when I hit them. You guys know exactly what I'm talking about God that feels great. Excellent responce and projection from the heads with an underlying warm full bodied sound, not hollow or harsh sounding at all. I am so very happy with these heads. Let's face it your snare drum is the heart of your kit. Getting good quality drumheads are critical. One of the nicest things about ATTACK heads, they are probably the least expensive heads on the market. Just a nice perc to boot. So the next time your looking for a new snare head which you should replace every 6 months or so at minumum once a year Walk past the Remo's and the Evans and give ATTACK a shot I think you'll really like what you hear. Click on the highlighted link below and watch the Video of me demonstrating my ATTACK snare heads. Till next time ---- T . I have no Idea what has happened here so work with me. Check out The video at this address it's
www.youtube.com/ILDUCE61 There's lot's of other goodies for you too feast your eyes on. " Note to self learn how to Blog before starting Blog "

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-05-30T10:49:00.000-04:00

Well another memorial day weekend is upon us. That glorious American invention the 3 day weekend is upon us. They'll be picnic's, Barbeque's, impromdu cookout's perhaps even a sperm of the moment trip down the shore. Who knows what is in store for you this weekend.

For me I already know. My invitations to the parties must have gotton lost in the mail. So they'll be no picnics, or barbies for me this weekend, I have decided to give my kit a good cleaning. I have some cymbal stackers I wanna add. I also want to swap out a few of my cymbals and perhaps reconfigure some of my set up. I also want to lubricate my double kick pedal ( it;s got a little but noticable squeek) When your doing studio work that kinda noise is absolutelty forbbiden. Better to address the issue now than at a studio that charges $75 pr Hr while you fix something you knew you needed to adress.

Depending how motivated I am I may begin to polish and clean my kit. Nothing like the toms sparkling and the chrome shinning. Cymbal stands gleaming and the cymbals blemish free. It is a sight to behold. Were gonna do another poll. I think polls are an excellent way of getting some two way conversation going between yours Truly and my blog readers.

The only hassle about cleaning and or tunning my kit is that it is gigantic. In Fact this is the largest kit I have ever used. I currently have 13 toms , 22 cymbals ( more when I'm done today) a double kick pedal I have another single kick pedal for a cowbell. I have both a standard and remote cable HH. When you really get into cleaning a monstrocity like that it's a commitment. There is a certain satisfaction you get from having your instrument sparkle. It's like when you clean your car it seems to run better. Drum's are the same way clean your kit and the Aurua of the living things a kit is made up from rapture in a harmonic confluence and that exersize you were having trouble with is gone poof!!

Anyway gonna go do some parradidles with my feet for a little bit and then I'm gonna start to work on my kit. You guys have a great weekend and until next time T

My Surgery is getting close

2010-05-28T16:33:00.000-04:00

Hey Gang ! It's T. My surgery draws closer and a little more nervouse I get. Don't get me wrong I don't think I'm gonna die, but there's just something about getting sliced opened and having a few feet of intestines removed just doesn't sit well with me now, as long as this helps my chronic stomach issue's it will all be worth while.

In yesterdays post I aplogised profusely to the customers who's products shipment has been delayed. Once again I feel compelled to do so again. I only hope all those effected are understanding. When we opened shop one of the things I really wanted to do was have lightning fast shipment. While the vast majority of our packages do leave our facility quickly, when they do not I really take it to heart. I have decided that at minumum a part timer who can fill in when I'm not here and is capable of filling and shipping orders on his own is a must. We've gotten to big for just one guy.

Now a little update about what's directly ahead of Cymbals & Snares. The biggest development of course is our own website. I spoke at lenght to the owner of the company today and they are ready to go, so this weekend sometime I will meet with the design team to discuss layout, color combinations all kinds of cool stuff. I'm getting really excited about this, Our own website will be at the center of the Cymbals & Snares universe.

Product wise you will see an expansion of cannon and TKO stands. Both companies are a bit under the radar but they make excellent quality stands and gear. They are one of the classic "Other Name brands" we speak of. Great quality and very affordable pricing. The presence of Taye will increase we will be adding entry level snares along with some of their mid-range snares. We also will be carrying once again Taye's innovative Snare " Boom" stand along with some of their award winning bass drum pedals. We are not gonna announce the addition of any new products until we have them in. But keep checking our Blog for once a box is delivered we will announce the Brand and or product. We are looking for an exciting summer and fall selling seasoned. Be good everyone Till next time T

Were having a temporary Shut down till July 1st.

2010-05-27T18:42:00.000-04:00

Hey Everyone It's T, Your favorite internet percussion retailor. I come to you tonight in a very meloncholey mood. Anyone who know's my company and has talked to me know's. For those of you who don't know let me enlighten you. I have had a chronic stomach condition. It's a combination of some really bad Ulcers, one of which burst last month and several more that are near poping. On top of that I have a chronic intestinal infection which has gotten worse. For three years doctors have been guessing as to exactly what I have. They think they have it narrowed down to a thing called H. Pyloauria problem is there are many variants of this infection. So they need to scope me and biopsie the infection to determine what strain it is so they can effectively treat my strain.

Since April 1st I have been in the hospital 2 times both were for over a week. On may 9th I went back into the hospital I wound up catching a staph infection and wound up in the hospital for 15 days. I just got out a few days ago. Quite frankly my freinds I can't take this any more. When my ulcers flair the pain can be unbearable. This has been going on for three years, time to figure out what's wrong with me. Among other things I have a business to run and it's now effecting that. This I cannot have. I have worked long and hard to build this business. I have worked diligently to build a reputation I can be proud of I have worked hard to build a reputation for excellent customer service which I'm proud to point out we now have over 500 feedbacks in our Ebay store and a 100% satisfaction rating. That doesn't come by doing nothing.

After this latest stay in the hospital the doctors have decided to do two things. For the Ulcers the ones that are bleeding or near bleeding for lact of a better way to explain it they are going to courdirse ( burn them) closed. and for the intestinal issue's the most infected part of my intestines are bye-bye. They are going to remove about 2 feet of infected tissue and then use an aggresive policy of strong anti-biotics on the remaining infection. I have been advised it can take upwards of a year to cure the intestinal infection. To say I'm exsasperated or distraught is an understatement. It has lead me to do some heavy thinking and I have made some descions.

First the recuperation period is a few weeks. During this time Cymbals & Snares will be moving into a better facility. I have come to the conclusion it would be impossible to maintain the level of service our customers have expected of us. Infact we are currently behind on orders placed while I was in the hospital during the last two weeks. We need to apologise to those customers and get them their products asap. As a company were in between a rock and a hard place. Were way to big and busy for one guy to run but just shy of being able to hire some help. I think we need to hire atleast 1 part timer to help out and be able to continue to operate the company at the most basic level in case I get sick again. Were just gonna have to bite the bullet and do it. We can always find some stuff for him/her to do.

With our impending move and my surgery I have decided to have a month long shut down. I just don't see any way around it. I refuse to allow our customer service be effected more than it has been already. During the shut down we will also be able to do some much needed upgrades if we are to succesfully continue our growth as a company. They say hindsight is everything, I had I knew this last stay was going to be over two weeks I would have considered earlier to stop taking orders. It looked like it was only gonna be a few days and then I caught a staph infection which laid me up for another week. You cannot imagine how draining something like this is. You ache and simply have no stregnth.

To our customers who are awaiting shipment of their product's rest assure they will be shipped out shortly. I have a freind who also runs an Ebay business, he has voluntered to assist me in packing and shipping out the orders that are waiting. With any luck everything will be packed and either shipped or ready to ship over this long holiday weekend. I also owe those of you waiting for products a huge apology. I attempted to send out a few emails from the hospital on a freinds laptop but I was so doped up it was impossible. I ask for your understanding and your forgiveness. If you look at our feedback you can clearly see this is a anomoly. We do not do business like this. You can't imagine how upset I am at delaying your product shipment. I ask once again for your forgiveness.

When we re-open on July 1st they'll be some changes. Some of the old brands are gonna be gone and we'll be adding some new ones. Our own proprietary website is under construction and will debut sometime in late july or early August. We will be adding more hardware, more snare drums, another brand or two of Cymbals. ( don't worry Wuhan, Silken and Diril aren't going anywhere) We are also adding a whole new department : ELECTRONICS !! we will initially be offering Drum mic's and drum mic packages and of course all the accesories mic clips, cables ect,ect. We will be moved into our new warehouse space . Along with our very succesful You Tube channel we will be utilizing our blog more than ever hopefully as a way to keep communications with our customers open and a two way street.

Right from the start when I founded Cymbals & Snares I knew what my vision was. Our tagline " Home of the Other Name Brands" would be the foundation of our whole company. Selling the smaller name, lesser known brands who's quality is excellent and their prices reasonable. Those of us ( I'm one too ) who are drawn by that are a little different than the average player. Where not looking just for sales were trying to develope a home on the web for all those who shop at C & S. Our Ebay store, Our You Tube channel Our Blog and our soon to be opened Website are all components in this. We must be connecting to someone we've had over 1,200 satisfied customers so far . 48,000 Video views on our You Tube channel in 3 months ! It's thinking of that , which is what pulled me through this last prolonged stay in the hospital.

Everything C & S does we do with our customers in mind. We are striving to create a home on the web for US the Cymbals & Snares Family. Please feel free to comment , make a suggestion call me a dickhead, but participate with out sales and just as important imput from you who are reading this we can wind up just another Drumshop. We are trying to utilize todays technology to develope a drumshop like no other. Give us a hand if we succed we all will benefit from it. I'm getting tired folks so there's what's been going on. I will keep everyone posted diligently over the next few weeks. Thank You and God Bless T

Breaking The " Herd " Mentality.

2010-05-16T17:42:00.000-04:00

Today I'd like to discuss the "herd" mentality that exsist in the percussion world. We all know drummers who are subject to such thinking. I have a freind who is stricken with that mentality. He is a fanatical devotee to certain brands. For instance he will not consider playing any cymbal That is not a ( No free promotion for anyone )let's just say brand X. Now the big Cymbal and Drum companies spend millions of dollars a year for advertizing. They also go to great legnth's to have an impressive roster of endorcers. So the herd mentality is created and maintained by them. They love guy's like my freind, who will purchase brand X cymbal's at any price. Maybe that's why they can charge what they do for cymbal's. The same goes for the big drum companies. It's essentially the same story. If more people would at least look at the alternatives and give them a chance maybe the big guys would lower their prices. Believe me as a Percussion retailor there's room for movement by the big drum & cymbal companies. They just don't do it because they don't have to.
When your a company like us ( Cymbals & Snares ) and you intentionally specialize in Alternative brands, and not carry any of the major brands. We automatically lose drummers who are like my freind. An entire segment of the drumming world is eliminated as potential customers. This means we need to work harder to attract those of you who are willing to think out of the box about brands. It takes time to get your company name out there and takes time to develope a reputation amongst drummers as the place to go for the " Other Name Brands". Slowly but surely we are getting there. We have been in business for 18 months name recognition and the products associated with it will take some time to accomplish. It's time we are willing to put in. We have recieved so many emails praising our approach to the percussion scene I know were onto something, I know were on the right track.
Still, I wish there were a way, an approach I could use on the brand loyal drummers to at least look at different brands. I believe the only way for them to even look at a different brand would be if there were some financial constraits put on them. Like a baby, buy a new house or a job loss. Even at that I know guys who would either just wait until the situations changes or look into purchasing used Cymbals. God forbid you consider something less expensive, or a different brand. Who ever said or where is it written that a good pair of Hi-hat's must cost around $300 and up ? It kinda makes you wonder about some drummer's you know. How easily they dismiss anything that isn't brand X.
There is hope on the horizon. With the proliferation of Cymbal and drum companies today and the ease these other companies can be accessed, I think the super brand loyal drummer is a declining group. Our email and the various drum forums are full of stories and posts that refrence the fact at one time they were strickly X brand drum's or Cymbal's until I found brand Z. As the major Drum and Cymbal companies face a slew of competitor's which will inevitably begin to nibble at there market share. The big guys have a few options in which to fight back. One is the most obvious a price cut. Make your Cymbal's more affordable again, make a smaller profit per unit which will probably be offset by larger sales. They also can buy their competitors and shut them down. I see the second option as not being very popular with the drumming community as a whole. This may back fire and cause many drummers to harbor Ill will towards the offending company. Drummers can be a funny lot sometimes. You never know exactly how the drumming community will act as a whole in any given situation.
Since Cymbals & Snares opened it's cyber door weve sold our "Other Name Brands" products to well over 1,000 customers. We have a perfect feedback of 100%. So there is obviously a good size market already in place for what we are doing. That's not to take away from our efforts to help develope this niche also. We have put a ton of man hours into everything from getting our business liscence and tax ID # to listing our product's. writing description's taking Video's working on our Store and our ancillary supporting sites such as You Tube and Blogger. The list goes on and on. Those of you who are willing to give the smaller guys a shot and have done business with us, already know how good and affordable some products can be. Those of you who are brand loyal we just ask you just take a look at we have to offer. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you see and hear. Until next time everyone....... T

Spring is Here !!

2010-05-09T01:46:00.000-04:00

Hey Everyone It's T, President of Cymbals & Snares with our latest blog. Everytime I make a post I always says were gonna start to blog a few times a month. I haven't quite lived up to that promise but I assure you I'm working on it. Our Ebay store and our YOU TUBE channel really keep me busy. Plus I'm not gonna elaborate but things in my personal life have seen better days, None the less Blogger is a excellent platform for keeping Our customers, Newsletter subscribers, YT subscribers and freinds updated about the goings on of everyone's favorite Internet percussion site Cymbals & Snares.
We ended the first quarter of 2010 very strong. Our numbers were up signifigantly over 2009. However sales in the opening weeks of the second quarter were a little slower than we'd like, but as the weather starts to break we confident sales will pick up. We've signed up with a new vendor TMP inc. Our first products from them are " On Stage" drumsticks. These are an excellent line of stick's. Available in a variety of weights and sizes as well as wood types. Hickory select, Maple and North American Hickory these are very comprable to bigger name brand sticks but at C & S their far cheaper. Check them out. TMP also carries various brands of drum mic's. We are currently working with our sales rep to figure out which ones we will be stocking.
Our Website is comming. I know you've heard this before. This time we have signed a contract with a very reputable local web design/hosting company who will begin development of our own proprietary website. Were very excited about this. This will not effect our Ebay operation at all. It will join our Ebay store,our YOU TUBE site and of course our Blogger site in the C & S family of sites. We are building our company and Internet presence one site at a time. This will be a key addition and will be by the end of the year our flagship site. We will keep you updated as the site develops.
In a constant effort to bring you new product's we at C & S are constantly evaluating and talking to new companies. Look for a re-newed Taye drums presence by early summer as well as several new companies products C & S will be carrying. We don't wanna tip our hat just yet because until we sign the contract ain't nothin a done deal. Our main focus is to get spring sales moving and our number one priority over the next month to six weeks is to get our Website up and running. So we will be pretty busy. That's gonna be all for this Blog look for our next one sometime around the May 22nd. Thanks everyone T.

2010-03-05T14:14:00.000-05:00

Well Hello Everyone It is T and I have returned to blow off the dust to my long neglected blog. This actually the first blog this year, after you here what's been going down you can perhaps forgive me.

Let's recap the last 2 months. Christmas was a record breaker for us. Our best month ever. Despite us not getting 2 major orders one from Wuhan the other from Silken until the 16th and 17th of December. We worked at a feverish pace to get every order we took in shipped out by Christmas. We cut it so close I was getting paniky. We had accepted thousands of dollars worth of orders on the promise from our vendors that the mother load of product was just a day or two away. With one company this went on from around Nov 28 th. Never again we learned a great lesson and will begin our Christmas ordering no later than Oct 1.

After Christmas Cymbals & Snares solidified our position as a major player for Silken cymbals, Recieveing well over 100 cymbals from them after the music trade show NAMM in January. Infact as of this writing we are the only authorized Silken dealer in the USA. A fact were very proud of. If you havent checked them out yet go to our website and peruse our extensive selection or you can go to our totally re-vamped You Tube channel http://www.youtube.com/ILDUCE61 and just check out the Videos. Were at close to 80 product Video's, plus video favorites we've downloaded and some our customer and freinds have sent in. It's really becoming a very interactive channel, and we love it. So shoot over there when you get a chance and subscribe we got room the more the merrier.

While your checking out either listings or Vid's on YT you may notice something . A change that was looong overdue. We laid out for a great new HI-def Video camera with digital audio. Compared to our old video presentation's it's like night and day. The one constant complaint we recieved especially about our listing Vid's was the poor quality of picture and sound. These were totally legit complaints. We had so rushed into getting set up we soon realized our video's were probably hurting us as much as helping. The one way and opportunity to impress a potential customers was being squandered for the lack of proper equipment.

Well we took corrective measures and things changed overnight. There was an instant positive reaction. All our video's are in high resolution accompanied with digital audio, the sound bytes are dead on accurate. We are very happy with this improvement. In order to better communicate with our customers and freinds we will be blogging atleast once a week, Like our You Tube channel our blog is an under utilized asset of our company. Not any longer.

The only drag thing that happened was Feb 17th I had an ulcer that burst. I also have a chronic intestinal infection which kicked into high gear from the ulcer's debris going through my intestines. On top of it my pancrease became infected it was a mess I was hospitalized 17 days. Since I do all the packing and correspondance our company ground to a halt. I was so hoping are stirling reputationwouldn't get affected. Most people were very understanding. Any issue's we had have been cleared up. I see the need to have someone else trained on the computer without a back up person we are very vulnerable. We are no longer the little Basement operation we once were, And that about wraps it up for this week kids. Until next time T.

My Set up

2009-12-30T17:41:00.000-05:00

I always seem to ask the questions. I am forever the inquisitive one. Whenever I meet a fellow drummer I love to talk shop. All of you out there know exactly what I mean. Most of the times when you do meet a fellow drummer and a conversation ensue's you almost instantly bond. You think hey this guy's in "the Club" This happens more so now that I am a little older. When your younger in your teens and early twenties there's still that competetiveness we all posses, so sometimes things don't go as smooth as they do now.

The question I get asked most by people asides from business related questions is what do I play what is my set up like. Well this blog will be dedicated to my kit and set up. My drumkit is about 6 or 7 years old. It is a Mapex Mars Pro series the finish is Midnight Black almost a grey color with the wood grain showing. I like the color. When I purchased it Mapex was just switching over to the Pro M series of which my kit is the forerunner of. I got a very,very good price on my kit. You have to remember Mapex was not the household name it is today. At the time Mapex was almost a cultish drum company. People knew of them they were getting alot of good press, but I was still going out on a limb sorta speak. Foretunately everything worked out well.

When I first got my kit Mapex was still a novelty and whenever I did a gig Drummers would always ask me about my kit Most of the time it was the first Mapex most guys had ever seen. My Original kit was 6 pieces a 14x5 snare, 10x10 and a 12x12 mounted toms a 14x14 and a 16x16 suspended floor toms and a 20x18 kick drum. The kit comes with Mapex's suspended isolation mounting system. I really like the way all of my toms resonate. It came equiped with all the hardware A few cymbal stands double toms stand for the floor toms a snare stand a bass pedal a HH stand I mean everything. Mapex makes very nice hardware everything on my kit was double braced. Nice looking functional and sturdy, unlike a shell pack I didn't need to buy a thing to play. The quality hardware was a nice plus. A few years back I bought some shells that matched my kit off of ebay 3 to be extact. It was advertised with a 8x8 tom which I dearly wanted and still do. The guy couldn't measure his toms correctly I wound up with another 10x10 tom a 13x12 floor tom and a 18x18 floor tom.

They were'nt really what I wanted but I kept them anyway. I just tune the two 10x10's a little different from each other. It works pretty well. Last year I expanded again by adding a set of Cannon's tom toms to my set. They are 8x6 and 8x8 we sell these and I will tell you they were a great addition to my Kit. So there's my 11 piece kit for ya. The drums are fitted with Evans G2 coated batters and Evans G1 clear reso heads. The Kick drum has an Emad batter and a Black G1 ported reso. The coated G2's are excellent heads and I love them, there a two ply head which gives them a nice fat warm sound to them. The only thing I'm disapointed in is the Emad. It doesn't suck or anything, maybe I was expecting more especially the way guys in the forums talk about it. When it's time to change bass drum heads I'm going back to the Aquarian super kick II. I just like it better.

I use a double bass drum pedal It's a DW 5000 series pedal infact all of my pedals are DW's and they are all in the 5000 series. The Double kick is the 5002 to be exact. It's a great Pedal, smooth action ready to play right out of the box. My HH stand is also a 5000 DW with swivel legs and a removable third leg which is off to give me a little more room for the double kick pedals. Last but not least is my remote HH stand again the DW 5000 series. People have a tendency to critisize the remotes as sluggish and non responsive. I can honestly say none of that is true with mine I use an 8' cable so maybe that's the reason but it works like a charm. I think it's one of the best additions I made. I absolutely love playing with dual rides and dual Hat's.

As for my Cymbal array that really is the "voice" of a drummer. I have a hodge podge of brands Zildjians, Sabians, Wuhan's, Silken's, Diril's & a Meinl. People are so worried about the sonic contitnuity of the cymbal array they forget it's okay not to have cymbals to be perfectly note for note sonically mathced. I never worry if a cymbal will "fit" in with my set up. My Pie's are so diverse and so numerous anything at this point will match up. OK let's start the run down
Zildjian :
19" med Crash A
15" Thin Crash A
20" Ping ride Custom A
14" New Beat HH ( right side , secondary)
17" Med Crash A
8" splash Custom A
Sabian :
14" AAx Stage Hat's ( Main hats)
16" AA Thin crash
Silken:
20" Hansun ride
15" Vintage crash
10" Hansun splash
Diril:
16" Med ICE series
14" D series thin crash
Meinl:
16" MB20 Med/hvy crash
Wuhan :
8,10, & 12 S series splashes
16" S series thin crash
17" S series Med Crash
8 & 12" Taditional series splashes
8, 10 & 12" New Traditional series splashes
16" NT med crash
14" NT Thin crash
12" China
17" China

As you can see I like Cymbals Lots and lost of cymbals. I have 2 cymbals tree's with 3 cymbals on each. There is nothing like rideing up one Cymbal tree and down the other. On both rides plus a few i Have in reserve I use moongel. I think the stuff is great I use it on my $100 Wuhan , My $200 Silken and My $325 Zildjian. It's effectively cuts the wash and overtones and brings out really nice clear sticking. So there you have it that's my little baby. I've said it before and I'll say it again If I wouldn't use a product I won't sell it. Until Next Time. T.

History Of the Drumkit

2009-12-24T12:54:00.000-05:00

I thought This blog we'd take a look at the History and development of the instrument we hold near and dear to our hearts. If your unfamiliar with the story it's actually pretty interesting to see how our instrument of choice came to be.
In the 1800's all theater was live. All broadway and vaudville shows had live bands. The percussion "section" was made up of several musicians playing different percussive instruments i.e. snare drum, bass drum, tom toms ( or chinese drums as they were also known) cymbal players and so on. In an early cost cutting move theater owners started to demand that the percussion section be reduced to one musician playing all the percussion parts together. This did not really become feasable until a man named William Ludwig look at the situation.
It was 1909 when William Ludwig invented the first workable bass drum pedal. He patented the idea and later that year the first bass drum pedals began to be manufactured. Intrestingly prior to the bass drum pedal's invention the bass drum player literally kick his drum. That's how the bass drum also became known as the kick drum a term we still use today. With the success of Ludwigs pedal the drummer could now be seated and an array of drums and cymbals could be set up around the drummer. Music also began to be written so a percussionist could play all the parts at once.
Early drum kits consisted of a bass drum, a snare drum a tom a few cymbals and a contraption table. mounted on the bass drum it was a table full of assorted percussion items that would be played during the show. Tambourines, Triangles, cowbells and thingsalong those lines would be on this table. Drum kits were begining to be reffered to as contraption kits. It was later shortened to trap kits and that is the origin of that term. During WWI and the roaring twenties the modern day drum kit truly began to take shape. There was just one thing left to modify and the truly modern drumkit was born.
Early drummers and drummers of this period kept time on the ride cymbal and on a piece of equipment called the "low boy". The LowBoy was essentially a high hat that was played on the floor. It had 2 cymbals the bottom one was stationary and the top one was moveable by a foot pedal standing only about 15 Inches from the floor and the cymbals were generally small 10-12 inches. It was a time keeping device meant to be heard by the drummer only. In the early to mid twenties drummers began to experiment around with the lowboy and began adding a tube to it raising the lowboy to a height that could be played with the sticks and still operated by the foot if one desired. In 1926 The First Hi-hat appeared in a drum catalog and the modern drumset as we know it was born.
During the 1930's and 1940's drum kits really began to resmble todays kits. Toms were added to the bass brum with mounting brackets floor toms with legs were positioned to the right or left of a drummer. Bass Drum sizes shrank from 26-28 inches to more modern 20, 22 & 24 inches. the bass drum pedals were improving so large drums were no longer needed for projection. What is generally considered a modern developement the double bass drum originally appeared as early as 1940. It enjoyed a brief moment of popularity as the swing era and big bands swept America. But by the early 50's be-bop and a new musical wave called rock-n-roll took over the airwaves and the double bass drum faded from popularity. Only to sit dormant and almost forgotten for over 30 years until ironically rock-n-roll revived it in the early 80's.
The double bass pedal was invented in 1972 and was manufactured by an Australian company Sleishman from 1972 until 1975 when manufacturing was discontinued due to a lack of sales. This was an Idea before it's time, today the double bass pedal is standard equipment amongst Metal drummers and is quite popular with rock and contemporary drummers also. Today's option for drummers is endless with the advent of electronic drums sound choices are endless for todays drummers. Double bass Pedals, remote Hi-Hats, elctronic triggers it all owes it's exsistence to 2 major inventions and innovations earlier in the 20th century. The development of the bass drum pedal and the Hi-hat.

Cymbals & Snares earns "Top Rated Seller" Status

2009-12-01T08:34:00.000-05:00

First we hit power seller. Which is really just based on gross sales per month. I'm not exactly even sure what the minumum is for that designation. It does however let potential customers know that you are consistantly doing a fair amount of buisness. It let's them know your a serious Ebay store and operation, to some degree it gives your company some credibility and I'm sure makes some buyers more at easy in dealing with your company.
This month however Cymbals & Snares has joined the Ebay elite. We were designated a "Top rated seller " By Ebay. This is the highest designation Ebay can give a company. In essence it means that :
A) We consistently recieve the highest buyer ratings
B) We ship our products quickly
C) We have earned a track record of excellent service.
I and the entire staff at C&S thank our customers for rating and speaking so highly of us. When I started this business these were in essence some of our goals. It feels good to be recognised for your efforts. This will also boost the confidence of potential customers knowing they are dealing with a top rated outfit.
This just motivates us more to work even harder to unify our ancillary sites we've talked about into a seemless circle and makes us put more emphasis on finally getting our long overdue proprietary website up and running in addition to our Ebay store. We are certainly finishing 2009 with some momentum and look foward to making 2010 a truly "Breakout" year for us. Again we'd just like to thank everyone who has helped C&S become both a Power Seller and a Top Rated Seller. Without you our customers we wouldn't be any of this. Until next Time T.

Holiday Message from our President

2009-11-21T06:32:00.000-05:00

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

2009-10-16T19:36:00.000-04:00

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.....

2009-09-18T19:25:00.000-04:00

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

2009-08-27T05:21:00.000-04:00

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

2009-08-23T13:05:00.000-04:00

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

2009-08-14T22:07:00.000-04:00

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

2009-08-01T19:05:00.000-04:00

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.

Cymbals & Snares "Home to the Other Name Brand"

2009-08-01T06:38:00.000-04:00

Being that this is our debut on blogger we would stick to the basic's and simply introduce ourself's, our goals and what we are all about. We are an internet Percussion company. We carry a full line of merchandise for the drummer in your family. I know big deal right? There's a ton of Musician retail sites out there, what makes are's different ? Well I'm glad I asked that.
As a active musician for 30 years I have alot of experience in my field. Quite frankly the brick and Mortar stores over the last few years have begun to change considerably. The rise of the catagory killers ( Sam ash and Guitar Center to name the two biggies) have single handedly changed instrument retailing, and IMO not for the good. Yes they have good prices, yes they have larger selections than your average independent shop. But they also bring a corprate mentality to Instrument retailing that didn't exsist to the level it now does.
With the rise of the mega retailer comes the decline of the Independent retailer. There also comes a decline in competition and for any industry that is really bad news. Over the last several years the number of brands that are available at B&M stores has declined. The Mega retailers carry only the mega brands that dominate the instrument scene. There by reducing my choices in product catagories to only a few. With less competition also comes a decline in Customer service.
It use to be I knew the drum department managers at my local SA & GC and most of the sales staff that worked there. Sadley that is no more. Everytime I walk into one of those places there's all new faces. Any chance on developing a long term working relationship with store personal doesn't exsist any longer. There's no rapport. Percussion sales are slightly different than regular retail. A relationship with a drum manager is critical to your shopping experience. You will return time and time again to purchase replacement parts ( sticks, heads) to upgrade your equipment Cymbals, hardware hell even a new kit. Today it's all about the single sale, it's all about upselling customers stuff they don't need. The Corporate number crunchers are running the show.
So we decided to start Cymbals & Snares a internet drum shop that would specialise in smaller up and comming and newer brands. Who's quality is atleast equal to or better than the uberbrands that dominate the drum market today. Who's pricing is generally lower than it's big name competitors and if it's not lower you get way more for your money than you would with a lager established brand. We want to establish long term relationships with drummers, because as drummers ourselves we know how important that relationship is. We are far less intrested in doing one big deal with you than having you come to us for all your drumming needs year after year. We know things break, we know technology changes, we know style changes including your personal style. We want to be there to service you through all of that.
Our brand selection is unique we don't carry brands that are different just to be different. We carry brands that provide a drummer with a quality product that usually will save them money. A brand we carry must meet our specifications for quality, durability, uniqueness and of course pricing. So far the drumming community has responded well our tag line " Home of the Other Name brands" has hit a note in the drumming community so I know were on to something.
A quick rundown of some of the brands we carry are: Drums- Taye, Cannon, Peace and TKO. Cymbals- Wuhan, Silken and Diril. Drumheads- evans, remo ,Attack and Aquarian. and various other products, Purseound, HQ, Headbanger the list goes on and on. Currently we have an ebay store our own proprietary website is being worker on and hopefully in the next month or two we will launch that in addition to our Ebay store.
We are striving to create a web portal that is a truly one stop shop for percussionist. We will do product reviews, have a drummers forum, video lessons and of course the store. In addition we are looking to expand our web presence like having a prescence on Blogger and some bigger social sites. Here on blogger we will post product reviews and our views about overall trends in the drum industry. If we succed at educating drummers to be better comsumers at least here we feel were making a positive contribution. If you get a chance visit our site We think you'll enjoy it. www.cymbalsandsnares.com Thank you T.