I've been a fan of Istanbul Agops for a bit but then, almost one after another, my 15 rock traditional, 18 medium and 16 medium crashed cracked. And they weren't those 'wear and tear' cracks which are perpendicular to the edge of the cymbals but they ran along the lathing. All three of them! Can this indicate manufacturing fault or something? Their cymbals have 1 year's warranty so I only managed to get one exchanged, with two others the warranty had already passed.
I decided not to put any more money into them and to find some other make I could trust. And before I start browsing the plethora of varieties all the 'mainstream' manufacturers like Zildjian, Sabian or Paiste have to offer I wanted to know if there's any other brand that offers good value/money ratio you've tried.
Funnily enough, my wife once got me a Stagg Cs (traditional line equivalent) 16" Crash and that was back in 2008 or 2009 but after all that time of using it as my main and most frequently used crash it's still intact (!!!) Probably it's going to go some time soon but still it's managed to outlive several others! I play it here and it's the one just in front of me
It has lovely, dry, "sandy" sound, and it really makes me wonder that something so cheap can offer such a good value
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Would you have any trusted brands apart from the mentioned big three above? Meinl, Bosphorus, UFIP, anything else?
Cheers!
Przemek