List of cymbal manufacturers

Cymbal manufacturers refer to companies and/or individuals who primarily manufacture and/or ship cymbals, bells, gongs, or any other metallic percussion item of that type, be it B8 or B20, mass-produced or boutique, ride, crash, splash, or hi-hat, for use by percussionists, drummers, and other musicians.

[1] Aside from the four major contenders in the cymbal world, there are many more companies, especially in Turkey, where some share roots in the old Istanbul based Zildjian factory.

Their craftsmanship displays a fine lathing on top and bottom and very broad, circular-peen hand-hammering.

[3] Very finely crafted, most existing examples are likely to have been hand or field cymbals, due both to their weight and diameters.

In 1986, after leaving UFIP, Spizzichino started experimenting with his own "Spizz" brand cymbals.

Bespeco still offers a line of machine-made B8 Spizz brand cymbals produced according to a process developed by Spizzichino.

Recent Spizzichino brand cymbals are crafted from high quality B20 bell bronze discs sourced from Turkey.

By heating, hand-hammering and lathing the material, Spizzichino sought to bring out desirable sound characteristics often lacking in machine-made modern cymbals.

Spizzichino became unsatisfied with the purity of the Chinese material after a couple years, and found a different supplier.

According to Cymbals Today (a contemporary promotional material published by Premier), these instruments were endorsed by a number of professional jazz drummers, such as Ray Ellington and Eric Delaney.

However, their build was thicker and heavier - similar to the heavy-weight Super Zyns - reflecting contemporary trends in popular music, where denser cymbals were required to meet the increasing volume of amplified instruments in popular music.

Production of all Zyn types concluded in 1984, replaced by Premier's then-expanding distribution and promotion of Zildjian cymbals.