Zildjian Ping Ride
Series - Sizes
Contents
Description
A Series
- The Ping dates back to the 1950s. This is based on catalog information plus we have recorded one 22" Ping with a Hollow Block stamp (L1). There may be more but we cannot yet be sure when a cymbal is a Ping once the model ink is gone. A Ping model should have a higher bow plus the usual bell (or cup) size for that diameter of cymbal. This blog post from the Zildjian site (from 2016 when the A Avedis line was released) mentions 1950s but is not explicit about the Ping weight classes in the 1950s. It uses the weight classes which reflect later changes. This may confuse some people as it reinforces the half truth "ping = heavy".
- In the early days the Ping model came in Medium and Medium Heavy. We know this from the catalogs plus that one 22" Hollow Block weighs 2550g which is in the Medium weight class. A second 20" Ping weighs 2147g which once again is in the Medium weight class for the 1960s. This cymbal has what we call a 60s stamp. In the 1958 setups document we have:
Ping Cymbals: Usually eighteen through twenty-four inches in diameter and medium to medium-heavy in thickness. A Ping cymbal is designed to control the cymbal over-tones so that they do not overpower the stick sound.
- The weights moved up a bracket sometime in the 1960s. This is reflected in the cymbal weights and also in the catalog descriptions. In the 1969 setups document we now have:
Ping Cymbals: A type of ride cymbal also called "Ping Ride" and "Be-Bop" Cymbals. Usually eighteen through twenty-four inches in diameter
and medium-heavy to heavy in weight. Ping cymbals are specially designed to control cymbal over-tones so that they do not overpower the stick sound.
They produce the graduated range of pingy cymbal sounds associated with modern drumming.
- There are cymbals which are inked Ping and cymbals which are inked Ping Ride. This may reflect a model difference although they have been grouped together here. We have enough ink examples to know that at some times Ping and Ride were separate ink stamps, sometimes they were together. There were also weight class ink stamps added, sometimes in separate locations. The times when we don't see a weight class stamp might mean that it was rubbed off although the Ping ink stamp survived. It may also be that not all cymbals had weight class ink stamps. The diameter was added under the Ping Ride ink stamp sometime in 1982, and the other variations appear to drop out after that. No more separate weight class ink stamps, although weights are still mentioned as part of model names like Thin Crash versus Medium Thin Crash.
Ping and Heavy
Ping and Ride
Ping Ride
Ping 1950s
Ping and Medium-Heavy and Ride
Ping Ride diameter ink
- One of the things yet to be followed up completely is this 1970s weight and model table which hints at Ping being the designation for the lighter cymbals and Ping Ride being to designation for the heavier cymbals. If you look closely at the table there are other interesting hints of other models which span different weight classes (Splash, Mini Cup) which also seem to come in two distinct weight bands once you have enough weights to look at the distribution. The Rock cymbals also span two categories Medium and Medium-Heavy and their presence in this table dates it to the mid 1970s.
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