Avedis Zildjian Company

I'll conclude this list of really old companies with Zildjian, an American musical instrument manufacturer best known for producing cymbals used by drummers and percussionists around the world.

The company was founded in 1623 in Constantinople by Avedis Zildjian, an Armenian metalsmith who developed a special bronze alloy for making musical cymbals.

According to corporate tradition, Avedis initially experimented with metal alloys while attempting to make gold.

His discovery resulted in a durable, resonant bronze alloy that proved ideal for symbols.

So it is a very good thing, and I was humble enough to be able to do PASIC.

In terms of my clinic there, and no, the footage is not out, but luckily this year they let the people from Zildjian videotape footage, so the footage is slowly coming out.

I know the playing stuff is, I really want the talking stuff to come on because it's talking stuff.

That tends to run longer in my clinics than the actual playing because, you know, information is key.

Yeah.

Seriously.

And obviously you're a Zildjian guy as well.

I play Sabian, but I've, I've played Zildjian of course in the past.

The first time I went out with him, I think it was 2006.

I happened to be in Europe on a clinic tour for Bickforth and I think Zildjian at the time.

Anyway, you know, Jeff Richmond is good friends with Elle.

Yeah, we were just telling you about that.

I called him up, said, hey man, you got silver dots? No, but black dots.

So they sent me some black dots and then, you know, I'd write down all the pitches to the toms The hardest things to hear pitches were snare and bass drum, but it is possible, especially with EQ, if you get an isolated one, you can hear the different pitches.

So I would tune everything and then I'd kind of research, well, what kind of cymbals were they using at the time? And if they were, you know, Zildjian or Paiste or whatever, I'd try to...

When I did the police stuff, you know, those were...

So every night I went to sleep, I'm looking at Ringo and it was a lovely shot of him You know, because he sat quite high and he had these wonderful, I think they were 15-inch SuperZen IAT symbols.

Maybe he was using Zildjian after that.

But anyway, so in fact, I asked him one day, I met him a few years ago, and I said, here, Ringo, what were the size of those symbols that you used on your IAT back in 1963? And he's gone, I don't know, Nick.

He said, I've no idea what I was using then, you know.

But let's talk about this.

The biggest competitor that Zildjian symbols have, biggest symbol seller in the country, is themselves because drums and cymbals don't just explode one day.

You might have a cracked cymbal here and there, right? But their biggest competitor for new cymbals isn't Sabian.

It's not Peisty.

It's used Zildjian on the market already.

So there's something to be said about that as well.

And now with the technology, the convenience of people to be their own businesses is another part of the market.

So this year we have Gretsch drums.

LP family, definitely.

Zildjian, cymbals and sticks.

Mentors, mentors, shout-outs, definitely Eddie.

Those of us who are not, those of them who are no longer here, but I think about every day, Eddie Palmieri, Tito Matos, Johnny Almendra.

But you guys can't

blow me off the same way you did with the Zildjian tour I set up for you guys.

The what? The Zildjian tour right up the street from where I live, the Zildjian headquarters, HQ, over in Norwell.

What does Zildjian do?

They basically have...

Symbols.

So, you know, drums and songs.

Pretty much every symbol and every song you have ever heard in your entire life has been played on a Zildjian symbol.