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In a drum kit, splash cymbals are the smallest , often a smaller derivative of the more common . Splash cymbals and are the main types of .
The most common sized splash has a diameter of 8", followed by 10". Most splash cymbals are in the size range of 6" to 13", but some splash cymbals are as small as 4". Splash cymbals larger than 10" are most often similar to in sound characteristics.
Some makers have produced cymbals described as splash up to 22", but a splash of 14" or more is more often described as a crash cymbal.
Splash cymbals include:
Widely used in the jazz music of the 1920s and 30s, this traditional splash cymbal was not seen for many years in mainstream music for years until drummers such as Ringo Starr started to use them. Stewart Copeland playing in The Police brought it back to prominence. Thanks to a toy cymbal he found in a trip in Asia and which he brought to Paiste, heavier splash cymbals, more suited to this style of Drummer, were soon available and started being heavily commercialized.
A third phase in the development of splash cymbals occurred when china splash cymbals became popular. These added a new dimension to drumming in their own right, and also led to the development of cymbal stacks.
Several other types that are now regarded as splash cymbals, such as bell and salsa cymbals, have more quietly been added to the kits of leading drummers and to the catalogues of major cymbal manufacturers over the years. Today much of the color of an extended drum kit is provided by the wide variety of splash cymbals available.
The normal function of a splash cymbal is to provide a short, often highly syncopation accent. For their size, they are hit relatively hard to produce a quick attack and decay. They tend to have little taper in order to provide the necessary strength for this, the bell being approximately the same thickness as the rim, resulting in limited richness of tone.
This terminology is not entirely consistent. Sabian for example call their rounded bell 12" china a mini Chinese, and this same design is also available in 14", Paiste Twenty Series features a rounded bell mini china 8", 10" and 12", while in the Saluda Voodoo series the 12" square bell china is simply called a china, while the heavier 10" rounded bell model is called a china splash. This is not entirely illogical; Many of these cymbals have little or no taper, and as a result some of the heavier ones, unlike most splash cymbals, can be used as an exotic ride cymbal at moderate volume.
The 8" and 10" Sabian Rocktagon splash cymbals, smaller versions of their octagonal 16" and 18" Rocktagon crashes, are sometimes described as china splashes and have an intermediate tone.
China splashes were used in Mike Portnoy's original cymbal stacks, and remain popular as the top cymbal in a stack.
Examples:
Example:
At the thinnest and most fragile end of the scale, a thin splash is identical to, and interchangeable with, a cymbal designed for playing by hand rather than by stick. And in either case, a single careless stroke with a Drum stick will split the cymbal.
The earliest bell cymbals were made by cutting down a larger cymbal, particularly to salvage something from one that was badly split at the edge.
Bell cymbals range in shape from deep and cuplike, similar in shape to a church bell, to a traditional cymbal shape, almost flat, and many in between.
They are available individually or, more recently, in sets of two or three, including larger cymbals intended primarily as the lower cymbal or cymbals. These sets have provided new sounds but have not replaced the established technique of using a china, crash or another splash as the upper cymbal of a stack. Generally, the three way sets are designed to make possible several usable two-cymbal stacks in addition to the three-cymbal combination, and most cymbals of all such sets are designed to also be stacked with other cymbals, giving a very wide range of tonal possibilities.
Similarly, despite the availability of these cymbals specifically designed for stacking, many drummers still use a china or a splash as the upper cymbal.
Examples:
Several of these techniques, notably stacking and piggybacking, are very rarely used for cymbals other than splash cymbals. The rim-mounted boom is restricted to splash cymbals owing to the weight of other cymbal types, but similar mounts, traditionally on the top of the rear rim of the bass drum but also on other drums, are occasionally used for other lightweight accent effects, particularly a cowbell and/or a wood block.
This technique was pioneered by Dave Weckl, Mike Portnoy and others, originally using a china splash as the upper cymbal. Portnoy mounted both cymbals bell up, with no spacing felt, to maximize contact between them, and choosing cymbals of sufficiently different profile to ensure that the contact was not enough to cymbal choke them completely.
As the technique became established, cymbal makers introduced specialized stack cymbals designed specifically for use in stacks. However the older technique, using a china splash on top of a crash, china or another splash, also remains popular.
Stacking should not be confused with piggybacking, in which the upper cymbal is bell down, the lower cymbal bell up, and a spacing felt is used between the cymbal bells, preventing any contact.
There is an essential difference between this technique and stacking. A cymbal stack produces a different sound to that produced by either cymbal individually. The piggyback, like the double stand, is primarily a method of mounting the splash cymbal, without producing any major difference in the tone of either cymbal.
Advantages of piggyback mounting are:
Disadvantages are:
Many china splash cymbals and some bell cymbals are designed to be mounted bell down, and are particularly suited to piggyback mounting. Other splash cymbals, however, are very rarely mounted bell down except when piggybacked.
Most but not all drummers put an additional felt between the bells of the two cymbals, to eliminate any direct contact between the cymbals and retain the tone of each. However the slight contact between the bells if the extra felt is not used affects the tone of each cymbal only subtly, and some drummers like the tonal connection that results. Beginners sometimes use this technique for another reason entirely: The mounting bolt may not be long enough to allow an extra felt, or they may simply not have bought a felt when buying their first splash. Unfortunately, the metal to metal contact and the playing of the upturned splash rim both decrease the life of the cymbal, particularly at the hands of a beginner.
The lower cymbal of the piggyback is often a crash, or less often a ride cymbal, but larger splashes and even china cymbal can be used. The upper cymbal could in theory be any cymbal small enough to allow the lower cymbal to be played, but in practice is almost always a splash.
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