Zyn Cymbals

[Sparkletone]

Hi All,

Anyone out there own/play Zyn cymbals? I've got a ride, hi-hat and crash for my Majestic stencil kit. Snagged them off ebay a while back and cleaned them up, thinking I had a bargain. Then I played them...Um, well, while they're not as resonant as trash can lids or as responsive as frisbees, they are "fun" to play. Any other Zyn enthusiasts out there? How about Super Zyns? Kruts?

[backbeatkeeper]

Got a 20 inch Krut with an old Pearl Set, the hole has been keyed up a bit, but it's a nice sounding washy crash/ride.

[goughy]

I've just got my hands on a set of zyn hi hats and a super zyn ride. Haven't even listened to them yet.

Zyn's were made by premier and sold with their kits. These ones came with a set of olympic drums (which were made by premier). I believe they are made from b20 alloy.

[Antipodes]

I had a set of 15" Zyn hi-hats when I was a kid. I remembered thinking at the time that they were pretty O.K. (compared to the other crap I had) but as soon as I got my first set of Zildjian New Beats I kind of changed my mind.

[Ludwig-dude]

Zyn and Kruts were made of NS12 alloy, Super Zyns were made of B20. Unfortunately Premier was not much of a cymbal maker......trash can lids sound better IMO....

[Jaye]

There ya go again, LD !:p

This thread, a few doors down, had quite a discussion:

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=6495

[sammypenn]

The history of Zyn is quite a strange one,After WW11 the importing of Zildjians stopped into the United Kingdom[import restrictions]things were tight.
At the same time the British Gov. had a lot of Italian P.O.W.s who did not want to rush back to Italy,we still have today a few who settled where I live,there was a camp here.
Any way the Gov. tried to find them work in Britain in their old trades,they had a group who were cymbal makers.The connection was made and the P.O.W.s started work at Premier setting up the Zyn production from about 1948 untill about 1955,The first Zyns were Italian style cymbals,the metal seems to be close to B20 although it does vary over the ones I have.There were Standard Quaility and Supers,usually in the smaller sizes,I have about 8 standards and just the one super,the Standards are very like prewar sounding thin italians.the Super sounds a lot like a prewar K zildjian to me,but they do vary quite a bit sound wise,some are very good,some are just crap. BUt they are nothing like the Zyns made after the Italians left.Zyn did make some fair cymbals but nothing like as good as the first Italian P.O.W.s made.
hope this helps .
Dion:)

[Jaye]

Wow...that's interesting. Is there any way to tell one of the early Italian crafted ones from the later ones ? Change in the stamp/embossment or anything like that ?

Or would it just be based purely on the stylistic grounds of the cymbal (shape, profile, hammering, lathing etc. ?)

As I said, I have had some Supers and have been very pleased with them....

[Drumaholic]

The earliest ones were hand hammered. On some of them its very difficult to make out the hammer marks, and on others it's fairly easy. The earlier trademark just said "Super Zyn" and the later one said "Super Zyn" with 5 stars above it. There are both hand hammered and machine hammered types within first trademark era.

[sammypenn]

The early Zyns of which I speak look very different in colour as the later Zyns,about the same colour as my 20s/30s Ks and have that same soft warm feel in your hands.unlike the hard cold feel of the post P.O.W.s made cymbals.The Standards are stamped "standard quality" and sometimes as well "made in England",under the usual Zyn stamp.the Super has "Super" over the Zyn stamp,very similar to the later stamps,in a curve towards the left of Zyn.
Dion

[Drumaholic]

The early Zyns of which I speak look very different in colour as the later Zyns,about the same colour as my 20s/30s Ks and have that same soft warm feel in your hands.unlike the hard cold feel of the post P.O.W.s made cymbals.The Standards are stamped "standard quality" and sometimes as well "made in England",under the usual Zyn stamp.the Super has "Super" over the Zyn stamp,very similar to the later stamps,in a curve towards the left of Zyn.
Dion


Those early regular Zyns that you speak of, were an alloy very close to B-8. Someone I know from England had one of these very early ones analyzed by taking some shaving from inside of the bell hole and sending them to a university chemical laboratory for metallurgical quantitative analysis. I think it turned out to be B-12 or something like that. But you're right, the earlier ones were different. Then later on they switched to Nickel-Silver alloy.

[sammypenn]

Yes I remember now [almost]about that testing of the metal,perhaps we've been over all this already,or maybe I just read it on a forum somewhere??.

[Drumaholic]

Yes I remember now [almost]about that testing of the metal,perhaps we've been over all this already,or maybe I just read it on a forum somewhere??.

Yes, that was some time ago on Cymbalholic.

[sammypenn]

Thats the oneCool1