Buried Cymbals?

[backbeatkeeper]

Hello to all my fellow busy-handed groove makers. Just remembered an article that I read a long time ago in a drumming magazine that mentioned that the old jazz guys in the 30's and 40's use to bury the new cymbals in dirt for an amount of time to achieve an earthy sound. No pun intended. Anybody else hear about this or tried it, just curious.

On a side note, I have found a person willing to recover the old beat up Radio King snare, tom and bass I have. When it's done, double bass 22's with a 13" tom and 16" floor. Just hope the boss keeps giving me overtime....

[Mike Gallichio]

I remenber hearing about this but I have never tried it. I wonder if it would do anything.
Mike

[big daddy]

I've also heard this "tale" and I imagine that burying a cymbal which does not use a protective coating (like the old Zil's) would pre-age it. You know how quickly an untreated cymbal begins to tarnish - I'd guess that the minerals, water, acids, etc... in the soil would speed up this process. Question is, how long do you leave it buried and does it speed up the process that much as opposed to just playing it and exposing it to everyday life??

And what if you forget where you buried it ?!?!?!?!?! :)

[mofle]

I shure would like to find a cymbal somebody else buried, that would have been nice.

I would think the cymbal would get a dirtyer tone. But I would not do it my self, not on my budget.

[aldrums01]

I've heard that saying too, also never tried it. I imagine it would only dry out the sound of the cymbal. If it is worth a go, I'd only try it on something that I bought ages ago and didn't dig the sound of, hoping to uncover in 3 months a dry gem that Jack DeJohnette would die for! :)