I have no personal experience with the reissues, but I have heard from others that only the vintage ones have a really good sound quality.

My $.02

If I had my rather's which I do. I would go with the original ching ring, myself and tinman both have the early originals. I've played a reissue, if you don't have an original for comparison you'll be happy with the reissue, but if you A/B the two side by side you'll be disappointed.

I have an original one of these that I must have got with one of my sets somewhere along the way and have been playing on it for the last couple of days. What kind of things do you guys play with this? Maybe I am using it wrong? I put it on my hi hat and I have to play directly on it to get any sound, and it is pretty quiet for ostinatos and hi hat foot work.

I'm curious to see if I've missed the boat on this one.

these picture's I'm showing you, I have the ching ring mounted 3" above my 15" Paiste soundedge hi hats. they are not quite volume wise at all. the jingles resonate through the hollow ring which adds volume and tone to the Ching Ring. I used auto fender spacers that I had to enlarge with a drill for them to fit over the hi hat stand rod and a large circular spacer that I drilled a small hole into it then threaded it and place a small mounting knob as to hold it in place,The reason I went this route instead of using a real hat clutch, are do to the fact that the holes on the ching ring will not accommodate a modern clutch. I own 3 60's ching rings two are NOS in the box and the one you see is the one I've used for 37 years. And sorry no they aren't for sale.

I found a real one at The Chicago Show some years back for $3!Jump For JoyWalking

I think mine is a Gibralter version (not sure), but it sucks. It's also double-stacked so it just sounds harsh and wobbly.. Never compared to an original but now that I realize there is apparently a difference, I must seek one out!

I'm posting this pic for reference as to how Ralph Intended for the ching ring to be used.

Very cool, thanks for the info! Mine is in less than pristine condition, and I'm sure that must be why it's a bit quiet. I have also been placing it just on top of the clutch when I play, so maybe it's choked a bit.

The reason I started playing mine was because I heard a song by Adele called "He won't go". I think the drummer on it is Chris "daddy" Dave. He has a great jingle sound on the verse, and I don't know if he gets the sound from a ching ring or something else. He's a great drummer with very nice groove.