Cymbal & Gong and me

Public service announcement: You're going to have to put up with a lot of ranting about cymbals in coming weeks and months. I'm in the process of developing a web site for selling Cymbal & Gong cymbals, which will be connected with this site, and will have some shared content. I'm also arranging a trip to Germany (Berlin, Nov. 29-Dec. 3) to meet a lot of drummers, and bring them cymbals. So I'm thinking about cymbals a lot, writing a lot of content about them, making videos, and trying to help people... help themselves... to want to buy them... something...

...I'm going to be honest: I am not a natural salesman. You'll notice I don't spend every post slimebagging the world to buy my books, or call me for Skype lessons (see sidebar), or click on the annoying Amazon links (feh). I haven't blast-splattered the entire site with “branding” jive. I'm not dreaming of ways of copyrighting paradiddles and collecting a royalty every time someone plays one. I can't bullshit, and I feel a little sleazy being in a situation of encouraging people to buy things so I can make money; even things I think are very special, that I would be telling them to buy even if I wasn't getting paid for it.

perennial sap

At the same time, I'm not going to be a sap. I'm already giving away a ton of free content, I'm not also going to tell 500 people a day to go buy a Bugati snare drum for $3000, and give them an aromatherapy-scented hyperlink to go buy it, and get nothing out of it, like Ralph Bellamy.

I can't be apologizing for selling something every time this comes up, so I figured I would get it all out at once and be done with it.

So: Cymbal & Gong cymbals are products I feel strongly about. I got lucky to live in the same town as the proprietor, and to be acquainted with him from both being on the Portland scene in the 90s. If that hadn't been the case, I would just be buying the cymbals, and occasionally raving about them in blog posts... as I've been doing up to now.

For anyone wanting a traditional sound, they are actually consistently better than other things available, and I have spent a lot of my own money buying them. I have used them in the field and never wanted to be playing anything else; I haven't taken anything else on a rehearsal, gig, or recording session since I started buying them. Cymbal & Gong cymbals are actually the shit* and they get my fullest recommendation. Anyone interested in the kinds of things I write about on this site will love them.

I will be writing a lot more about cymbals, but I can't just do a full-on sales blitz— there has to be an informational element. I want to get away from the drum “gear” consumer mentality altogether. The more people know, and the more focused they are on actually playing and performing, the more they will appreciate what great instruments these are, and they will sell themselves.

* - I'm encouraging them to make this their actual tag line.