AA series. Topped by a raw, unlathed bell, this medium-heavy model is designed to deliver strong, dry stick articulation with a touch of tone at every volume. The raw bell responds with a bright, extremely solid note, while strokes across the bow area are consistently strong and cutting. A powerful cymbal by design, the Sabian Raw-Bell Dry Ride Cymbal delivers solid sticking, but with a tonal quality that makes this a surprisingly musical and versatile 'dry' design.

AA CRAFTSMANSHIP

The traditional coarse lathing technique applied by Vault craftsmen – some of whom have hand-lathed well over one million cymbals – is one of the contributing factors to the wide-open vintage tone of AA cymbals.

• Sabian metallurgists combine measured amounts of copper, tin, and silver to create centuries-old recipe for Sabian B20 bronze alloy
• Molten-hot B20 bronze is very carefully hand-poured into pots, and once cooled, yields already-musical B20 bronze castings
• B20 castings are meticulously hand-separated by weight and prepared to remove all impurities
• Castings are fed through a large rolling oven up to a dozen times, involving a crew of 5 men who must work with choreographic precision under intense heat
• During the entire rolling process, blanks must be rotated carefully to create a molecular weave for strength and durability
• As castings become cymbal blanks, custom-built machine tools are expertly hand-operated to press bells into blanks, drill holes in center, cut down to size and bump for approximate shape
• Lathe craftsmen operate specially retrofitted lathes, thinning cymbal to the desired gauge while adding crucial tonal grooves
• Cymbal must be trimmed to exact size and the edges buffed for smoothness
• Each individual cymbal is hand-tested and hand-weighed in the Vault by Vault sound specialists, a critical process
• Each individual cymbal is placed on a shelf to age, allowing the frantically active molecules to slow down and stabilize
• Each individual cymbal is once again hand-tested by two Vault specialists to ensure they fit the parameters of the series and model