Dark Chocolate

Reader Review -  Matt Nolan Custom 15" Ride Cymbals

In the 1950s and 1960s "Cocktail" and "Club" drum kits were quite popular, but by the time I got into drums they looked silly and quaint to me - I wanted a proper drum kit, something like Bill Bruford, John Bonham, Nick Mason or Simon Phillips might use.

As I got older and wiser I started realising that however nice a big drum kit might be, if you are not a top pro drummer, it is a pain to move it to a gig, then find you can only play with brushes because of noise problems, so I set out 25 years ago to design quieter and more portable instruments which would fit into small clubs and theatre pits. I also wanted something I could take on tour for hotel room rehearsals and song writing sessions, and gradually my "Busker" range developed. Interestingly, lots of drummers are now getting back into small portable drum kits, and are cutting DOWN big old drum kits into "Jungle" / "HipGig" style kits; if the fashion for BIG kits comes back, I wonder how people will be able to cut small kits back UP into BIG ones!

To go with the kits I made for myself and for my customers I started drilling holes in cymbals (now widely copied!) to make them quieter and less clangourous. Small hi hats, crashes and splashes are no problem, but finding and adapting a ride cymbal to give a really satisfying sound was a constant frustration. I have often heard small kits where the standard ride cymbal was out of balance, so I felt there was a need for a ride cymbal, with small dimensions and with a gentler voice, not just for me but for all drummers who were using very compact kits.

When I discovered the Mike Dolbear Drum Forum about 15 months ago, I kept noticing the name Matt Nolan and the high esteem in which he is held, so about 4 months ago I contacted him to see if he could think of a way to make a NICE small ride for my range of kits, and we discussed what might work. Flat ride? Mini-bell? Shallow profile? Deep profile? We discussed various options, but for the cymbals to fit in the lid of my "one box" kit they had to be no bigger than 15", so that was the target size.

Brandy

A few weeks later, shortly before the Jobeky Custom Drum Fair, we spoke again: the first cymbal had come out a bit "too washy" according to Matt, so he had made another, which was "too dry". He did a bit more tinkering and experimenting to get one right in the middle, and in due course the great day arrived when he sent all three to me to evaluate and make my choice.

I tried the "Dark Chocolate" coloured one first. This is mostly dark brown reminiscent of Green and Black''s 70% Dark Organic, a personal favourite! It has contrasting lathed rings cut through to the bronze. It is dry. Very, very dry. On its own it takes getting used to, unless you happen to like extremely dry cymbals!

I admit that on its own it did not appeal greatly to me, but some friends came around for a jam a few nights later; I have sometimes gigged and recorded with them, and their music is very clean and "produced" so I started off with "Dark Chocolate" on my kit. It was a revelation! It did sound very good with the rest of the music, and the band really liked its clean and controlled sound, and the way it fitted rather than dominated the music. Very clean, very controlled, very dry: an acquired taste, but a very useful tool for a working drummer up against fussy producers or band-mates! Interestingly, the surface is beautifully smooth and very tactile ("Ooh, Matron!").

During the jam I also tried "Brandy" the Medium cymbal, and this proved to be a perfect all-rounder, good definition, nice tone, but still quiet and gentle enough to suit a compact kit. Despite all three cymbals having very small bells (to control the sound), this one does have a reasonable amount of clang for accents and Latin American styles. I have also taken this cymbal down to Squeak’s (my partner’s) place for a jam, with my Busker Cajon Kit. She sings and plays acoustic guitar quietly and un-mic''d, and with this kit and a Matt Nolan 15" ride cymbal I can play without drowning her out. Better still, we do not get any complaints from her ultra-fussy neighbours!

Orange Zest

The photo shows it with my stripped-down practice set up. All the years I played with the Fabulous Fezheads I used to use my Busker kit, even on the biggest stages, but I never had a good ride for it. This Medium one would have been the perfect cymbal for those 10 years of wildness and mayhem, and I am mortified that I now have it just after I decided to quit, albeit only for a year or two due to pressure of work.

Lastly, the "washy" one which I have called "Orange Zest" because of its colour and character. This one has a classic "Smoky Manhattan Jazz Club" sorta vibe, if you have heard Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Art Blakey you will know at once what this cymbal does, and it does it extremely well regardless of its diminutive size. I would never have believed you could get this sort of character out of anything less than 20", and then only from a Turkish K Zildjian. It still has reasonable definition, but responds beautifully to shifting dynamics, very alive and full of, well, zest! If you only play jazz this one would be perfect.

So that is the three Matt Nolan 15" Mini-Bell ride cymbals introduced, but there is something to add: all of them are nice cymbals in their own right, but there is a "family" feeling to them: they really do have a more reserved and discrete sound than the average size ride, but I can state categorically that none of them sound like a hihat cymbal, or a small crash! They sound like rides. Proper rides, and very nice ones too! Furthermore, I have owned and used flat rides before, and although they have a lovely tone and a reserved nature, they can be a bit one dimensional after a while; these 15" mini-bell rides exhibit similar control to a flat ride but have more tonal and dynamic range to keep them fun.

I would certainly recommend these cymbals to anyone who uses a compact kit and wants a ride cymbal carefully designed to blend nicely with it. For my own use, my favourite is the washy jazz one, "Orange Zest", but if I was to play in any type of music other than jazz I would choose one of the others. I play a variety of styles of music, so for me there was no choice:

I bought them all!

Marcus de Mowbray

Marcus'' work can be found here: www.330studios.co.uk/marcus.htm
Matt Nolan''s website:  www.mattnolancustomcymbals.com