The Hi-Hats are perhaps the most versatile instruments on the drum kit. you can play them at virtually any dynamic level from extremely tight, to loud and sloshy. You can imply subtle rhythms, and add accents to spice up any groove. You can single handedly change the style of any groove by simply altering the hi-hat pattern. While this is all amazing, it is fairly obvious and well known. Recently, I have been playing around with something that I believe has only barely been explored and discussed, different hi-hat tones. Getting a different hat tone obviously requires one to get a new set of hats, but this might be more attainable than you think. I decided to start looking for different options, and ended up with a set of 17″ hats that I am more than happy with. These are actually not hi-hats at all, but two 17″ crashes that I have made into a set of dark, trashy sounding hats.
I wish I would have made this move long ago, and have since realized that every drummer should have a few sets of hats in their arsenal. I have found that for both live, and studio situations, many different hi-hat options is a must. As far as the uses for my new 17″ hats goes, I have found tons of appropriate musical situations for them. I suggest a darker set of hats for folk, country, singer songwriter, and pop situations, but don’t confine yourself to any style with these. Along with larger hats, you can also get a set of smaller hats which can be great for hip-hop, pop, and some rock situations. Below I have recorded my new set of 17″ “crash hats” (as I like to call them.) They consist of a 17″ Istanbul Agop dark crash on the bottom (which I did a review on in a previous post,) and a cracked Zildjian A custom Projection crash on top. The crack in the top cymbal brings a lot of character and depth to these hats.
17″ Hi-Hats
The following listening sample is a recording of my standard Zildjian 14″ k hats. This should give a nice basis for comparison for the sample above.
14″ Hi-Hats
As you can hear, there is a significant difference between the 14″ and 17″ hats. Not only can having these different options available be great in the studio or on a gig, but it can be great in practice. Sometimes when I step into the practice studio, I will put the 17′s up just for fun, and they inspire drastically different ideas and grooves that I would not normally play. I used these hats in a drum solo that I put up in a previous post, so go check that out for a good idea of what they sound like on a kit. I hope this review gives you some good ideas, and inspires you to explore your own hi-hat options!
