China Cymbals

Give your music more color, variety and vitality

China cymbals are very versatile and borrow their shape and sound from ancient Chinese gongs. Chinas are often very recognizable, identified by their unique flat edge design and the full, trashy and sometimes explosive sounds they create. Drummers use their chinas in lots of different ways, but crashing or generating jarring effects is what these cymbals are best known for.

In a kit, drummers usually mount a china with the bell side down and the edges curling away to make playing easier and to take advantage of the china’s exotic, Oriental-style sonic characteristics. That, and it just looks cool to mount it that way, too. When adding a china to your drum kit or cymbal collection, consider the size and weight of the china and the effect you want it to have. Smaller, thinner chinas have a shorter sustain, while larger, thicker chinas will be higher in pitch with a longer sustain.