Swish cymbal
The
swish cymbal and the
pang cymbal are exotic
ride cymbals originally developed as part of the collaboration between
Gene Krupa and the
Avedis Zildjian Company.
Both the swish and the pang have an upturned rim and are most often but not always mounted bell down, and in this and their tone are similar to a
china cymbal. However they have a conventional rounded bell. Some but not all manufacturers list them as a china type. Zildjian at the time listed their corresponding exotic
crash cymbals as
china boy high and
china boy low respectively, however these types had a squarish bell.
The swish has a higher tone than the pang and is washier with a less pronounced ping, and this difference was accentuated as the swish was originally sold with
rivets already installed (see
sizzle cymbal) while the pang was sold without rivets. However some adventurous drummers immediately removed the rivets from the swish or added them to a pang, creating two different intermediate tones, and versions of both with and without rivets were soon accepted and readily available.
Both designs disappeared from the Zildjian catalogue in the 1970s, but have reappeared from time to time since. As of mid
2004 Zildjian,
Paiste,
Ufip and several smaller manufacturers were listing several models of swish cymbal, and pang cymbals were available from smaller manufacturers and second hand. Additionally, some larger china cymbals are swish or pang types in all but name.
Typical sizes are 16 to 22 inches diameter for the swish, and 18 to 20 for the pang.
