SABIAN XSR Series Monarch Cymbal 22 in.

Great cymbal addition for my drum set

If you're looking to cut through a loud band Sabian makes other cymbals for that. XSR Monarch cymbals are great for jazz combos, traditional blues, and good old rock and roll if played at a "reasonable" volume. My 22" and 15" hats have that "woody" stick definition Sabian describes about the series. The 20" I just received not as much but otherwise it is an interesting cymbal tonally. It has lots of different sounds playing with the tip around different areas of the surface. It has a good crash that gets out of the way quickly. My 16" HHX Evolution Crash will integrate perfectly with this 22, 20, 15" hats Monarch set up. XSR Monarch remind me of my first ride, a 20" K Zildjian marked Istanbul I bought used in 1965. I think XSR Monarch is an acquired taste. Some will never like them. I really like these cymbals! B20 grade bronze that comes in at a good price point. What's not to love?

This is a very cool ride. Really nice dry sound with a lot of good tones. Very dark and creamy. The one that I picked up is very crashable. When you crash on it, it has a very quick decay and a nice low tone. This cymbal has a very nice bell as well. Its not overly loud and harsh. At this price point you are going to have a very hard time finding a ride this nice with this much character. All around a great ride, I would imagine it could fit it with almost any genre.

Sabian is hands down one of the best cymbal companies in the business. I purchased the XSR cymbal pack and the ride that came with the pack was too bright for my taste, so I opted to buy this ride. I have been wanting a ride from the Big & Ugly series for a while now and for the money, you can't beat the sound of this ride. Amazing texture and wash with a quick decay and versatile application. Ride it, crash it and everything in between. Do yourself and your band a favor and buy this ride!!

I bought this cymbal as I was looking for a good multi-cymbal and the description touts it as "Highly Crashable" that I will argue but first I'll list what I liked about it.... - It's nice and big at 22" but very thin and light which I liked a lot. Gets some great ride tones, they were correct in the "garage sale" statement. It really did remind me of the old thin vintage rides I used to find back in the day and I haven't found a cymbal to date that could capture that sound like this one did. It has a nice old school wobble effect to it. When you get going on a nice ride beat it really sounds great It's not a PING ride by any means but old school drummers will definitely recognize the sound it makes when they play it - The "UGLY" part is cooler than you think, I brought this into the studio and everyone (non-drummers that are unfamiliar with the big and ugly) was like, holy schnikes man, that cymbal has seen some battle's!! lol I know it's just a novelty, but it really does make it more fun to play this big old stained patina monstrosity. Yeah, at $200+ it's not a garage sale cymbal but it has that "woah, that sounds great for how it looks" thing going for it, which yeah, I think is cool ;) What I did not like is that I was expecting a good "Crash" and it did not deliver on that end. When you give it a nice full blown stick hit it's like a garbage can lid, as a crash it sucks. I know I've said it half a dozen times but I can't stress enough, if you are looking for a big ole crash/ride like I was, maybe try out Sabians bash ride, the Monarch is NOT what you are looking for in a crash ride. Hope that helps, again in closing...Great surprisingly versatile vintage sounding ride, bad crash :)