I know, it sounds obvious doesn't it. You would have thought that Turkish cymbals were all made in Turkey, or Turkiye as they like to be called.

The biggest transgressor in the calling their cymbals Turkish are Zildjian, the biggest manufacturer of quality cymbals in the world, who stamp their cymbals Turkish Cymbals. But, the truth is, they aren't Turkish, any more than I am! They are all made in America! Yes, the home of waffles and apple pie!

Sure, the name Zildjian, (meaning Cymbal smith) is nearly Turkish (they are an Armenian family), but most of the family left for the states a long, long time ago.

However, the reputation of Zildjian rests on the cymbals that were actually made in Turkiye, in Istanbul, by the K. Zilcan factory, who manufactured the classic K Zildjian cymbals which are revered as amogst the best cymbals ever. This factory was run by master cymbal smiths who knew the secrets of making cymbals. When the factory closed down due to Zildjian moving production to the USA, there was a huge amount of skill that would otherwise go to waste, so 2 young but experienced cymbal smiths formed a company they proudly named Istanbul. These smiths named Mehmet Tamdeger and Agop Tomurcuk trained up other smiths (who would later found their own companies).

After Agop's early death, the company split up, to become Istanbul Agop, and Istanbul Mehmet, and at the same time, Mehmet set up another sister company, Turkish Cymbals who we at HW Audio currently distribute in the UK.

But why are the Turkish cymbals so good? The secrets are in the precise alloy content for one, and the fact that each cymbal is made entirely by hand. If you watch the videos online of the cymbals manufacture of a typical £200-£300 cymbal; these are normally made by CNC machines automatically. Not so with the Turkish cymbals. They are all hand cast, hammered and lathed and fine tuned by smiths trained by those very smiths who made the hallowed K cymbals that fetch thousands of pounds! And because Turkiye is still a relatively low cost place to manufacture, the price of a totally hand made cymbal is lower than a USA made cymbal; even a machine made one.

If you want the classic Zildjian K sound, look no further that the Turkish Cymbals Classic range. If you want a rockier sound then choose Rock Beat. For more specialised sounds, Turkish Cymbals have 20 more ranges including signature ranges from amongst others, the late John Blackwell, Prince's drummer, Lale Kardes, and Jarrod Cagwin.

There's a new range out as well, the Ad Astra range designed by our friend Ozgur Can Oney, drummer of Turkish rock band maNga (runner up in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest!).