Zildjian 10" Trashformer Product Review

Developed with Mike Mangini as a stacking cymbal
B8 bronze
10" with a bent profile
Short sustain
Multi-colored ranging from regular golden color to blue and purple


List price- $108

Have you ever wished that your splash was a bit trashier? Or that your could find a sound that splits the difference between a splash and a china? If so, Zildjian has you covered! This joker is sick. When Zildjian got with Mike Mangini to help design this cymbal, he envisioned this as a cymbal to to be  piggybacked with another to add a trashy effect. He started with a 14" size and because of its success, Zildjian wisely decided to expand on the line to include more traditional splash sizes. I decided to test out and review this cymbal without a second cymbal and by itself. At first glance, you cant help but double take at seeing this cymbal. Because its unique appearance stemming from the B8 bronze used, its colors can vary from golden to purple. Definitely a conversation starter. Also, you'll notice how unlike 99.9% of the cymbals out there, the profile of this cymbal is uneven in a wavy pattern. This is deliberate which adds to the unique quality that this cymbal has. When you factor in the color variations and the different shapes that these cymbals can come in, each one you get is 100% unique.
This cymbal has a beautiful tone with a pretty quick decay to it. Its very thin and could easily be hand bent. Normally, B8 bronze isn't known to be the most musical alloy for cymbals. BUT, the normally thin or sometimes "gongy" sound really isn't present in this cymbal. Unlike most of the ZXT line which is meant to be more of a lower level series for students and budget minded players, this cymbal has been employed in many pro drummers setups. This would also be a great cymbal for a timbalero/conguero due to its sensitivity and hand crashability.  This is in my opinion, a very useful and musical cymbal. Unlike most china type or trashy cymbals, the sound isn't harsh or biting. It would easily fit in any situation where the player needed colors. No lie, im probably gonna buy this cymbal. (I recently purchased the 8" model.) Remember, this is definitely not meant for super loud volume playing. If you want a loud quick accent for your extreme metal band, this would be better suited as a stack. Well that or get you a freakin $30 Wuhan and call it a day. haha. This has a complex sound to it and let me tell ya, the Trashformer is surprisingly musical. I could see myself reaching in my cymbal case for this baby a lot. Although this could be used in higher volume applications, im thinking this would really shine in close mic'd/lower volume situations. I wish i would have had this when I was playing in the pit for theater gigs. Its an amazing cymbal by itself and probably could "trashform" just about any cymbal into a killer stack sound. And for your favorite cymbal with a crack in and you cant let it go off, put one of these on top of it and it'll give it a new lease on life. This isn't a "classic" splash tone by any stretch but im sure that all you splash aficionados out there would gladly add this beauty to your setup. Nicely done Mr. Mangini… Oh, and congrats on landing the monster gig with Dream Theater.