Whether you’re chasing a special effect for a particular studio session or experimenting with different sounds for better stage mixes, stacking your cymbals is a great way to unearth new and exciting sonic potential for your drum kit and the sound of your group. This method transcends genre boundaries easily, giving metal drummers that growling intensity while providing exciting fill accents and rhythmic platforms for rock, jazz, and gospel drummers alike.
While there’s no set-in-stone rule book for how to stack your cymbals, Sweetwater’s reviewing some tips, tricks, and guidelines to help you get the most out of your stacks. Then, we’ll uncover some of the need-to-know stack configurations. Remember: it’s ultimately up to you to find that effect that resonates with your sound! From rides to crashes and trashes to minuscule splash stacks and beyond, there are plenty of ways to get in on the cymbal-stacking action — even with your old, broken, and cracked bronze. The key is lots of experimentation!
For a quick run-through with sound samples, check out our video below!
- 3 Ideas to Keep in Mind
- The Splash Stack
- The Trash/China Stack
- The Hi-hat Stack
- The Ride/Crash Stack
- The Special Effects Stack
- The Broken Stack
3 Ideas to Keep in Mind
Before diving into the nitty-gritty of the many fabricable sounds that different stack configurations can create, the following guidelines will help you stack your cymbals most effectively.
Firstly, we generally see smaller cymbals stacked on top of larger ones, though this approach isn’t always exclusive. A smaller cymbal on top will typically work more to your advantage because the smaller cymbal will allow for greater contact and a more prolonged effect, allowing maximum volume and potential for creating complex sounds.
This leads to our second key point: keep your wing nut loose! By loosening the wing nut, your cymbals have more natural give while mounted on the stand and thus can interact with each other better when struck. If it’s too tight, then you’ll end up with a stiff sound that’s absent of character!
Finally, treating your stack like any other cymbal across your kit is essential — that is, ensure that the cymbals are angled toward you. This allows for a greater area of stick contact with all components in the stack and consequentially unleashes all of the stack’s sonic potential.
Additionally, it’s a good idea to make sure that tightly nested cymbal stacks have compatible bell sizes and bow tapers. Combining cymbals with similar profiles gives you a greater chance of maximizing contact and manifesting the best of both cymbal sounds.
The Splash Stack
Splash stacking is one of the most common stack types you’ll find — and for good reason! This approach combines two or more small-diameter splash cymbals (anywhere from six to 14 inches) and allows each cymbal in the stack to exclaim its brief but unique tonality. Since each cymbal is placed in ascending order by diameter, splash stacks tend to attack with the smaller cymbals’ brighter tonality before opening up the complexities of the larger cymbals that they’re paired with.
While you can configure each cymbal so that they touch, one of the beautiful things about splash stacking is that each cymbal in the set doesn’t actually need to make full contact with the next. This provides an unadulterated response for each individual piece of the percussive puzzle and offers a bit of that beloved “waterfall” effect, which is especially exciting when combining cymbals of different series into one stack. Configure multiple splash stacks on the same kit, and you’ll see what we mean! Splash stacking is an excellent tool for rock fills, progressive effects, and other instances where a brighter, quickly decaying effect with layers of tonal variance is required.
The Trash/China Stack
You’ll find that some of the most complex sounds in the cymbal universe come from trash cymbals and China cymbals. These effects naturally provide a much harsher attack with a trashier resonance, offering a unique sound on their own and total chaos when paired with another effect. Trash cymbals get their brilliant and breathy tone with low sustain from their typically perforated designs via holes, slots, or a combination of the two. When doubled, the harsh attack and rattly response can really make an impact and has quickly found its way into the realms of metal and thrash music. They are often sold in pairs, too, which speaks volumes for their versatility and desirability when stacked!
China cymbals deliver a similar effect but generally with more presence while boasting an inverted bow design. This cratering effect allows for the easy implementation of smaller cymbals into the center of the China, such as splashes and mini trashes. Stacking a smaller cymbal atop the surface is a great way to hone in on the trashy character of the China cymbal without the lingering chaotic sustain — perfect for consistent impacts during driving backbeats! Likewise, stacking a similarly sized trash or crash cymbal beneath the China will amplify the effect for greater impact.
The Hi-hat Stack
Hi-hat cymbals are undoubtedly the most well-known types of cymbal stacks, though we don’t tend to see them referred to as such because of their reverse mounting. While choosing the right size and model of hi-hat for your sound is important, you can also create a versatile alternative setup using cymbal pairs of varying diameters, compositions, surfaces, thicknesses, and more. By mounting two cymbals of the same diameter in reverse directions on your hi-hat stand, you can concoct hi-hat creations that were never meant to “hi-hat” in the first place — but still sound fantastic!
Tighten up the rhythmic precision of your hats with smaller-diameter splashes, or use larger pieces for a louder, more aggressive effect. Need an additional set with a bit more complexity? Mount a pair of trash cymbals to your clutch for a breathy open and closed sound with a command you couldn’t ordinarily get from a trash. You can even go as far as to add an additional cymbal to your hi-hat setup, stacking the top cymbal for an energetic smack when closed that pours on the wash of all three when opened up. There’s no policing your imagination when it comes to the creative potential of hi-hat stacking!
The Ride/Crash Stack
If you want to stack with a ride cymbal or crash cymbal, then it can be a little more difficult to curate an ideal sound — but certainly not impossible! Stacking in these situations can add a dryness to your tone that, like most stacking scenarios, will shorten the sustain and remove some sonic purity. You’ll notice a more open explosiveness among crashes while rides are provided a hollower, breathier wash. These performance subtleties can set moods easily, making them perfect for jazz purposes! Achieving this, however, requires backtracking on one of our three guidelines: the idea of stacking smaller cymbals on top of larger ones. But what are rules made for if not to be broken?
By mounting a smaller splash cymbal beneath your crash or ride instead of on top, you’ll add a dryer tonality and bring out a bit more texture from the larger cymbal in the stack. Drummers here at Sweetwater tend to prefer the sound of mounting splashes underneath crash cymbals rather than ride cymbals mainly because of the difficulties of drawing out an appealing tone from a darker and larger cymbal, like a ride. But as we’ve said before: if it sounds good, then play it!
The Special Effects Stack
Thought we were breaking conventions before? Wait until you see and hear the unique sonics of effects cymbal stacks! Honestly, it can be hard to define an effects cymbal stack exactly — pretty much any stackable effects cymbal makes a great candidate! But knowing how to manifest different sounds with different pieces plays a major role in the creative potential of your recording, jam session, or live performance. Some effects stacks, such as those from Meinl Cymbals and Zildjian, come in prepicked bundles of splashes, Chinas, and trashes for specific conjunctive usage and include the proper hardware to make mounting much easier.
Other special effects cymbals, like the Meinl Cymbals HCS Trash Stack and the 14-inch Dream Re-FX Crop Circle, push the boundaries and venture into the sonic unknown. It’s this type of stacking that can generate intriguing rattle, jingle, and “junky” responsiveness that makes mad-scientist rhythmizing a whole lot more interesting, whether you choose to top your hi-hat, crash, ride, or other effects cymbal! But did you know that effects cymbal stacks can also create sounds that disguise themselves as electronic samples? Wail on a Meinl Cymbals Smack Stack, and get an instant taste of some lo-fi digital snare sounds! And this is just the tip of the iceberg. What new sounds will you discover?
The Broken Stack
All right, you caught us — we don’t sell broken cymbals at Sweetwater! But we wanted to throw this approach in because creating a makeshift stack out of your own old, worn, cracked, chipped, and warped cymbals is not just easy to do but can also create interesting and 100% personalized effects that give some of the pricier effects cymbals a run for their money. The trashier response and chaotic vibe of broken cymbal stacks are welcome additions for punk and hard-rock drum kits and supply enough spicy sonics to accentuate more toned-down genres, too. And remember, Sweetwater’s Gear Exchange is a great resource for finding used brass and bronze of any vintage or condition for unbeatable prices (and with unbeatable rewards!).
Shop Stackable Cymbals at Sweetwater Today!
All in all, we’d be lying if we said there was a right way to create a cymbal stack. It depends on what you think sounds the best, and it requires a bit of trial and error with different cymbal combinations to nail down that vibe that’s perfect for your application. Whether you’re a metalhead, jazz-fusion guru, prog prodigy, or somewhere in between, stacking cymbals is an exciting way to expand the sonic horizons of your kit and the potential of the music you create. Want to discuss the right approach for your project? Give one of our devoted Sweetwater Sales Engineers a call at (800) 222-4700 for expert guidance on a cymbal stack that’s the perfect match for you!
