Hey Steemit!

Today I wanted to share one of my most beloved drum jewels, which is my 22" ride custom made by craftman [*Justin Ottaviano*](http://www.ottavianocymbals.com/), from Texas, USA.

When I first discovered Ottaviano's work, I was impressed by the quality and sound, and at the same time by the look of the cymbals. You could notice human hands and sweat behind the work, the leathering, the polishing, the hammering.

![IMG_E1159.JPG](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSD6f78jEfHr5wSNT29xzUDtPhJdYEExrwnja3PquyNJn/IMG_E1159.JPG)

Drum cymbals are ancient instruments (3rd century AD), and probably became even more important thanks to chinese and asian culture, so they carry a long and lasting heritage of sound and craftmanship.

Crafting a cymbal includes several steps with the metal, since it's cut from cast cymbal, round shaping, hot-forging, cold-hammering, lathering to modify the thickness, polishing, and hammering again. It's a process that takes lots of time, lots of energy and lots of diligence to find a specific tone, balance, wash, ping definition, weight, character.

Today, given the times we are living, everything is produced in mass, and that quality work has been delegated mostly to machines.
Even though there are still cymbal companies that use the turk technique and workers to forge them (*Bosphorus*, *Istanbul*, high end *Zildjian*, etc) most are hammered by many company members, and the final product might not be the result of one man investigation and ears but the result of many people working on the same cymbal in different stages, working to produce large amounts of products.

**I wanted something unique, worked by just one craftman, and shaped into the sound I wanted.**

That was when I contacted *Justin Ottaviano* and asked him for a specific sound, weight, ping definition and crash wash.

What he delivered to me was out of this world to my ears.

https://youtu.be/ts7inKRKY-M

Funny thing about all this, is that I trusted so much on his work and ability to understand what I requested, that I ordered the cymbal to be delivered to me in Argentina, so I never got to try it until I got it here.

There is still lot of people that provide quality work, and put their everything in creating something unique and beautiful for someone else, even with such an ancient and complex thing like a cymbal. 

I hope you enjoyed my journey searching for a sound!

Remember to up-vote and follow me @matiasmenarguez for more content!

See you around!
![Matumenar.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmfQGe3dAbZWpHvTe5aSCK7hQjNaMm7mtTMCb7W1Xvud6w/Matumenar.jpg)