→ If you're interested in buying a cymbal, or if you have any questions, please just let me know: marco@baumgartnercymbals.ch
Located in Zurich, Switzerland.
Follow me on instagram: instagram.com/baumgartnercymbals
Check out my YouTube channel: youtube.com/@baumgartnercymbals
Here you can find some music and stuff: marcobaumgartner.ch
I teach music/composition here: instrumentor.ch/de/marco-baumgartner
I started out as a violin maker before shifting my focus to music and studying jazz piano. All along, I have seen myself as a self-taught multi-instrumentalist. When it comes to the drums, I definitely have my limitations, but I do love fooling around on them (a lot!).
The search for the right main jazz ride has been, and still is, the core of my interest in cymbalsmithing. Add to this a pair of hats with a short, distinct chick sound and a washier, softer left-hand ride, and I'm all set!
I make rides, crash-rides, hi-hats, and chinas/china-splashes. I don't do real crashes, mostly because I see them as "lost" crash-rides. :-) Maybe this will change over time, but I can't promise anything...
Martin Meyer is a professional jazz drummer and composer who plays a vital role in the development of my cymbals. He carries out the final testing, playing, and recording of each cymbal—both in the workshop and in real-world musical settings. Having the ears of a fellow musician is invaluable in helping me push my cymbalsmithing further.
Beyond his musical contributions, Martin is also a programmer and develops and maintains the website and CMS.
All of my cymbals are 100% hand hammered. All bells are hand-formed as well (all hi-hats and all splashes included). Turkish B20 blanks only. My cymbals come with stickmarks, chalk-marks and fingerprints – and can include some of the following quirks: Not being perfectly flat, partial patina (from storage), miniature-dents or bends around the edge, slightly asymmetrical profile etc. If any of the mentioned things exceed the range of what I think is acceptable, I wouldn't put the cymbal up for sale (or I'd sell it for cheaper).
The main stations in my workshop are the anvil and the lathe. I made my anvil of a 13cm-diameter piece of C45 steel. I then sent it away for hardening. As I found out, C45 is "cool", but not the most flexible choice. You can only harden the outer shell (about 5mm), and only to a certain degree. After hardening you need to temper it in order to get rid of internal tensions. I let the professionals deal with that too. I'm happy with it! Not too pingy-sounding, and it has some decent rebound of the hammer as well. I'm unsure about how I would go about designing another anvil. I'll probably go for a similar hardness. Mostly because, by now, I'm already used to it!
Building a lathe was an interesting journey to say the least. I had (very much needed) help from engineer-friends of mine. Both on a electrical and mechanical level. The tool rest is from an XL-woodturning-lathe. It slides along a steel-rail I've mounted on a massive (200kg) piece of concrete I've poured. I wanted to build something super flexible, which I can adjust within seconds while I'm lathing. Rpm's are variable too.
I'm using ball peen engineer's hammers instead of turkish hammers. It probably doesn't matter as long as the face and weight of the hammer is right. I just, very quickly, grew accustomed to these well-balanced hammers. The bigger side of the hammer head is shaped to my needs (different shapes). In most of the cases I make the handle myself. Mounting the handle to the hammer's head is an art form in itself as I've found out. Very tricky, yet very satisfying stuff... The hammers are the single most important tools in my workshop, I'd say, besides patience.
