The late Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones never played his hi-hat in unison with the snare drum, many hip-hop acts rely on a consistent eighth-note pattern to drive the groove, jazzers use ‘em… well, in any number of ways (go figure), and without John Bonham’s massive, open hi-hat strikes, “When the Levee Breaks” wouldn’t have become the legendary (and oft-sampled) beat that it is. Modern hi-hats have been helping to define the grooves of popular music since they were innovated in the early 1920s and the evolution of materials and sizes has only expanded their sonic possibilities and appeal.
We recently touched base with reps from five major hi-hat suppliers to learn about significant trends in the design and sales of these cymbals, and how this market segment is faring in 2022.
For your brand, what are currently the hottest hi-hat models?
Andrew Tamulynas: The 14” A Zildjian New Beats have always and probably will always be our hottest hi-hats, but over the past few years, the 15” and 16” K Sweet hats have been doing really well.
İbrahim Yakici: Our hottest hi-hat models are MasterVintage and 1600Era.
Reto Wild: Reflecting our broad range of Hi-Hats, there are currently several hot models with different characteristics that stand out. Following its release, the 15” Signature Dark Energy Mark I Hi-Hat has proven to be a customer and artist favorite. It’s simply a stunning Hi-Hat with a full dark tone and a beautiful, meaty chick sound.
Always hot is the 14” 2002 Sound Edge Hi-Hat. For 50 years and counting, the 2002 cymbal line is still a big part of Paiste’s DNA. It obviously features the original, wavy bottom hi-hat design with its medium bright and full sound character.
Also very well received are the PST X Swiss Hats. With effect hats becoming more and more popular, these hats feature the edge with an overall trashy, very modern sound for applications in electronic music, hip-hop, and beyond.
Andrew Swift: Single Hammered 14” Medium weight.
Mark Love: The most popular model right now – and they’ve been that way for a while now – is the HHX Evolution Hats. That’s a model we developed from Dave Weckl way back in 2001. That’s still a good seller. Our AAX medium hats, also. We remastered AAX here a few years ago and changed the design a little bit, making them a little more complex, I guess. And the HHX Complex, which is less than two years old now, and that’s still selling really well. Those would be the top three in the professional-sounding cymbals. And then, of course, you’ve got your entry-level and mid-level, SBR and B8X, that sell high numbers. But, you know, it’s a price point thing with those.
Compared to last year, are hi-hat sales up, down, level?
IY: With our new series, the 1600 Era, our hi-hat sales are increasing, compared to last year. We can say this without a doubt.
RW: Level.
ML: It’s not down. I mean, certainly, 2020 was down. Everything was down. But everything come back quite nicely and it’s fairly steady, and we were seeing an uptake now as we move into 2022. We’re very optimistic and the sales seem to be coming back. We had a very good 2021.
AS: Up about 15% across all the models – a similar trend to Stagg cymbal sales as a whole.
AT: Hi-hats are up significantly over last year, and even over pre-pandemic years. We’re really seeing strong single cymbal sales across all types.
What features (size, weight, materials, design) are end-users looking for these days?
ML: It’s really “back to the basics.” It’s more the medium top, heavy bottom combination. The wider hats, thin hats, and the rock hats seem to have fallen out of popularity a bit. Not too many years ago, everyone was on the thin hat craze and also bigger hats. Like, everyone was talking, you know, 16-inch hats and 15s were very popular, but they’ve seem to have waned a little bit. We still have 15s and still sell a fair amount, but 16s pretty much are gone. There are a few exceptions out there – some weird ones, like 18-inch AA hats. As weird as they are and as large as they are, they still sell consistently. Trends are changing all the time.
RW: This depends. As mentioned, effect hats are becoming more popular in order to be able to incorporate trashy, fuzzy sounds in modern music. Also, we feel that a defined chick sound resulting from fairly heavy hi-hat bottoms are in demand again. Somewhat larger sizes like 15” or even 16” with their sonic ability to fit nicely into an audio mix are making a comeback as well.
AS: [The] biggest growth trend is in the silent cymbal category. These things have been around for five-plus years, but lack of live performances has pushed more players to upgrade their practice gear more than the performance rigs.
AT: Bigger diameters have been the trend for a while now, and I don’t see any signs of that slowing down. Heavy bottoms paired with light tops in big diameters (like our K Sweet line) are in! The heavier bottoms allow larger hi-hats to “play big” without losing the definition and clarity you’d get out of a pair of 14s.
IY: The customers are looking for [best] quality materials every time – this never changes – but we are finding that they really like to play 15-inch hi-hats. Every customer wants to get their special sound that’s why it’s not easy to [pinpoint] a general weight-range, but still – If we had to say something about weight-range, let’s say 900 [gram] for top and 1,000-1,100 [gram] for the bottom. The old cymbals design – 1600 Era – is very popular nowadays.
What best practices are embraced by successful MI dealers when it comes to promotion, display, marketing, et cetera of hi-hats?
AS: Getting as many as they can on stands and ready to try out. Nothing is worse than having a set of hats on a tree or wall display. Rotating sales inventory into lesson rooms is also a proven strategy.
IY: The dealers who are very good at selling our cymbals have huge activity on their social media pages. Times are changing, and marketing is changing, too.
AT: Some of our most successful dealers are the ones who align their marketing calendars with Zildjian’s to make sure we’re all promoting the same cymbals at the same time. With more drummers shopping online, video on retailer websites and social media accounts are also key to helping people understand how hi-hats will sound in musical context.
RW: Schooled and passionate staff, along with a wide selection of hi-hats on stands to try out is still the foundation of a great customer experience.
On the digital front with the new Paiste website up and running, we offer a digital Soundroom where you are able to put together your own unique setup and compare different hi-hats with each other. You can also insert entire Paiste Artist Setups to the Soundroom. This is a great way to explore many different hi-hats before you head over to the dealer of your trust.
ML: I think availability, if they have the product. Product knowledge is really key. The salespeople often have a preference, too, on which brand that they like and that can influence the consumer as well. A demo area is important. There weren’t a lot of people going into stores in 2020, but it’s coming back. If retailers have a good presentation in the store and a place to try them out, I think that’s key. And an online presence is pretty much essential to survive nowadays.
Expectations for this market segment in the coming months?
AT: I expect single cymbal sales – including hi-hats – will continue to grow through Q1 as drummers spend holiday cash to treat themselves to that special cymbal they’ve had their eyes on!
ML: I would say it’s trending upwards – and hopefully that applies to the whole cymbal business, in general, but hi-hats, for sure. And we’re working on a new collection of cymbals which we collaborated with Jojo Mayer on and that includes hi-hats, and it’s very exciting. It’s kind of a different manufacturing technique that we’re incorporating into this. And we’re very optimistic for the future on those. That’s something we’ll be releasing in March.
RW: We obviously hope that the pandemic situation will calm down sooner than later in order to make further progress in various different projects and developments, also including hi-hats, of course.
IY: We are hoping that everything will be better in the second quarter of this year – especially for the music industry. We are pretty sure our sales going to increase this summer.
AS: Hi-hat sales are always slow and steady – they never have the “wow factor” that exists with accent cymbals like crashes and splashes.
