Paiste


Paiste is a Swiss-based Estonian musical instrument manufacturing company. It is the world's third largest manufacturer of cymbals, gongs, and metal percussion. is an Estonian and Finnish word that means "shine".
Apart from cymbals and gongs, Paiste has also manufactured other percussion instruments such as crotal bells, finger cymbals and cowbells, currently discontinued.

History

The first Paiste cymbals were produced in 1906 by Estonian musician Toomas Paiste in his instrument repair shop in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to customer orders. Toomas had served in the Czarist Imperial Guard, and retired in 1901 to open a music publishing business and music shop.
The cymbal-making aspect of the business expanded with the passing years, despite the disruption of several moves necessitated by war: first to Tallinn, Estonia in 1917, where Toomas' son decided to concentrate on cymbal production and export. In 1940, the family and the cymbal-making operation moved to Poland, where they continued under extremely difficult conditions, and in 1945 to Germany. Finally, in 1957 a new headquarters and production facility was established in Switzerland. The business was continued by Michail's sons, Robert and Toomas, with both the Swiss and German operations as the main manufacturing centres. Since 2003, the company has been headed by Toomas' son, Erik. Robert Paiste died in 2016, aged 84.

Innovations

Paiste has developed several innovations to cymbal design and manufacture. Among these are:
Many of these innovations were used by other manufacturers when the applicable patents expired. For example, almost all of the larger modern cymbal companies offer a flat ride cymbal and an alternative to the Sound Edge Hi-Hat.

Products

Cymbals

Current series

Paiste makes several cymbal lines from several alloys. These include:
Classic Paiste lines include:
In addition, some Paiste cymbals are re-branded by drum manufacturers with their own brand name, for example Vater, Vater Rainbow etc.
Paiste also offers to color coat their cymbals and the possibility of custom orders. They also use prototype cymbals that sometimes appear in stores. So there are Paiste cymbals 'outside' of the here mentioned series. Most of these cymbals were never manufactured fully.

History of Sound Creation line

It started with the Formula 602 "Dark Ride" cymbal in the early 70s. This cymbal was developed with Jack DeJohnette. In 1975, Paiste introduced the Sound Creation as a cymbal line.
The first series in 1975 shows a small Paiste logo an inch away from the ride bells.
Hi-Hats were Dark Hi-Hat and Dark Sound Edge Hi-Hat, 10 types in total:
The 1979 series has the same small Paiste ink an inch away from bells. Hi-Hat models were as in the 1975 series, with the 10 types in that series and 6 additional cymbals available with factory rivets.
In 1984, the line and models partially change. The top ink logo changes, and the following models were added :
The Mellow Ride was discontinued. Also, 13" models were added to all Hi-Hats, and the Hi-Hats were changed to Medium and Heavy models, with the mediums lighter than the former regular models.
The "New Dimension" were introduced in 1985, with different hammering patterns and lathing. Contrary to the old heavy and random hammering pattern in the Dark models, the hammering becomes more evenly spaced, except in the China, where the hammering turned very heavy and random, while in the former Dark China models the hammering was very light and regularly spread all over the cymbal.
The ND treatment was applied to these types: Dark Crash, Dark Ride, Dark Medium, Dark China, Short Crash, and Bell Ride.

Hand-held cymbals

Aside from the cymbals meant for playing with a drum kit, Paiste produces clash cymbals. Current lines include:
Paiste makes its gongs in the German factory. Paiste gongs are made from nickel silver. Current series include:
Paiste also made a line of tuned gongs and a tuned gong play that are now discontinued.

Other instruments

Paiste also makes a variety of metal percussion instruments. Among these are: