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Each cymbal is hand-hammered on an anvil at least 5000 times

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• Review

There seems to be a small but vigorous population of traditionally-trained cymbalsmiths in Istanbul which every few years launches a new name onto the market. Amedia was established in 2005 as a family company to produce cymbals in the age-old way.

With a small factory in the centre of Istanbul owned by Ahmet Baykusak, himself a cymbal hammerer with 15 years' experience, production is under the watchful eye of the Zilcan (Zildjian)-trained Eremya Arzat, who has trained many Turkish cymbalsmiths over the past 28 years.

For a young company we've never seen so many different series of cymbals - we counted 22 on the website. No, really, 22. Not only that, but Amedia offers a massive range of sizes and weights in any of the series, which makes Amedia potentially the most diverse company of them all.

Amedia is new to the British market and is distributed by Handmade Cymbals over here. Handmade's intention is to offer "exceptional products at competitive prices".

Build

Old School is one of the most recent of Amedia's many series. The first thing is that all Amedia cymbals are hand-crafted from cast B20 bronze in the traditional style which has been synonymous with Istanbul over the past century and has roots going back at least to the founding of Zildjian in 1623.

The Turkish K Zildjian is the prototype on which jazz was founded. The transplanting of Zildjian to America opened up the path of the modern cymbal's colossal evolution, but there is a large and increasing constituency of drummers who want the traditional dark and dry sound. Old School aims to provide that.

The cymbals look most distinctive - a rich coffee brown with raw hammered, leopard spot bells and thickly grooved upper and lower surfaces. Amedia says the colour is due to the Old School's unique, secret, alloy. The blood red logo and denomination add to the distinctive look.

There are no computer-guided lasers involved in the rolling, just the experience of Eremya Arzat. Each cymbal is handhammered on an anvil at least 5,000 times. A supplemental knurling process creates the unique finish. The tone grooves are cut into the top and underside by a skilled lathe-man, again working entirely by hand and eye. A second lathing is followed by a hand polish before leaving the cymbal to cool for several days.

Finally each cymbal is played (and signed) by Ahmet Baykusak before leaving the factory.

Hands on

Old School are certainly traditional sounding - deep, warm and dry. Although we only got a minimal set to review, the 19" ride, 16" crash and 14" hats sat together perfectly well.