Norbert Saemann, artist relations and events manager for Meinl Cymbals, gladly provided a booth tour at NAMM and revealed all add-ons to existing cymbal lines Byzance Traditional, Byzance Dark, Byzance Vintage, MCS, M-Series, and Soundcaster Fusion series plus the complete new range called Classics Custom series.

Also new for 2011 are five matched cymbal sets in the Soundcaster Fusion, Soundcaster Custom, MB10, MB8 and the Fresh Classics Custom Series. Every set includes a 14" medium hihat, a 16" medium crash, a 20" medium ride and comes with a free 22" cymbal case. You can watch and hear all the new products in the videos below.

Mario Schmitt, product manager of Meinl Percussion, talks about all the new percussion products in this article.

Add-ons to existing cymbal lines
Newly added to Meinl's Byzance Traditional series are a dark, low pitched and loud 16" Medium Hi-Hat and an 20" Extra Thin Hammered Crash. This last mentioned model is completely hand made in the company's own Turkish cymbal smithy from the finest B20 bronze, featuring an extensive hammering pattern which results in a dark and trashy sound with a wide spread and a long sustain.

The Byzance Dark line is expanded with a 15" Dark Hat and a 22" Dark Ride cymbal. New for the Byzance Vintage series is the 22" Benny Greb Signature Sand Ride, the 14" Sand Hat plus a 16" and 18" Trash Crash with holes in it. Although these trash crashes look similar to Benny Greb's Sand Ride, they aren't his signature models.

Meinl's entry level symbal series MCS is expanded with a 10" splash, 18" medium crash and an 18" china. Their Soundcaster Fusion series now feature a 16" and 18" thin crash cymbal and a 19" powerful crash. An 8.5" bell (with a huge sustain!), a 10" splash, plus a 16 and 18” heavy-weight crashes are added to Meinl's M-Series, as well as a 13" medium hi-hat and a 14" heavy hi-hat. The M-Series are made from German B20 bronze sheets and were introduced last year.

New symbal range: Classics Custom
Meinl's newly launched Classics Custom symbal series are made from B10 bronze alloy that has a higher content of tin than the standard Classics Series cymbals with B8 alloy so they sound a bit darker, delivering rich, musical sounds. This midprice series is completely produced in Germany by high-tech computerized manufacturing. The extensive range includes an 8" Splash, a 16" Medium Hi-hat, an 18" Medium Crash, a 20" Powerful Crash plus a 22" Powerful Ride cymbal. All cymbals have a brilliant finish.

New accessories items plus new magazine
Meinl also introduced new accessories items like cymbal dividers, Jawbreaker practice pads, a new drum rug motive with quick-set markers, a Jawbreaker drum stick holder, and a new cymbal stacker. Last but not least the company' proudly presented their own Meinl cymbal magazine called Pure Metal. Besides being available as a hard copy (paper) it will also be available as a downloadable version which will be updated every three months.