Meinl Artist Concept Model Stacks
95
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM SEPTEMBER 2018 |
PRICES
£309 Thomas Lang
Super Stack: 18" Classics
Custom vented
china/18" Classics
Custom vented crash,
brilliant fi nish
£318 Luke Holland
Bullet Stack: 16"
Byzance vented/slotted
crash, sandblasted
fi nish/12" Classics
Custom splash,
brilliant fi nish
£468 Benny Greb
Crasher Hats: 3x 8"
mini-hats, 1x 8" crasher,
raw/natural fi nish
£535 Matt Garstka Fat
Stack: 18" Byzance
vented crash/18"
Byzance china, raw/
traditional fi nish
£562 Matt Halpern
Double Down Stack: 17"
Byzance crash/18"
Byzance china, raw/
natural fi nish
£625 Anika Nilles Deep
Hats: 2x18" Byzance
hats, sandblasted fi nish
EXTRAS
Meinl MXH X-Hat (Deep
Hats and Crasher Hats)
CONTACT
Roland Meinl GmbH
+49 9161 788-0,
meinluk@meinl.de
www.meinlcymbals.com
Essential spec
VERDICT: There’s something for
everyone within the Artist Concept
Models range. While some might be a
serious outlay, it’s quality and value
across the board.
BUILD QUALITY
PLAYABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
RATING
‘Superstition’ ad infi nitum. Both blend in well,
not unlike loud shakers, and while the
intention here is for them to be set closed, we
had a lot of fun placing both sets on a regular
hi-hat stand in place of traditional hi-hats.
Both the Super Stack and Bullet Stack
deliver a more modern stack sound, and
while they cut with razor precision, they aren’t
brash and we could see them fi tting well in a
range of genres. The sound decays quickly,
even under very little tension, but tighten
them down and you have an even shorter
sound that still keeps its aggression. Finally,
there’s the Matt Halpern and Matt Garstka
models. While Garstka’s is (to our ears) the
most angry of the bunch – all throaty, loud
bark that demands to be crashed – Matt
Halpern’s is surprisingly ‘outside’ of what we
might expect. The tonality is subtle and
almost complex, urging us to spend as much
time riding on it as we did trying to pick out
accents in the fi rst place.
Every one of these pairings has its own
voice, and that couldn’t be more important
with artist models. That said, we’d urge you to
not be driven either way by your
preconceptions in this regard, as this range is
extremely versatile, regardless of the artist
who selected it. The variation that can be
achieved within each stack via placement and
nut tension is great fun, and it’s easy to forget
that every one of these cymbals can be used
solo as well as within its stack, which makes it
feel like there’s a lot of value in fi nding new
sounds. We love the fact that the range isn’t
exclusively made up of high-end metals from
the Meinl range, and while some of the prices
are high for what might not be your staple
sounds, a bit of Googling reveals that in some
cases these stacks are more affordable
(‘street prices’) than piecing together a stack
using equivalents from Meinl’s catalogue.
X-HAT FACTOR
The Anika Nilles Deep Hats
and Benny Greb Crasher Hats
are supplied with a Meinl MXH
X-Hat (worth £49) in the box
TUNING
You can shorten the
decay of each stack by
tensioning the wingnut
on your cymbal stand
for added versatility
FINISHES
The Artist Concept Models use a range of finishing
processes, from Ankia Nilles’ sandblasted hats, to the
raw grit of Matt Garstka’s Fat Stack, or the modern
sheen of the Thomas Lang Super Stack’s brilliant finish
RHY285.gear_meinl.indd 95 8/10/18 2:11 PM