That is a dream vacation for me man. Congratulations on your new gear. I can't imagine how excited I would be.

now cmon, why would they speak english? has england ever ruled over turkey? turkey is extremely uninfluenced by the english, hence, why the **** would they speak english? im sure a good number of people there speak persian among other languages, i know turkish isnt a language

ED: i googled it, languages are Kurdish, Arabic, Armenian, Greek. i just remembered that persian was the language used in ottoman courts

This is a great thread! I loved the pics of the factory and the pics of the area! Thanks for sharing that! AND great cymbals! I can't wait to see the pics.

Awesome pictures and amazing buys. Congratulations!

Holy crap. How awesome is this picture? I mean. Wow.
[IMG]http://users.telenet.be/Drums/workers.JPG[/IMG]
I will totally keep the Istanbul factory in mind if I ever have a chance to go there.

Wow. Sooooo lucky.

Thats insane! I would estimate the price of those with say Zildjian or Sabian equivalents is over 2000 CND at a local drum shop! Killer deal man. I would love to visit any cymbal making factory, thats one of my few goals in traveling. I really want to go to Japan to lol. I love seeig that though, all hand hammerd and lathed from a raw disk of metal, just a beautifull sight.

Man that is unreal. Seriously for all those cymbals from a shop down here in Australia would be like $6,000 but if I were to buy them like you about $3-4,000. I wanna go to ISTANBUL. UNREAL!!!nice pics

For those wondering:
€890 = $1,136
€2500 = $3,192

And, Woooooow!! That looks unutterably cool! Visit the factory, choose a cymbal setup, get it really cheap, and have tea with the man in charge?? That's awesome.

[QUOTE=GooseFilms.net]and by the way, that mosque was originally a church when turkey was under the byzantine empire. however, when the ottoman empire conquered it in around the 15th or 16th century (not 100% on that one), constantinople was immediately made the capital of the ottoman empire (which spanned from the 13th century all the way to the 20th, by the way). glorifying constantinople, which was the roman capital in rome's later days (founded by the first christian empire Constantine somewhere around 223 AD), the ottoman sultans put a lot of cash into this city, making everything a very unique blend of european and middle eastern art and architecture[/QUOTE]

That's all very true, but you are confusing the Blue Mosque with the Aya Sophia. That was the one that used to be a church and got converted to a mosque. It is right behind the blue mosque. :thumb:

Ha, seems like this thread is a succes :D

I'm gonna go look for my recharger and get the rest of my pics up right now (and then I'm gonna go play the drums for the rest of the day :lol: )

And to those wondering: I didn't really have any connections. I just emailed Istanbul Agop and told them I was coming to Istanbul and that I would love to visit the factory and buy some cymbals. It is not a store, so they don't like it that you just come in there without warning. You have to make some kind of appointment so that they expect you. All in all, I think I stayed at the factory for about an hour and a half.

The man in charge spoke a little english, but not to much. Just enough to have a conversation and the explain a few things. But in the end, the sound of those cymbals and the location and workplace speak for themselves....

Pics update
 

Here we go...

This is the set of cymbals I bought:

[IMG]http://users.telenet.be/Drums/mycymbals.JPG[/IMG]

The list once more (from left to right, for all 3 rows of cymbals)
- 17" traditional dark crash
- 20" alchemy sweet ride
- 16" traditional medium crash
- 14" alchemy medium crash
- 14" traditional thin crash
- 8" alchemy power splash
- 8" alchemy power splash
- 10" (I think at least, not specified) alchemy raw bell with sizzlers
- 10" (again, I think) traditional bell
- 14" alchemy sweet hi-hat

This one is a close up of the Raw Bell with sizzlers, that thing is fantastic!! :D

[IMG]http://users.telenet.be/Drums/rawbell.JPG[/IMG]

If you guys want more close ups from the others, just ask and I will do my best to get them up.

Audio samples will follow soon, but I have alot to do the next couple of days, so I don't know when that will be. I'll do my best to record something as quickly as possible.

Enjoy :thumb:

:thumb:
Wow, that's amazing. Beautiful stuff.

OUTSTANDING score and LOVELY pics...Thanks for sharing...

Now go and hook up a mic and hit those things and send us the audio files...NOW!!ha
Mark

I might be going to that same factory in the summer holidays. I too am an Istanbul Agop user and fan. How did you gain access to the factory? Do they do guided tours? If so how much do they cost per person?
My cymbal set-up is as follows:

Istanbul Agop 13" Sultan Hi-Hats
Istanbul Agop 9" Traditonal Splash
Istanbul Agop 11" Traditional Splash
Istanbul Agop 16" Traditional Medium-Thin Crash
Istanbul Agop 17" Traditional Medium-Thin Crash
Istanbul Agop 20" Traditional Custom Dry Ride

Heres a couple of pictures of my beloved Istanbul Agop 20" Traditional Custom Dry Ride.

[IMG]http://img222.echo.cx/img222/6619/myride22rl.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img222.echo.cx/img222/6076/myride0ia.jpg[/IMG]

And here is a pic of my Sultan Hats. Crisp and complex.

[IMG]http://img52.echo.cx/img52/3025/myhihats5ux.jpg[/IMG]

Excellent thread! brilliant pictures! amazing cymbals!!

Man thats just insane, those look so nice.

I need new pants :(

I love the look of the sultan hats, I can just look at those for a good 5mins hahaha.

[QUOTE=Double Bass Jim]I love the look of the sultan hats, I can just look at those for a good 5mins hahaha.[/QUOTE]

I wonder if they sound different if you hit them on the differently finished bits? Cos that's a whole other type of sound in one set of hats if they do...

^^^
They do actually. Not a major difference though. But what I find incredibly impressive is that the bottom hat is actually heavier than the top. You don't see that too often these days.

The bottom hat is a goldier colour too

[QUOTE=British Boy]But what I find incredibly impressive is that the bottom hat is actually heavier than the top. You don't see that too often these days.[/QUOTE]

You're kidding right?

Theres only a few select pre-paired hats that have a heavy top hat, for instance the gadd ones do thats about it.

[QUOTE=GooseFilms.net]now cmon, why would they speak english? has england ever ruled over turkey? turkey is extremely uninfluenced by the english, hence, why the **** would they speak english? im sure a good number of people there speak persian among other languages, i know turkish isnt a language

ED: i googled it, languages are Kurdish, Arabic, Armenian, Greek. i just remembered that persian was the language used in ottoman courts[/QUOTE]


Turkish IS AN ACTUAL language.



the turks descended from asiatic nomadic tribes around mongolia , invented belly dancers , kebabs , the double knotted rugs and harems :naughty:

while the americans...invented new sports because they couldnt win the traditional sports (lol) , the hot dog , the franchise , fast food.

therefore

Ottoman Culture > American Culture

How do I know all this? im half turk :lol:




(just joking about culture boys and girls)

[QUOTE=British Boy]They do actually. Not a major difference though. [/quote]
Cool.

[quote]But what I find incredibly impressive is that the bottom hat is actually heavier than the top. You don't see that too often these days.[/QUOTE]

This has already been said, but, you're taking the piss, right? I can guarantee that if you look on the Zildjian, Sabian and Paiste sites that over 90% of the hats will have heavier bottoms than tops.

[QUOTE]This has already been said, but, you're taking the piss, right? I can guarantee that if you look on the Zildjian, Sabian and Paiste sites that over 90% of the hats will have heavier bottoms than tops.[/QUOTE]

Ok I was over-exaggurating, but really all the entry level hats these days are very close in weight, whereas with Istanbul's there is a significant difference.
With alot of cymbals these days, you can't hear any real difference wether your hats are top/bottom or bottom/top.

That's nuts man. I'm sure we were all expecting a big high tech factory and to our surprise we see these men sitting on little wooden chairs just hammering away. Definately vintage- old fashioned. Must have been a very cool experience.

you'd think with the money they make they'd renovate that poor factory...looks kinda in rough shape ^_^

I'm not sure if they even make that much money.

yeah totally!

It really is just all about the art of making good fine cymbals over there!
And to be honest, I don't think they make all that much money!
Those cymbals really don't cost that much. You pay a lot for them in local stores becaue:
- they are the third or sometimes even fourth party that needs to have some profit on them
- they are "rare" since they are not the result of mass production

British boy, about that "tour". There is not much to tour you know? It's just 3 rooms:
one with a LOT of finished cymbals, 1 with an oven that melts the material and puts them in a rough cymbal form and 1 with some hammer dudes and the other two who finish them and put on logo's. And that is it :)

I love Istanbul. Where the quality comes before the money and the quantity!! :D

I agree whole-heartedly. :)

[QUOTE=British Boy]Ok I was over-exaggurating, but really all the entry level hats these days are very close in weight, whereas with Istanbul's there is a significant difference.
With alot of cymbals these days, you can't hear any real difference wether your hats are top/bottom or bottom/top.[/QUOTE]

I still disagree.