So I'm back from Istanbul...
 

Man, was that a nice vacation....

I'll come right to the point.
Istanbul Agop was amazing. Friendly people, awesome cymbals and a drumset to jam, what would you want more? :)

Here are a few pics of the factory:

Outside view:

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

The hammer dudes...

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

The finisher dudes... :thumb:

[IMG]http://users.telenet.be/Drums/workers2.JPG[/IMG]

A cymbal rack:

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

Some more cymbals:

[IMG]http://users.telenet.be/Drums/cymbals2.JPG[/IMG]

After the tour he just asked me what kind of music I played. After giving him some idea of what I look for in a cymbal, he started mounting different types while I sat behind the drumkit. I wanted a full set of cymbals, so I was testing hi-hats, rides, crashes, china's, splashes, bells, the whole works.

I finnaly ended up settling for a mix of alchemy's and traditionals. Here's the list:

[B]Alchemy's:[/B][list][*]20" sweet ride[*]14" sweet hi-hat[*]14" medium crash[*]2x 8" power splashes , 1 is high pitched, much higher then the other one for some reason[*]raw bell with sizzlers[/list]
[B]Traditionals:[/B][list][*]17" dark crash[*]16" medium crash[*]14" thin crash[*]10" Bell[/list]
So in all, that makes 10 sweet cymbals and a cymbal bag.
And I got all that for.... -ROFL- .... 890 €

If I would get that set here from our local shop, I'ld go way over 2500 euro.

Pics of the set will follow later. I just took them, but the batter of my cam went flat just when I wanted to put them in the pc. I still have to unpack and I'm really not going to go look for the recharger now...


And to finish it of, what would a trip to Istanbul be without a visit to the blue mosque, or the "Sultanahmet Camii" like the turkish call it. Boy, is that thing a piece of architecture!! :amaze:

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

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

Whhaaatt!!
Crazy price!

That's awesome man! It's so cool that you got to see all of that.

Oh s[COLOR=White]h[/COLOR]it dude that friggin' rocks!!!

Whoops, I forgot a 10" bell on the traditionals list :D
I've edited it :p

and yeah, it was amazing

jeezuz

Wow, that would of been a fun tour lol, remind me to go there sometime, and that is a crazy price, hope you had fun and good luck with your new cymbals

Dang man that is KILLER!!

Excellent choices too man!

Incredible man. Simply incredible.


Lets here some audio of those too!

Hahahaha I Hate You!
:p
Jk

BTW how much is 2500 euro in U.S. currency?? (sorry i'm slightly challenged at these things :lol: )

I think that lately one euro is equal to 1.2 US or something $, but I'm not sure.
The euro is slightly more expensive.

It's funny, in Turkish money (YT) it was around 1 billion :lol:

dude, wow..... i want to go over east so bad, especially turkey

Welcome back DxRocker! Pictures looks fantastic and I'm so glad everything went the way you planned. If it's ok with you, I'm going to link this thread to an elite cymbal forum called cymbalholics.com where the members there are real experts on genuine turkish cymbals. I know they'll enjoy this thread and the photos. And with my Istanbul Agop sig ride, I also know just how great Istanbuls are. Can't wait to see the pics of your set :thumb:

So they give a discount if you buy them direct from the factory?

[QUOTE=-Obscurity-]So they give a discount if you buy them direct from the factory?[/QUOTE]

It's not really "from" the factory.. It's more like AT the factory :D

The price of those things get a HUGE boost when exported and sold in local drumshops. And off course, at the factory, you get factory prices. There's only one who has to make profit, and that's the factory. No online stores, no distirbuters, no drumshops mail stuff... Half of the cymbals I bought even didn't have logo's on them when I bought them, the came right from the cellar where they just finished making them.

They've put some logo's on the once I bought while I was drinking some tea with the bigg chief :thumb:

[QUOTE=DxRocker]It's not really "from" the factory.. It's more like AT the factory :D

The price of those things get a HUGE boost when exported and sold in local drumshops. And off course, at the factory, you get factory prices. There's only one who has to make profit, and that's the factory. No online stores, no distirbuters, no drumshops mail stuff... Half of the cymbals I bought even didn't have logo's on them when I bought them, the came right from the cellar where they just finished making them.

They've put some logo's on the once I bought while I was drinking some tea with the bigg chief :thumb:[/QUOTE]

Wow, that's amazing! Did you have connections or did you just walk in?

Lucky bastard :)

wow, looks like turkey is awsome
id definitely like to go there one day, that mosque looks awesome

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

It's beautiful inside the blue mosque. must have had a great time man!

Thats only 1,139 dollars american you lucky bastar[FONT=Arial Narrow]d[/FONT]

I kind of feel a little goofy about getting excited about the cymbal room at GC now. What an awesome experience and set of cymbals.

you got all those cymbals for under $1200 US i believe, what a great deal!

thats awsome dude and awsome choices. Id kill to be there and get to pic out al those new cymbals ( not literaly kill). what about some audio? and welcome back dude.

thats crazy man .. i wish i had that many cymbals for such a great price :(

whoah, amazing. definately looking forward to those pics

**** man, have fun with those...

You posted pics of the factory but not your cymbals..... pics?:)

I love that pic of those dudes hammering away. A big empty room with all these grubby guys just hammering away at these cymbals :lol:

Did they speak English well? I'd assume they'd have to.

I'd love to go to Istanbul. NOw I want to **** Istanbul! W00t!

i doubt they speak english. why would they need to?

Umm, unless DxRcoker knows Turkish.

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: