When picking a china cymbal for your setup, you have to keep in mind what cymbals/sounds you already have and what are the purposes of using it. For example, you may want a china for hitting on single accents? or riding on? or destroying everyone on stage? or even for the greedy all 3 reasons? (all 3 would equal a versatile guitarist hating cymbal)
The China's I have played and regularly use are:
(Sabian)
19" Paragon China
19 and 21" AA Holy China
17”, 19" and 21” AAX X-Treme China.
Qualities and thoughts of each:
All 3 are great china's... Not a lot varies between size other than slight pitch variances obviously. The Paragon is a softer buttery sort of china that doesn't cut as well as the others as a stand alone china. I prefer to use it as a stack with another cymbal as it is the thinnest of all 3 china’s. The Holy China is a wicked sounding china but the holes shorten it’s decay a little so it's better for stabbing on (which some drummers prefer), but in my setup I already have a short decay sounding china (set in my stack) so I need a china that opens up a bit more. The China that does exactly that for me is the AAX X-treme China. It cuts well, has a nice dirty trash quality with the perfect amount of decay, it's not an overly harsh sounding China and it's great for riding on. So right now the X-treme is the perfect stand along China in my setup.
My current setup can be seen on my latest drum cover (using 19" AAX X-treme china far right,19" Paragon as the stack)
The China's I have played and regularly use are:
(Sabian)
19" Paragon China
19 and 21" AA Holy China
17”, 19" and 21” AAX X-Treme China.
Qualities and thoughts of each:
All 3 are great china's... Not a lot varies between size other than slight pitch variances obviously. The Paragon is a softer buttery sort of china that doesn't cut as well as the others as a stand alone china. I prefer to use it as a stack with another cymbal as it is the thinnest of all 3 china’s. The Holy China is a wicked sounding china but the holes shorten it’s decay a little so it's better for stabbing on (which some drummers prefer), but in my setup I already have a short decay sounding china (set in my stack) so I need a china that opens up a bit more. The China that does exactly that for me is the AAX X-treme China. It cuts well, has a nice dirty trash quality with the perfect amount of decay, it's not an overly harsh sounding China and it's great for riding on. So right now the X-treme is the perfect stand along China in my setup.
My current setup can be seen on my latest drum cover (using 19" AAX X-treme china far right,19" Paragon as the stack)