Walking Hats

[jazzerone]

OKay, jazzerone starts another pants down thread, but this is bothering me, so I need an answer/advice to this really stooopid problem....

My top hi hat cymbal keep walking around. No, not in the house or the yard, around the clutch.

I'm using a pretty standard Pearl hat stand, with the original clutch. It's pretty loose on the top hat, as advised by those wiser than me. The bottom hat has a bit of tilt to it, not extreme, maybe 1/4 inch.

Here's what happens: while I'm playing the top hat walks, or rotates if you will, around. And as it walks the sound changes. Sometimes I've got a nice tight chick, then the hat moves a bit and the sound chnages to a chup, then it moves a bit more and runs into this dead spot where I almost have an airlock sound.

Anybody else have this happen?? I know I can just tighten the clutch, but that takes a lot of the dynamic out of the cymbal. Okay, make me smart.

[moosryan]

get a new clutch? 20 bucks to solve the problem doesn't seem like such a bad idea...

[jptrickster]

.....I put duct tape on the clutch sleeve...like a 1" strip wrapped around about 3 or 4 times...not so much I cant get the felt over it......this helps the cymbal float problem plus protects the hole...yes folks, another use for duct tape.....


jp out<>

[Mister_Acrolite]

I'd increase the tilt of the bottom cymbal so that even if the top cymbal moves around, the two are never parallel.

Plus, every now and then you gotta give them a spin, because they'll start to seat themselves in a parallel position. To me that's no biggie.

I play my top cymbal fairly loose, too. I actually think it's a good thing - it means your top cymbal should be getting equally worn, instead of just getting played in one spot.

Mr. A.

[mangorockfish]

When I play my top cymbal loose, and I pull it down kind of hard with my foot, there is this click feeling from the clutch moving through the hole a little bit. I don't know how to explain it , but it is worse when using the Pearl rubber washers as opposed to felts, but it happens when using either ones. Is the cymbal too loose or what am I doing wrong? Didn't mean to hijack here.

[jda]

As per JPTrickster.wrap black electrical tape.once twice...done.

[Matt]

I had this problem. It occured because the hi-hat felts weren't flat, so the top cymbal would sit at a noticable angle. New felts solved my problem.

[LuvmyLeedy]

i think matt's on it. you need felts with a little more friction. maybe wider ones? but if your clutch is loose enough, they're pretty much gonna rotate some no matter what.

sometimes adjusting the bottom for more even response no matter where the top one is is all you can do.

[JayCam]

When I play my top cymbal loose, and I pull it down kind of hard with my foot, there is this click feeling from the clutch moving through the hole a little bit. I don't know how to explain it , but it is worse when using the Pearl rubber washers as opposed to felts, but it happens when using either ones. Is the cymbal too loose or what am I doing wrong? Didn't mean to hijack here.

Yeah I get this. I always get a shiver when it happenes as I imagine someone taking a saw to the hole of my lovely mehmet light hats but yeah your clutch is too loose... I tighten mine up a little and theres no problem.

You could also try getting a clutch which has a section with no thread, this should resolve the problem completely.

J.

[Seb]

What Matt said - new top felts.

I think the problem actually starts when you tilt the bottom cymbal too much. The top cymbal is forced to be at an angle when closed, so the top felts get compressed and change their shape.
Try the following:
Once the top felts are flatter on one side (top cymbal at an angle), get rid of the bottom tilt - as the tilt is in the top now. If the bottom cymbal is flat, it doesn't matter which way the top cym. turns.
In fact, after a while I think the top felts get even again, and you can go back to tilting the bottom - always just as much as neccessary.
I usually check the above when setting up, an I think I hardly ever have a problem with losing the "chick" with my hats and stand.

[jazzerone]

Okay.... new felts tomorrow, but today I tried the duct tape around the clutch and this took most of the rotate out of the top hat. As I watch the cymbal it occurs to me that there's enough difference in the diamter of the hole vs. the diameter of the clutch that not only is the cymbal slightly tilted (worn felts, for sure) but it also sits just ever so slightly off center.

Duct tape took up most of the slack, plus added a friction surface that seems to resist the cymbal trying to turn. Positioned the top cymbal where I wanted it, got less than 2 inches of travel.... but like Mr. A said, I don't want to leave them in the same position all the time.

Thanks for the feedback, guys......

[zenstat]

Golly. I had the walking hat problem as well. I just put it down to slightly uneven weight distribution in my Bosphorus Antique cymbals. But after reading this I looked at the diameter of the felts which came with my Yamaha HS-740. They were very small diameter so I put a larger diameter one on the top and no more rotation. A chick remains chick and not a choc or an air lock. Thank you all for your wisdom. One minute fix!

So why were the stock hi hat felts so small in diameter? I can't hear a difference having put a slightly larger diameter one on the top. Did some engineer decide they should be smaller diameter since the clutch can dampen the sound? Did some famous player have smaller felts long ago and it just caught on? Just curious...