Agazarian (Wuhan) Chinas

Just went to GC today and got a 12" Agazarian China for $25. According to the guy there, they are replacing the Wuhans with these. They sound like they should cost way more than $25! Also, if you buy 4 pairs of sticks there, they will give you a free PDP boom stand.

I may have to check the 4 pair/free stand deal.

No doubt, thanks for the heads up man.

I have taken the liberty of bolding the operative words here.

Contrary to what they might have you believe, Guitar Center does not own or control the music gear industry. While I have no doubt that GC will no longer sell Wuhan-branded products in favor of their house brand label Agazarian (named after some guy in their corporate offices), that does not mean that Wuhan is going away. I am sure that Wuhan chinas will still be available in your favorite drum shops.

What bothers me is not that GC would create and sell their own brand name (for more profit -- you'll notice that the "Agazarian" version has increased in price over the Wuhan by $5-10); what bothers me is that they act like Wuhan is going away and that (only?) they have the replacement item. It's a backdoor attempt at getting people to be brand-loyal to their own proprietary stuff.

Just to clarify:

You have to buy four pairs of DW drumsticks, which come in threes, and are $10 for three. So it's $40 for 12 drumsticks and a boom stand.

My buddy got the Agazarian 12" china with a boom stand, and it sounds pretty bad. It's too thick and clangy. Same construction as my Saluda china, which is also too thick and clangy.

I believe the Agazarians are the same cymbals with a different logo. The Wuhan foundry is like the Keller shells of Chinese bronze. Unless I'm mistaken, the Dream lines are also cast & hammered there, along with blanks that become Saludas. Assorted brands come out of Wuhan.

From the Pearl Forum:

"Just to clear some things up. Agazarian is guitar center's wuhan. they are the same company except agazarian is for guitar center only. today i got the cymbal prepack. O and these are B20 bronze and they are cast, although not hi end cymbals."

Right, you guys are right on with this.

That doesn't change the fact that they are GC's house brand which they would lead you to believe is taking the place of Wuhan, when in fact this only applies to their stores, not the whole world. They will likely try to tell you that Agazarian chinas are better than Wuhan, which is why they cost more.

Over the last year GC has been adding more and more items to its stores that are "GC Brand" items. These Agazarians, anything Sound Percussion, the new OCDP kits and snares, Simmons, Guitars, Basses, Amps... the list goes on. One more way to make a bigger buck.

Side by side Agazarian and Wuhan are the same damn thing, GC just gets them stamped with there own name. I don't mind buying the cheap store brand if it's of decent quality and does the job at a reasonable price.

I'm still using the SP snare, hihat, and boom stands that I started with over a year ago, and they still work like they should, and were cheap, at 20 bucks a stand, so in my opinion they are a good value.

So I'm not against proprietary branding for the store, and if they make more profit by doing that, go for it.

If it's quality stuff at a fair price, who is it really hurting?

Yeah its a PDP 700 boom stand. It has guitar center exclusive red feet. Oh and it is 4 packs of sticks at $9 a piece, and each pack has 3 sticks, so you are pretty much getting 6 pairs of sticks and a boom stand for $40.

I used to have some agazarian cymbals. I didn't bother to even try a trash by them cuz the ones I had sucked nutz!

Let me tell you, they are good, but you may have to go through ten of em before you find the right one. Also, their 12" Splash sounds pretty good, more like a trash splash.

Yeah its a PDP 700 boom stand. It has guitar center exclusive red feet. Oh and it is 4 packs of sticks at $9 a piece, and each pack has 3 sticks, so you are pretty much getting 6 pairs of sticks and a boom stand for $40.

Doesn't sound too bad, I may check it out tomorrow.

and to top that, the sticks are made by (a company of) DW so they should be good.

Oh my bad, the stand is a PDP 800 straight stand, not a PDP 700 boom stand.

I completely agree. It's a good, sound, business decision. But they aren't just doing proprietary product and offering a better deal on it -- they are doing the opposite by charging more for their own line than the Wuhan cymbals. THEN they mislead the customer by saying "these are better" and "Wuhans are being replaced by these." Sure, it's a grey area, but I think it's distasteful and dishonest (qualities I've seen MANY times in GC people).

UPDATE: We were all mistaken. Here's a quote from inside GC for you all.

I bought a book yesterday on drumming that made it clear that "hand hammered" really means machines used to immitate hand hammering. This, apparently, makes the cymbal more consistent. Just what I read. I'll get the name of the book when I go home.

I don't doubt that there are cymbals marked "hand hammered" that are actually machine hammered. Marketing people bend the truth like that all the time, but how could "hand hammered" mean anything but hand hammered?

Ever see this video? (in quicktime format here because I can't access YouTube at work, but it's easily found on YouTube. Search 'Agop video')

According to the book, I believe it said the machine did most of the hammering, then it was hammered by hand afterwards for finishing touches? Some {censored} like that. I'm tired and at work, I'll read it again tonight.

i own a agazarian and a wuhan china, both 12". and i disagree with what everyone says...they are NOT similar at all. the agazarian is thinner and smaller in circumference than the wuhan. both produce very different sounds and i use both on my kit. but then again, my opinion is bias. i dont particularly like clean ringing cymbals. i like trashy cymbals and have found beauty even in kitchen pot lids.

Great

Allegedly, Wuhan (as a cymbal maker) has been around for some thing over 2000 years..I don't think they're going away any time soon. I'm on my second Wuhan China..which sounds so weird given that they're made in Wuhan, China

Edit: Just realized this thread is back from the dead from a year plus ago.

I just picked up a 10" Azgabian splash the other day - I'm excited to gig with it tonight in my funk band. They're a very nice trashy splash sound.