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The Drum kit

1 Bass drum | 2 Floor tom | 3 Snare | 4 Toms | 5 Hi-hat | 6 Crash cymbal and Ride cymbal

Other components

China cymbal | Cowbell | Sizzle cymbal | Splash cymbal | Swish cymbal | Tambourine | Wood block | Rototom

Sabian 10-Inch AA Splash

Another example of a splash cymbal

A splash cymbal is a small cymbal used for an accent in a drum kit. Splash cymbals and china cymbals are the main types of effects cymbals.

Most splash cymbals range in size from 6" to 12" in diameter, though some splash cymbals go as low as 4". Some makers have produced cymbals described as splash cymbals up to 22" in diameter but these would be better described as medium thin crash cymbals. The most common size is 10", followed by 8".

The name "splash" gives quite an idea as to how the cymbal sounds, the word rhyming with crash but a literal splash (in water) being very small. The normal function of a splash cymbal is to provide a short, often highly syncopated accent. For their size, they are hit relatively hard to produce a quick attack and decay. They tend to have little taper so as to provide the necessary strength for this, the bell being little thicker than the rim, with the inevitable result that the tone has little richness.

For softer passages where a richer tone is required, some makers produce thin splash cymbals with a sound and taper similar to a crash cymbal. These specialised cymbals have exceptionally thin rims and will break if played badly or too loudly.

Another use of a splash cymbal is to mount it stacked with a larger cymbal, that is the two are mounted between a single set of felts with a large part of the smaller top cymbal in contact with the other. This produces a sound partway between that of a closed hi-hat cymbal and a sizzle cymbal.

China cymbals 12" or less in diameter are sometimes described as china splash cymbals or more rarely as mini chinese.