Going right back to your first post, if you are looking for a Hi Hat top, my favorite pairing is
14" 1960s 732g
14" 1960s 1120g
I had the bottom and went looking for a top at the weight I knew (from my New Beats research which shows a 2:3 weight ratio) should work well. 60s 14" cymbals are plentiful and inexpensive. You won't be likely to find one with THIN ink although they do exist. This is a 776g example
Reconstructing weight classes means finding these occasional cymbals which still have their weight class ink. So if you do find a cymbal and there is any weight or model ink, please do let me know. Every new data point helps.
Interestingly, your favorite pairing is quite close to what I have discovered I like. I can't remember the exact weight of my Zildjian bottom, but I believe it is somewhere between 1050 and 1120 grams. I have the exact weight written down at home and can post it when I get home from work today. That said, I really have no idea what model the bottom is, although now I wish I knew. I got it in Hong Kong in 1974 when I was young, and I don't recall any stamping or even categorizing of any Zildjians in the stores. I just remember that in those days, you either bough a Zildjian or you bought crap. It was recommended to me by the salesperson as part of a pair that included a UFIP top that I'm pretty sure weighs in at 828 grams. In fact, I rembember insisting on a Zildjian top, wondering why the guy was saying I should get the UFIP top, until he set them up som we could compare them. When we compared the two, the UFIP sounded better. And, it still sounds great, and has good action, but at 13 and 15/16", it is ever-so-slightly smaller than my 14" bottom.
(I don't know if you're aware of it or not, but Zildjian ironically now has a new hi-hat model, the K Custom Session that also sports a 13 and 15/16" top over a 14" bottom.)
The problem with this size combination is that this tiny difference results in sticks getting chewed up at an amazingly quick rate from catching the edge of the slightly larger botton that sticks out a bit. Hence my search for a 14" A Thin Crash. While the A Thin Crash is actually 14 and 1/8" (well, at least the small A and Large A series are), a slightly larger top is better than a slightly larger bottom because the angle of the protrusion of the bottom edge, not the top edge, is what eats sticks.
The Large A Thin Crash I referenced in my original post was a bit lighter at 820 grams, but I remember it sounding nicely "pronounced" when hitting it when closed, and it had an awesome fan/bark. I attribute the more "pronounced" sound as due to my UFIP having a slightly dark timbre to it. I actually posted in a different thread my findings when I tested that A Thin Crash as a hi-hat top. But, at the time I was looking for a crash not a hi-hat top, and that A Thin Crash didn't fit what I was looking for. It wasn't until quite some time later after I got some A Mastersounds that I realized the stick-chewing was from my original hats, because sticks started lasting years again when the Mastersounds were on the kit. I now actually have a set of A's and an almost brand-new set of A Custom Mastersounds, but the A Customs ended up having too sharp of a sound for me, so I'm in the process of selling them and they're in brand-new condition from me playing on them for less than an hour before putting them away. I might sell the A Mastersounds, too, once I find the right top to replace my UFIP (but I will never sell the UFIP).
I did consider having my bottom hat diameter shaved a bit, but I don't want to ruin it. I've tried so many combinations, between that circa 1974 bottom and both Mastersound bottoms that I have, and it seems like no matter what top or crash I put with what bottom, that 1974 bottom makes any pairing sound significantly better. It's actually ironic that I know this now, because prior to my trying different things out, I would never have thought a hi-hat bottom makes such a difference, which I'm sure you have discovered, too!
reverb.com
Hope it helps!
