industry musical instruments founded 1980 ; 36 years ago 1980 in istanbul turkey founder agop tomurcuk 1 headquarters istanbul turkey key people agop tomurcuk arman tomurcuk serkis tomurcuk mel lewis products cymbals website istanbulcymbals.com istanbul agop cymbals is a cymbal producer based in turkey . its products are well respected for their unique sound 2 which is formed by the method and the alloy used the formula of which is known only to the owners of the firm armenians arman and sarkis tomurcuk . it is one of two companies that formed after the split of istanbul cymbals . contents 1 history 2 brands 3 endorsers 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit the art of turkish cymbal making dates back to the 16th century the time of the ottoman empire . the very first cymbals manufactured in turkey were actually bells created for the use in churches . later on as the story goes cymbals were produced for the ottoman military band . in the 20th century it had become well known that istanbul had evolved into the cymbal making capital of the world . 3 generations of master cymbalsmiths developed refined and redefined this art in their endless search for perfection . they formulated the most musical alloy and developed and tested hand crafting methods which had been used for centuries . as the 20th century drew to its close the traditional turkish method for hand crafting cymbals had all but been abandoned due to the efficiencies and mass production facility provided by machines . in 1980 the first istanbul cymbals began to be produced by agop tomurcuk who had been working in the business of hand made cymbal manufacture since the age of nine and had worked at the original k factory in istanbul as the foreman until the factory s closure in 1978 and his partner mehmet tamdeger under the name zilciler . shortly afterwards the company istanbul was founded . during the following years they also developed many original designs while still employing the traditional methods . many of these inventive designs are in their production line today . in 1996 agop tomurcuk died in an accident and as a result the company began to be pulled in two separate directions . it was determined that the company must be split . agop s sons arman and sarkis continued their way by following in the footsteps of their father and mehmet was free to run his own separate company as he saw fit . both companies had the benefit of the well respected istanbul name but differentiated by the addition of agop and mehmet which can be seen on their respective logos . 4 brands edit alchemy cymbals is a brand of hand made cymbals belonging to istanbul agop ; the brand has its own production line . the main difference between istanbul agop and alchemy cymbals is the finishing process which gives alchemy cymbals a brighter look and a distinct sound . alchemy cymbals also has low cost cymbals in its production line for beginners and semi professionals . 5 endorsers edit cindy blackman michael iveson lenny white return to forever joey waronker ferit odman cengiz baysal george sluppick brendan canty fugazi idris muhammad poogie bell franklin kiermyer matt mcdonough mudvayne moses archuleta deerhunter mike clark jazz musician kliph scurlock the flaming lips alexei rodriguez james culpepper flyleaf james gadson joe plummer jeremiah green joe russo musician paulo baldi jeremy taggart scott amendola brian vodinh 10 years aki hakala the rasmus quan bottoms amber baker terry baker see also edit list of cymbal manufacturers cymbal making references edit our history on official website istanbul agop mel lewis signature cymbals on mikedolbear.com hugo pinksterboe the cymbal book published by hal leonard 1992 isbn 0 7935 1920 9 history on alchemy website alchemy cymbals on istambul s products range external links edit official website alchemy cymbals retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title istanbul agop cymbals & oldid 734875299 categories cymbal manufacturing companiesmanufacturing companies based in istanbulcompanies established in 1980turkish brandshidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages polski edit links this page was last modified on 17 august 2016 at 07 11 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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