Ha was told by Shoegazer that Schneider was assigned to Ha's refurbishment of Sabian by the letters in her first name, the Q went to Sonor. He could choose any model with an A or H from the Sabian catalogue. Ha created the X manufacturing process, so he could choose from those also when they would be ready. She created practically every cymbal variation commissioned Sabian technical advisor JoJo Mayer would refine, because she needed an experienced drummer who understood the company's calculations and could do the hands-on measurements with them. It was a good three-way partnership that included Ha's absence from the factory and recording studio. She designed the Omni, Paragon, and Evolution.
The organization for Schneider's musical fidelity using Sabian cymbals is a pyramid of traditional models at the top (I), then the X models from the new manufacturing process (II), then the special purpose ones that are based on older designs during the Ottoman Empire (III). Ha intended four tiers for Punk for one drummer. She verbally listed as many as she was confident about to Shoegazer. Given the mix, a customization was possible for one special drummer of Shoegazer's choice, which was Neil Peart. Ha would do the Paragon for “the Professor” Neil, while Schneider had more free choice by keeping any Prototype without cost. Shoegazer insisted several drummers keep a Prototype as a fair, blind-tested tie-breaker every time Sabian and Ha wentbin opposite directions and could not agree while Ha guided them through the Omni series. Evolution might have suffered the same fate, Ha preferring that junior craftspeople take their prototype home for study or personal enjoyment or advance their skills with a modest Sabian buyback equivalent to lunch money for the day, and in the afternoon they would recycle their work into scrap with no waste and no shame.
She recommended Schneider's sit-down concert kit be somewhat elaborate and that he practice with the same configuration often, for consistency and comfort and to help pace the Industrial groove, even if sophisticated studio recording required swapping out components. So if he starts with hat on right, hat on left, that should be his go-to configuration. She said that on purpose, because every drummer should be symmetric ambidextrous with at least one pair of components in their kit. The equal stereo effect is not natural to our feet, but sitting down and being symmetric with our arms is efficient when needed, like pumping iron at the gym.
Ha has never played on a Sabian. She struck a Ziljian a few times in the band room at school that year. There has to be no white noise to her or she would quit sitting on the drum stool and sit with Mark Saligman on the tiered floor steps and get his assistance to clear the white noise. He usually played a Rock Metal melody on his unplugged Ibanez guitar for her and pondered with her whether the Chinese-style drum disc was malformed. She tried several times with separate pieces of the drum kit: bass, snare, toms. She liked the brass cow bell and the wooden Spanish castinet and all the wooden accessories for clearing out white noise. She asked him for guidance on tempo, when the cymbal was more color than noise for different drumming techniques. Most Jazz was safe. The high-hat alone could not help clear the white noise outside of Jazz. A left-hand whisk made no difference. Using a timpani mallet was useful but rather muted. Hard strikes used in Rock and Metal was only good at 75 to 90 bpm. Thrash Metal prompting had to be on the drums. The one cymbal with noisy warbling could only be controlled within its range with Punk drumming. Mark liked the uptempo and tightness of Ha's technique, even when she threw in cascades of inversion onto the top beat and the back beat on the toms. Happy, they sat back down on the hard floor together again. Next discussion session the following week was the foot pedal, the pedal that was too shy for Punk heel tapping, that didn't want to cooperate with the start of ballet dancing either.
Meanwhile, Shoegazer made a very special deco design for Neil Peart of Rush, later called the Steampunk, for the Paragon, starting with the 22-inch ride cymbal.
[1] Ha overdid the specs that would become Peart's legendary Time Machine setup.
[2] Shoegazer outsourced decaled flight cases for Sabian at no cost to them. Lieutenant Shoegazer was in charge of X's and O's, so she created the cymbals that would be designated with an O. With Ha's permission, ranking Ha at colonel, Shoegazer assigned to Ha the V's to refine new, existing, and experimental: Vault, Vienna, Vendetta, Varsity, anything. The two of them reconfigured all the P's. In Year1 Sabian was not allowed to finish spelling OPERA, missing the R for Thomas or they would overspend. In Year2 they had to complete either POETA or POETRY, the T also for Thomas or they had underserved.
3
In May 2009 Schneider
switched his cymbals contract[3] from the German maker Meinl to the Canadian maker Sabian, split from the siblings company by brother Robert Ziljian. A year later the maker of Schneider's signature drumsticks, Vic Firth, also a Canadian company, was acquired by Avedis Ziljian from the USA, who turned Vic Firth into a brand.
Ziljian is a subnationalized retainer by Rgo, a status below FMIC (Fender guitars and amps). Vic Firth is a contracted OEM for Rgo for Doom Schneider. Sabian is a subsidized commissioned OEM by Rgo.
While standing around a parking lot speaking to Shoegazer, Ha created almost all of Sabian's modern cymbals. The two teenagers were waiting for parents to pick up children by car after school. By the time she got to discussing automated manufacturing and pneumatic hammers, this happened as a topic:
