Hi, guys:

I own a Zildjian ZXT Trashformer cymbal. It sounds good, strange (it is bented and colored orange with purple traces), but good (I really like it ). It's kind of a cross between a thin crash and a china, with high pitched attack and a dark and short decay.

When I acquired it the ownner of the store told me that he used one as a multi-effect cymbal, covering the bases for both china and spalsh. But in Zildjian's webpage says that it was designed by Mike Manginni for stacking it over other cymbals.

I've tried this with my ride (20" K) and my three crashes (16" med thin A and K, 14" paper thin A) and this my opinion: It produces very trashy effect if left lose. But if thighened or squeezed into the other, produced a muting efect (like hi hats). This was very noticeable in the smaller cymbal. On the bigger cymbals it turned off the explosion of the crash and left a low hum (specilly with the ride which sustained the longest).

Have anyone done similar experiments ? I'll like to try it with thiner cymbals with 18" or bigger diameter. Any comments .

Also would like to know if anyone own one and what use it is given.

I have one currently stacked below a 10" Wuhan splash, and I love the effect. I've tried it with a few other cymbals, both with it on top and bottom and I really couldn't get it to sound good with bigger cymbals. It usually was just ugly and buzzy (and not the good kind ether) with the cymbals I tried, sorta like you mentioned. But beneath that little Wuhan, it's simply explosive! I've also had it set tighter for a psuedo - "trash-hats" sound and loosening it produces a sound like someone hitting a 50 foot wall of sheet metal with a ballpien hammer! OK, maybe not exactly, but it looked cool when I wrote it...

I think the Trashformer sounds great as a stand-alone effects cymbal too, but it definitely has more of a china-like characteristic than that of a crash or splash. I am very happy with it so far. My only complaint is that the edge is easily bent by drumsticks if you mount the cymbal inverted due to the presumably softer, more malleable alloy used for the ZXT's. I found this out the hard way...  

So, to answer your question, no. You are not alone.  

I tried it with my 18" china a few days ago. Mounted it up-side down in the stand, then stacked the china over it (china's bell inside the other cymbal's bell) and it sounded like a cracked cymbal. But then tried it the other way, with the china at the bottom, and it sounded very nice, a good option to imitate the sounds used in electronic music. It offered 2 different sounds (high/low) depending wich cymbal I was hiting. Very interesting for playing cascara-like patterns.