Has anyone ever particularly noticed Buddy Rich's cymbal sound? I suppose it must have been important to him, but can't say I'd recognize it over anything else. He had a big band kind of thing going on, but I can't say that tonality of any sort was the major thing with Buddy.
I've often wondered about the famously owned stuff, celebrity drums or cymbals. There's a drum forum where a lot of Ludwig enthusiasts huddle, and of course they spend a great deal of time on Ringo's kits. A few of them made a pilgrimage to visit a Beatles kit when it was on display - I forget where - recently, and there was a fair amount of envy expressed by those who didn't. I would probably cross the street to see them, but not if it also meant going inside a building. I realize that I 1) am an old curmudgeon and 2) don't reflect the way many people feel about such things. I should add that I am not particularly proud of my point of view, but there it is.
Interesting, because I would expend some effort to see the kits of friends on this site - because it would also mean visiting with you, and in that circumstance the kit has meaning as part of a relationship; but visiting a drum kit in a glass case blows my mind. But you know the type, I'm sure: photographing every swirl in the oyster black pearl wrap to re-verify and document the actual Ringo Ed Sullivan Show kit. But then I was never caught up in the Beatles mystique.
Going back to BR's cymbals, I am struck by the claim that "every stick mark is Buddy's." If that is so (Don Bennet handles some incredible stuff, so I have no reason to doubt him. Just not sure how he knows), then as a potential buyer I'd be faced with the problem of whether to add my own stick marks or to maintain the cymbals as a shrine to Buddy. Even if I had the money, I have enough problems without paying heavily for a new problem like that!
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