Meinl Lunar cymbals | Anika Nilles goes heavy
Meinl's new Anika Nilles cymbals are a 22-inch extra heavy Lunar Ride and 14-inch Lunar Hats, engraved with her own artwork. Here is what they do.
Meinl has added two new Artist Design models to its range, both built for Anika Nilles: a 22” Lunar Ride and a pair of 14” Lunar Hats.
They are heavy. Properly heavy — and that is the interesting part.
Here is what is in them, what extra-heavy B20 actually does to a sound, and whether a signature cymbal is ever worth the money.
That is the artwork, cut straight into the bronze rather than printed on top of it.
The 22” Lunar Ride
Extra heavy weight, with a large, heavy bell.
Weight is the whole story with a ride cymbal, and it is the spec people skip past fastest. A thin ride bends when you hit it — the stick pushes the bronze, the bronze spreads, and you get wash. Wonderful in a small room, useless the moment anything loud happens near it, because that wash is the first thing to disappear under a guitar.
An extra-heavy ride barely moves. The stick bounces off it and what comes back is stick — a clear, defined ping with a long, low hum underneath rather than a cloud of wash on top.
Meinl describes the result as cutting through an arena mix whilst staying warm and musical, which is exactly the tightrope an extra-heavy ride has to walk. Get it wrong and you have a cowbell the size of a dustbin lid. Get it right and it is the most reliable cymbal on the kit.
The bell is the other half of it. A massive, heavy bell gives you a second instrument up there — a hard, bright, carrying note you can ride on for a whole section without touching anything else.
It is $699.99.
The 14” Lunar Hats
Heavyweight hats, aimed at a crisp chick and maximum projection. $649.99.
Heavy hats do one job brilliantly and one job badly. Closed, they are tight, dry and articulate — every stroke separated, no swill, and a chick that lands like a rimshot. That is why they turn up under loud music.
What they will not do is breathe. If you want that loose, sloshy, half-open sizzle that a lighter pair gives you almost for free, you will be working much harder for it here.
Worth knowing before you spend $649.99 expecting them to do everything.
What is an Artist Design cymbal?
It is Meinl’s series where the artist gets a say in the metal and what is on it.
Both Lunar models carry Anika’s own original artwork, engraved directly into the bronze rather than printed on. Meinl says she and the R&D team worked on them for months, and they are produced in limited numbers with serial numbers.
That last detail matters more than it sounds. These are limited runs. If you want one and dither for a year, the decision may get made for you — the related 22” Ocean Tides ride in the same series was limited to 100 pieces worldwide.
Mounted up and in use, it reads as a cymbal first and a piece of art second — which is the right way round.
Anika has posted more shots of them on her Instagram.
So is a signature cymbal worth it?
Sometimes. Here is the test we use.
Ask whether the cymbal would still be interesting if you removed the name. A signature model that is genuinely a different instrument — a different weight, lathing, or profile that you cannot buy elsewhere in the range — is worth considering on its own merits. A signature model that is a standard cymbal with a famous stamp on it is a poster.
These look like the former. Extra heavy rides with big heavy bells are not thick on the ground, and neither are genuinely heavyweight 14” hats. Whether you want that sound is the real question, and it depends entirely on how loud the room you play in is.
The engraving is lovely, but it is not what you are paying for. The weight is.
Both models are due in shops worldwide from September 2026, and they made their live debut on the road with Rush.
Where can I buy one?
The right shop depends on where you are: Guitar Center in the Americas, Gear4music in the UK, or Thomann for Europe and the rest of the world.
Final thoughts
Two heavy, loud, expensive cymbals with beautiful artwork on them. If you play quietly, walk past. If you have ever finished a gig wondering why nobody could hear your ride, stop and look properly.
For more on what Meinl does across the weight range, our Pure Alloy guide covers the everyday end and the Byzance Trash Crash the noisier one. If it is the artist-design idea that appeals, the Chris Coleman C Squared ride is another cymbal built around one drummer’s specific problem.
And to find out who Anika Nilles is and why Meinl built her an arena cymbal in the first place, read our full Anika Nilles feature.