The original SS series was released in 2001, shortly behind the SH series.  This series had a much brighter alloy than the SH series. The goal was to have the darker SH series run with the brighter SS series but funding was short so the SH series slowly faded into discontinuation.

This two pictures above are the only surviving pictures of the SS2 series which showed the mixture of black, pad pressed logos with blue, ink stamp logos. Most SS2 cymbals were not hammered to give an even brighter tone, but after the SH series were released the SS3/SS4 cymbals (shown below) were hammered to add fullness.

The SS3 series featured our, all blue, ink stamped logos. This was our most versatile series/alloys released at this point in time. A lot of research went into making the SS series sound a look different to increase the cymbal selections.

The SS4 alloy included all black, ink logos (blue versions were rare). This series featured the deepest hammering of all SS series (included SSX's). The SS4 alloy saw many specialty cymbals like darker, jazzier rides and 8" hi-hats.

This SS4, 10" Dark splash featured the rare, blue ink logos. You will notice the blue ink shows different shades. The blue ink was replaced with black ink to prevent the shading.