Cleaning Cymbals

[spirit7698]

Yes Brasso is bad ( sorry Cavie 74) Changes the color. Groove juice is " good " but it takes of the finish off if you use too much or clean with it too often. We tried the Sabian and Zildjian stuff on tour. Did not like it.

We use never dull every now and then on special occasions ( big regional/ finals week) but always after soft scrub.

Never dull does leave a film that sometimes puts weird purple or brown designs on black shirts.

You don't really need Never Dull though.

We ( Spirit of Atlanta and Teal Sound ) used ( and I still use on my drum set cymbals ) Soft Scrub. It's a bathroom cleaner for porcelin ( old school) bath tubs and tiles. Get the lemon one ( it's just a mild soap, lemon juice and a tiny bit of water) old school ( early 1900's - till " cymbal cleaner " was invented) percussionists in orchestras and drum set drummers used to use a solution of you guessed it...... Soap lemon juice and water.

It's Simple. What you need:

Soft Scrub, tooth brush, the cheap towels ( not rags but like a mini towel you would use at the beach or in your bathroom) from the auto section of Walmart or whatever.

Step 1 put a few globs or lines around the cymbal top.

Step 2 grab the tooth brush and get to scrubbing. Go with or into the lathes ( rings around the cymbal ).

Step 3 then go against the lathes. It should look green or at least darker ( all of the dirt coming out ) do both of these until gets dark.

Step 4 rinse just the top. Some water will get on the edge and bell on the bottom ( it's fine).

now do the bottom the same and rinse it.

Step 5 use a dry towel never wet or damp.... dry that's why you want a pack of 5 or 10 cheap towels.

get every bit of moister off.

You're done

If you have this stuff set up at school everyday then just put a towel or thin cloth on it when school is over or just put them away in a cymbal bag.

Unless you are in Florida or have some serious humidifiers in class you should not need to clean them for 8 months to a year. These are 6'th graders who have not hit puberty yet so they will not be sweating acid like 20 year old cymbal players

in a drum corps all days rehearsal.

Edited February 20, 2009 by spirit7698

[spirit7698]

Hey Duder!! How have you been?

[Jumpin2drums]

A couple of months ago, our new brilliant 18" Sabian Viennese cymbals arrived. We used them in a couple of parades only towel drying them after the first use when it rained a little during the parade. With only that towel drying once and all the handling without using gloves, after the couple of months, I was in need of researching how to best clean the new brilliant cymbals.

With the thought of soap or Soft Scrub mentioned in the posts above, and thinking about the fact that cymbals can sometimes exposed to hours of direct daylight making them very hot, sometimes too hot to touch without seemingly damaging the cymbals, I figured I'd try something a little out of the box.

1. Remove the cymbals pads (holders)

2. Place the cymbals "plates" in a dishwasher using normal cycle (hot water @ 120 degrees I think, no choice of hot water temperature of course) and Cascade ("with the power of Dawn").

3. As soon as the cleaning cycle completes, remove with cloth oven gloves (to avoid finger prints), lay them out on a bath towel, and QUICKLY and COMPLETELY towel dry with another soft bath towel, avoiding any possible water marks.

There has been no negative results at all noticed to the sound or physical properties of the cymbals, or to the Sabian emblem/writing imprinted on the cymbals. I know this is likely not a possibility on the road while on tour, but in the cases where this is possible, I can attest from having done this a couple of times that this is an amazingly easy and simple way to effectively clean our cymbals. I didn't even use the spot eliminating liquid you may think to add when one cleans crystal.

This might be a little out of the box, and a strange use of the dishwasher, but at last, my dishwasher may get more frequent use. LOL

I'm not sure to what degree the good results are due to the newness of the cymbals, and the brilliant finish of these cymbals.

Edited March 8, 2009 by Jumpin2drums

[TenorsForWorldDomination]

Groove Juice...

Groove Juice might be a nasty chemical for us and the environment but it works like no other. Spray, let sit, I buff a bit, rinse with water. TADA, a cymbal that looks brand new.