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Cymbal cleaner


FitchFY

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Fitch: I use the powder. Put the cymbal in the bath tub with water running. Sprinkle light amount of powered on cymbal while wet, and let then very gently with your hand start to move the powder around, you'll be amazed at how just sprinkling it on will create little brilliantly clean star patterns. As you move it around, the cleaning becomes consistent all around the cymbal. Rinse and dry. Done- easy and little to no tarnish.

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Fitch: I use the powder. Put the cymbal in the bath tub with water running. Sprinkle light amount of powered on cymbal while wet' date=' and let then very gently with your hand start to move the powder around, you'll be amazed at how just sprinkling it on will create little brilliantly clean star patterns. As you move it around, the cleaning becomes consistent all around the cymbal. Rinse and dry. Done- easy and little to no tarnish.[/quote']

 

Very helpful, Dendy - thank you! I've used Groove Juice and Zildjian Cymbal Cleaner in the past and find them both fairly... well, they do different things. Groove Juice is basically an acid that removes a layer, which could be fine on beat up older heavier cymbals, but I'd be hesitant to apply it to something newer with a brilliant finish... or my HHX Evolution ride. Zildjian Cymbal Cleaner was a a great polish, but a complete PITA to use.

 

I think I'll pick up the Bar Keeper's Friend tonight and use it on some of my older practice plates to see what the effect is and mess around.

 

I'm guessing doing this with yellow rubber maintenance gloves is a must, right?

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Hadn't thought about gloves. Kitchen gloves might be a good Idea if you're doing a whole set. Nuther thing that might be useful is a small plastic bristle brush. I have round ones about an inch and a half in diameter that might work at the lathing better than cloth.

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Just finished the hats I started on in the Brass thread. Just glopped it on bare handed except this time I rubbed with a paper towel and rinsed immediately. Brought all the surfaces to a presentable grime free state. Deeply discolored spots remain. If this isn't enough for you, finish with regular cymbal cleaner. That part should go much more efficiently at this stage.

And this stuff does contain oxalic acid - same thing as Groove Juice I believe at about one nanofrick the cost. Got slight irritation on an area with broken skin - mild but not worth the risk.. Good call on the gloves Fitch. Eyewear might be in order too.

 

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I did four runs of cymbal cleaning last night. I used Bar Keeper’s Friend in the tub, lightly sprinkled onto wet cymbals. I used rubber gloves and my hand to work it in along the lathing grooves. I started scrubbing hard and softened up over the four cymbals. Here’s the logic:

 

1.) 13” HH Fusion bottom hat; heavily marked. I scrubbed HARD – no concern over keeping logo. Scrubbed like the dickens and took probably a full layer off of the plate. Logo is very faded now, but we went from bronze to shiny!

 

fetch?id=31271694

 

2.) 16” A Medium crash; heavily patina-d, very worn with a few discoloration marks. Wanted to keep logo, didn’t scrub as hard, but wanted to see if I could match the shine. The photos below are still a little wet and a little fogged from the hot water, but I may take another swing at that one.

 

fetch?id=31271695

 

3.) 13” AAX Studio top hat; no markings, just faded. Went lighter, didn’t mind a little logo loss – this one came out the best! Truly looks “polished.”

 

fetch?id=31271696

 

4.) 21” AAX Stage Ride (aka Big Bertha); very lightly buffed and cleaned – this is one of my prized cymbals, so didn’t want anything permanent. Very lightly washed (used a cloth instead of my hand on this one), and I’m okay with not much change since I didn’t want to risk any sonic variance. The underside of the ride had (previous owner) three large strips of duct tape that left a muting residue, and a lot of that came off.

 

fetch?id=31271697

 

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i find the best way for me to clean cymbals is by using the tips of my drumsticks applied in a rhythmic barrage for hours on end. after spending many dollars and developing gargantuan forearms from the elbow grease application' date=' i found that with my eyes shut i couldnt tell the difference between a sparkling clean crash or the same cymbal covered with ten years worth of road grime and sweat. of course if you have a drum tech and you happen to be mad at them, then by all means clean cymbals are a necessity... otherwise, i would just as leave improve my chops with the time spent practicing. but then again i would much rather send you home wondering "how the hell did he do that???" as opposed to " gee, what pretty drums those were." however, all this and two dollars still wont get ya a cup of coffee at starbucks....[/quote']
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So now that you've done this have you noticed any sonic change? It would be very subtle' date=' and you would probably hear a bit more high freq's.[/quote']

 

I imagine Fitch's cymbals were well maintained but my hats were grimy and really improved. The pretty over and after tones are back as is the dry white noise component.

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Clean Cymbals

 

[video=youtube;PA01MPkGcRw]

 

[video=youtube;5bOe9bD0RuM]

 

Those are from a place called Batera Clube. There's literally 300,000 videos featuring gear, lessons, real alien salsa, and Portuguese.

 

Portuguese is confusing to me but like Dutch, you can ignore it with negligible content loss.

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I imagine Fitch's cymbals were well maintained but my hats were grimy and really improved. The pretty over and after tones are back as is the dry white noise component.

 

Wildly debatable, but I appreciate your vote of confidence!

 

Ray, I honestly did hear a change in the hi-hats and the crash cymbal. More so with the crash, as the grime that had built up on it was certainly dulling the tone of the cymbal. I also scrubbed the heck out of the bottom.

 

The hats had a bit more high EQ to them, I noticed, again probably due to the layer of cymbal I removed.

 

These were pretty extreme scrubbing jobs - I'm sure that a light dousing on my main cymbals will do nothing sonically and just give them the shine they've been missing. It'll be a fun experience seeing them lit up in November when I get back on stage!

 

 

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it's ok, 1001... was simply remarking about fitch's tongue in cheek removal of layers of brass... and while I have no doubt that removing some fingerprint buildup from my cymbals may indeed cause some minor change in sound, I'm highly doubtful that it makes any noticeable difference in a real world situation...

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it's ok' date=' 1001... was simply remarking about fitch's tongue in cheek removal of layers of brass... and while I have no doubt that removing some fingerprint buildup from my cymbals may indeed cause some minor change in sound, I'm highly doubtful that it makes any noticeable difference in a real world situation...[/quote']

 

Bare in mind that on different cymbals, you're removing more than just finger prints. On one of my cymbals, I removed a healthy amount of tape residue and some serious corrosion. I could absolutely hear a difference after that. Not drastic, of course, but if you know how your cymbals sound, then you know when they're different.

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