Hey. Has anybody ever heard of how to clean the cleaner off your cymbals? After "cleaning" them with "cleaner", or "polish", they don't sound the same. I want to safely strip this stuff off of there and reaturn my babies to there original cumquesence... Thanks.

Too late now. You've already gone to the point of no return. You cleaned them in the first place. Cymbals are metal. To clean metal to make them shine again, what you did is use an abrasive material to remove the outer layer of metal exposing the clean underneath. They aren't going to sound the same. They probably sound harsh and brittle now, I'm guessing. There's nothing finer than old cymbal with a nice patina....
later,
m

Listen, friend first of all the sound that I'm now missing is in the high, crisp range. It sounds like it has a thin layer of polish on it, and this is the effect that I have witnessed in the past, but failed to recall before I WENT AND DID IT AGAIN. What I need now is to STRIP the metal.

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Sorry, friend but what lehabs said is correct, asthetics aside. When you apply cymbal cleaner, you are removing certain agents from the cymbal, thus changing the sound. The most common perception is usually the addition of clarity or "high end" to the cymbals. I'm not sure why yours sound otherwise, unless you applied something film-like such as "Buckarro Cymbal Cleaner" and failed to follow the removal part of the process. In any case, you're not likely to return the cymbal to its previous state any time soon.

Doing anything additional can certainly change the sound further and might be damaging to the longevity of the cymbal's life and/or overtone series. If you do something like apply a buffer to the cymbal, the friction will cause a heat buildup, which will likely affect the taper and lathing. Nothing can un-do this either and ultimately, you might find the cymbal worse-sounding and certainly more susceptable to cracking.

Just as an aside, Paiste cymbals come shipped from the factory with a very very thin wax coat applied to the cymbals. This acts as a retardant for fingerprints and tarnishing and makes the cymbal easy to clean using a clean towel or cloth for the first few years, until the wzx coating wears off naturally. Applying cymbal polish will remove the wax coating and actually makes the cymbal more susceptible to tarnish.

What sort of cleaner did you apply and does the cymbal appear visually cleaner?

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

The cleaners I applied were Zildjian and Duplicate, and both were cleaner/polishers, which means, like any polish, they leave a greasy film. You can feel this film all over your hands when you do the shit, and you never really get the cymbal clean because of the varied surface-the rag keeps coming off black. I realize that the cleaners probably have abrasives in them, but my problem is with deader cymbals after I clean them. God damn.

I have used Barkeeper's Friend cleanser and Old Dutch cleanser with similar good results. I suspect Soft Scrub would work as well, but it is chlorinated, so you should get it on and off quickly and be sure to rinse the cymbal with water.

The oily polishes are fine for cleaning the tarnish off, but they themselves need to be taken off afterward with naptha (Ronsonol) or some similar degreaser.

cok body wrote:You can feel this film all over your hands when you do the shit, and you never really get the cymbal clean because of the varied surface-the rag keeps coming off black.

This sounds like the scenario I described with Backaroo Cleaner. It just takes some serious elbow grease to get the polisher off. Use a towel and periodically change the part of the towel with which you're cleaning the cymbal. Because a towel is porous with an irregular surface, it's more effective at getting the gunk out of the grooves than say, a cotton rag.

I've never noticed a lack of percieved high end after thoroughly cleaning a cymbal and making sure I got all the polish off, so I can't comment on Steve's suggestion of using something extra to remove the polish. But he's a pretty bright guy. I'd take his word and at least try it.

One more thing I will say. The longer the polish stays on the cymbal, the harder it is to get off. Usually the manufacturers of those types of cleaners recommend leaving it on for a few minutes and then removing it promptly. On occasions where I have left cleaner on for a longer period of time than I should have, I've found it easier to remove the dried polish by applying a little more of the fresh polish to the surface of the cymbal.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

Thanks, guys. The Forum rules. I emailed Paiste with the question, but plan on trying both elbow grease and a solvent (especially if I get further assurance that it won't hurt the brass).

dontfeartheringo wrote:Stop it. Do not clean cymbals..That's kinda what I was thinking too.Quick story:This megachurch band drummer I went to college with used black gloves when handling his cymbals. Fucking gloves. He literally got pissy if you touched them with your bare hands.They were certainly shiny, and they sounded like shit. Fuck that guy.

Stop it. Do not clean cymbals. If you're desperate for clean cymbals, stand around outside the drum store with your dirty ones and offer to trade some despondent looking jazz drummer for his shiny new cymbals.There are dudes burying cymbals in the yard to get the tone right. Don't fuck them up.