How to Polish and Clean Cymbals

Step 2 Best Kept Secret

I gotta say, the first handful of times that I attempted to polish my cymbals I became really disconcerted. It is no walk in the park and more than half the time they ended up looking just as bad (in a different way) as before. About two years ago I was working in the drum shop of a Guitar Center when I discovered a new product we had. After a couple of test runs, we started using it to clean all of the cymbals in the drum shop. Made by Pro Mark, Groove Juice will end up saving you time, money and a whole lot of effort.

Basically, rather than having to go through the whole buffing process, the steps couldnt be easier. Groove Juice only requires you to spray it on the cymbal, let it sit for between 30 seconds to a minute, then wipe it off. At this point, it would be smart to go back over the cymbal with a wet cloth since the GJ is acidic. Nevertheless, you end up spending a fraction of the time dealing with this process, and your results will be awesome.

One thing to realize is that Groove Juice is a cleaner, not a polish. One of the reasons that many people have trouble polishing their cymbals is that if you have a dirty cymbal to begin with, rubbing polish all over the cymbal isnt going to remove the dirt and oil. You can still polish your cymbals after they've been cleaned, but you wont really need to. Using this cleaner will make your cymbals shine like mirrors.

One other thing to mention... you can also clean your drum hardware with Groove Juice. Same method, just spray, wait and wipe. Its as easy as it sounds, and a bottle only costs like 7 bucks. Do yourself a favor and avoid the pain of brass polish.

Comments

[leftcoastpunk11392]

When i used groove juice it took the zildjian logo right off the cymbal....any reason why that would happen?

[Evan8891]

Nearly all cymbal polishes and cleaners that work at all will take the badge (logo) right off unfortunately. As far as I know, there's barely any line between 'utterly useless cleaning product' and 'powerful enough to take off EVERYTHING'. The badge is ultimately just basic ink stamped on like any rubber stamp shape. Also, the ink of the badge isn't very strong anyhow. I have a set of Zildjian hats that are unidentifiable besides the name brand because they're just so old.

[catman529]

Then how did your Paiste keep its logo after you cleaned it? I'm afraid to clean my 20" Avedis medium ride because I want the stamps to stay on, but I'd also like my cymbal to shine again.

[drums787]

Well you just have to be careful about where and how hard you scrub your cymbal. If you're worried about preserving the badges on your cymbals, just make extra effort to clean around them.