So, you want to keep your cymbals looking squeaky clean and shiny? Cymbal cleaning isn’t something that everyone does. There’s an argument to be had over whether more worn cymbals sound better than they did brand new.
With that being said, brilliant cymbals start to lose their shine after a while and many drummers love that shine. A few drum companies sell some cleaners that will do the trick of keeping them sparkling. Here are some of the best ones for the job-
The Best Cymbal Cleaners for the Money
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The MusicNomad cymbal cleaner is highly popular. Chances are that you’ve seen this bottle in most music stores that you’ve visited. It’s intended for cast bronze and sheet bronze cymbals which helps to clear off layers of dirt accumulated after many hours of use.
It’s an acid-free solution that cuts through multiple layers of oxidation, letting your cymbal come out shinier and more sparkling than before. A great thing about it is that it leaves an extra protective layer over the cymbal, stopping it from oxidizing further in the future.
It’s intended only for brilliant cymbals, so using it on traditional or other types of cymbals won’t get results that are as good. Some cymbals will take more scrubbing and rubbing than others. However, the end result will be highly worth the effort!
This cymbal cleaner may also take off the logos of your cymbals. So, make sure to work around them when polishing.
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2. Lizard Spit
The Lizard Spit cleaner is a bit of a wild one. If you’re someone who judges things by their looks at first, this may not appeal to you to begin with. However, don’t let the outside appearance fool you because this thing works like magic.
It’s specially made to clean off things like grime, fingerprints, and dust from metals such as bronze, brass, gold, aluminum, and silver. This means it works pretty well for cymbals as well as other parts of your drum kit.
You could have a cymbal cleaning session and get to your aluminum snare drum while you’re at it. The cleaning solution is highly friendly to the environment, having a non-toxic mix that allows you to get pretty close without worrying about inhaling any bad fumes.
The spray bottle makes it easier than ever to just spray on a cymbal and start wiping. Similar to the previous cleaner, you just can’t rub across any logos or signatures as it has the potential to damage them.
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With Zildjian being one of the most popular cymbal brands around, you can bet that the company has put out a fantastic cymbal cleaner. The Zildjian Brilliant Polish is advertised to work well with all of Zildjian’s cymbals. However, it works well with other brands as well.
This cymbal polish is so good that you can take vintage cymbals from the 80s and make them look brand new. All you need is some dedication and elbow grease and you’ll be good to go.
It also works fairly well on cymbals with traditional finishes, making it a bit more versatile than the previous cymbal cleaners on the list.
Make sure you have a cloth with you when using this polish as the chemicals react with the dirt on the cymbals and produce a black mixture. This mixture needs to be periodically wiped off while cleaning.
Once you’ve done the work, you’ll have some cymbals that you’ll be able to see your own reflection in. Once again, remember not to rub any polish on the logos on the cymbals.
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The Sabian Safe and Sound cleaner is a cream that you rub on your cymbals to get all the dust and grime off of them. The difference with this cleaner is that it doesn’t tend to restore any of the shine of the cymbals. Instead, it aims to keep them clean while preserving the sound qualities.
Cymbal cleaners often change how cymbals sound. This is a big reason why most drummers are opposed to polishing cymbals. However, this cleaner is a bit safer to use as your cymbals won’t sound any different after looking a bit cleaner.
Another great thing about this cream is that you can use it on hardware as well. Hardware tends to get dusty and grimy just like cymbals do. So, the Sabian Safe and Sound cleaner will be your all-purpose tool for taking care of your drum kit.
It doesn’t work well on traditional cymbals, so only use it for the brilliant ones. Also, don’t rub it on the logos!
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5. Meinl MCCL
Meinl, Zildjian, and Sabian are the biggest three cymbal companies at present. Since we’ve already mentioned Zildjian and Sabian, we have to move onto Meinl. Luckily, Meinl offers a cymbal cleaner that is a bit different from the others, giving you a variety in your choices.
This cymbal cleaner comes in the form of a spray bottle. Unlike the other cleaners, you just need to spray the cymbals and then wipe them 20 seconds later. No rubbing or polishing is required. The cleaner works like a charm.
It’s a great product for people who don’t want to sit and labor over cleaning their cymbals. It works wonderfully with traditional and brilliant cymbals, making it a versatile cleaning option.
It does struggle a bit to get rid of the finger marks, though. Those may need some rubbing. Overall, it’s a great product that makes quickly cleaning cymbals an extremely easy process. Hopefully, by now, you’ve realized that you can’t use these things over the logos of cymbals.
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If you’re that drummer that needs every single bit of your kit to stay immaculately clean, the Dunlop 6400 cleaning kit is just what you need. This pack comes with three bottles.
It includes a cymbal cleaner, a drum shell cleaner, a cymbal intensive care bottle, and a cloth to wipe everything with.
It has everything you need. The cymbal cleaner works well on brilliant cymbals while the drum shell cleaner works on all kinds of shells you can think of. The third bottle provides some protection to your cymbals and will stop them from getting too dirty in the future.
The added cloth is a great feature as often drummers will be wandering around the house to find a usable cloth to wipe their cymbals with.
Since this is a pack of cleaners, it does come in at a higher price than everything else on this list. However, it’s highly worth it. Just remember not to wipe the logos with the cymbal cleaner. That’s the last warning, I promise.
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Cymbal Cleaning Debate
Many drummers on this earth will swear to you that cleaning your cymbals will just make them sound worse. When it comes to dark, dry, and warm cymbals, this is true.
That’s why cymbal cleaners are never intended for these kinds of cymbals. The older a dark cymbal gets, the better the tone tends to sound. That’s why vintage jazz cymbals sound so good. You’re not supposed to polish them and they’re not supposed to be shiny.
Things get a bit different with bright and brilliant cymbals. These cymbals have a punchy and high-pitched sound that cuts through a mix of instruments in most situations.
The bright sound won’t be affected by cymbal polish as the polish is specifically designed for the brilliant finish of the cymbal.
So, just remember that if you have earthy and artistic cymbals, don’t try cleaning them. It will just make them sound worse and they’re not supposed to be shiny anyway. If you have brilliant or traditional cymbals, polish away! It won’t affect the sound most of the time.
How to Keep Cymbals Clean
Buying cymbal cleaners constantly can be a pricey affair. I remember cleaning my cymbals so often in my earlier years and getting frustrated at how much money I was spending. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to keep your cymbals relatively clean before having to use a cleaner. Sticking to these will save you a bit of money as well as some time.
Firstly, you should always carry your cymbals in a cymbal bag. If you don’t have a cymbal bag, you should get one before even thinking about cymbal cleaners. The role of a bag is to protect your cymbals as you carry them, and it keeps them relatively clean.
When moving your cymbals around, make sure to hold them at the edges. If you grip your fingers over the surfaces, residue gets left, and that’s what makes the cymbals dirty over time. Some drummers go as far as wearing cymbal gloves to avoid this. While I think that’s a bit extreme, it’s proven to be effective.
Finally, you could consider packing your cymbals away in the cymbal bag if you know you’re not going to be playing drums for a while. If you only play on weekends, keep your cymbals stored during the week. If you’re going away on a holiday, pack them away for the duration. Doing this will go a long way in keeping them clean.
If you stick to these methods, you won’t need to bring the cleaner out as often. It will maintain the shine of the cymbals after using a cleaner as well.
How Often to Clean Cymbals
Here’s another argument that many drummers have. While some drummers I know are religious in their cymbal cleaning schedule, other drummers I know think it’s sacrilegious to clean your cymbals at all.
So, I’d say it would depend on who you are and what environment you’re in to decide how often you should clean your cymbals. If you’re happy to polish and clean them, I’d suggest doing it at least once a year.
By sticking to the tips I gave above of maintaining them, you shouldn’t need to give them too many deep cleans in a year. If you’d like to do more than that, cleaning them every 4 months with a proper cymbal cleaner would be ideal.
Dusting them off monthly and wiping them down with a damp cloth will help to maintain them in between each deep clean and polish.
Cleaning New Cymbals
I strongly suggest that you don’t clean and polish cymbals that you recently purchased. You should give them time to sit in your drumming environment. This will allow you to learn about the cymbal and see how it sounds and reacts in your space.
You may find that they aren’t cymbals that even need to be cleaned or polished and cleaning them too early will stop you from realizing that.
I also encourage you not to shy away from cymbals in a store that look dirty or worn out. While buying something shiny seems like the best thing, the older cymbals that have been sitting in music stores often sound amazing. Cymbals get better with age, and you can tell their age by their appearance.
Cleaning Electronic Cymbals
If you have an electronic drum set, you should completely disregard everything I’ve said in this article. The above advice is about metal cymbals that go on acoustic drum sets. If you used these cleaners on electronic cymbals, it would be incredibly detrimental to them.
So, you need to think about how to clean rubber when cleaning electronic cymbals. Firstly, the rubber cymbals tend to gather dust very quickly. It sticks more to them than it does to metal cymbals. All you need to do to get rid of the dust is wipe the cymbals down with a damp cloth.
Most of the time, you won’t need to do more than that. However, you may want to do a deep clean, and you’ll need something a bit stronger than water for that. A popular option amongst the electronic drumming community is a 303 cleaner. The great thing about it is that you can clean the electronic drum pads as well.
Final Word
Whether you want your cymbals to be shiny or not, it’s a good thing to have a cymbal cleaner on hand for whenever you suddenly do need some shiny cymbals.
You never know when you’ll need to be part of a photoshoot or music video where your cymbals are clearly shown. It won’t look too great if you have grimy cymbals that are actually supposed to be shiny.
All the cymbal cleaners that I’ve mentioned above will do the job well. You just need to read the fine print on them to see if they’ll cater to the type of cymbals you have.
All cymbal cleaners work for brilliant cymbals. Not all of them work for traditional cymbals. Just be wary of that!