Keeping Up Appearances

The aesthetics of a kit are not essential to its sound and performance, but they make a big difference for visual impact and even making us want to play it. If the kit looks great, we feel inspired to play!

One problem with we humans is that we have greasy fingers, even if we've not been eating burgers or fish and chips and this grease is transferred onto everything we touch. Shiny surfaces like chrome, lacquered drums and cymbals will reveal where we've been touching them better than Hercule Poirot! Our fingers also secrete acids which can make a real mess of cymbals if they etch the surface. Non-brilliant cymbals and especially Zildjian K series for some reason seem to suffer badly in this area and the marks are very difficult to remove.

So to cleaning!

DRUMS

Drum shells can be kept clean simply by using a moist cloth and wiping over the shell, taking care not to get any grit under the cloth as you will leave scratches. Proprietary cleaners such as those made for guitars (especially electric guitars which themselves have a lacquered finish) work well on lacquered drums but should be avoided on satin or matt-finish kits as they will change their finish into a shiny one!

On lacquered and plastic wrap finishes, a household wax polish can be used to great effect but always read the label as some are not recommended for use on plastics. If in doubt, find a small area that cannot be seen and try a bit. Do not leave the polish/cleaner in contact with the material for longer than say 10 seconds and always wipe off quickly. Remember, the aim is to remove the greasy fingerprints and dirt. One advantage of a wax-based polish is that it will also provide a protective layer on the drums. I have used spray-on wax polish and original furniture wax and beeswax polishes on my Yamaha natural wood finish drums for years with no problems .


CHROME

Proprietary chrome cleaners work well if there is evidence of pitting or firmly attached dirt, and can be used on drum rims, chrome hardware and stands. However, a good lint-free cloth can be used to remove most surface fingerprints and grease marks. The advantage of a cleaner is that it usually has a mild solvent or detergent base of some sort which really does remove the grease.

Once you've wiped the chrome with your cloth, plus or minus cleaner, give it a good wipe down and buff with a soft clean cloth or duster. This also works well for chrome-plated snare drums.

If there is evidence of pitting or flaking or corrosion, a small piece of steel wool can be used to remove the problem. However, always be careful to rub only in the area of corrosion as it can produce very fine scratches which are okay when limited to a small area but are much more visible over a larger area. Once the pitting or corrosion has been removed, you can use the chrome cleaner to bring up the shine. A useful product I have found for removing mild corrosion, dirt and fingerprints is T-Cut a proprietary cleaner used to restore car paintwork and chrome work. You can apply it with a damp cloth, leave it to dry to a mist and then buff it off to a brilliant shine. But beware, it also has a very fine grinding paste in the formulation so should be used with care near lacquered surfaces to avoid scratching.


CYMBALS

By far the greatest area of discussion and disagreement is the cleaning of cymbals.

My personal view is that I avoid any abrasive cleaners, even those supplied by the cymbal manufacturers themselves. My main reason is that I have found the use of warm, soapy water to do the same job as long as you dry the cymbal thoroughly after cleaning; I use a cloth followed by a warm, but not hot, hairdryer.

Wipe the damp cloth in the direction of the tone grooves i.e., around the cymbal parallel to the edge not from bell to edge. Rinse with clean warm water and then dry. This will not remove all of the finger marks which are likely to be etched into the metal and will require abrasion to remove which I am not comfortable with. When I first started playing in the 1970's I did use cymbal cleaners on non-brilliant finishes such as with A-Zildjian and found that they caused the cymbals to become more shiny, but also they seemed to become dirty and tarnished much more quickly afterwards. By using warm soapy water I have had none of these problems.


So there you have it; a few tips on how to keep your equipment looking good for maximum visual impact and for personal inspiration and motivation.

Until next time ...