Interesting question Cicero. I guess I'm an old school kind of guy. Removing logos doesn't bother me in the least. In fact years ago I used to remove the ink logos as soon as I got a new cymbal. To me it just seems like excessively tacky advertising. What's important (to me) is how the instrument sounds and I hated giant black letters all over my beautiful "brass". I suppose it would be more important if I were a product endorser where you would want everyone to know what you were playing on.

I am with Pete. I don't care if I rub a logo off my cymbals when I clean them because nobody is giving them to me for free to advertise that I use their product. In fact, because I use Zildjian, Sabian Paiste cymbals in my configuration, I would prefer if I could remove the ink logos from all of them to make them look more uniform. But I haven't found a cleaner that removes them from all of these cymbals.

When it comes to drums, I feel differently. I like a big white Ludwig or Pearl (I currently have kits by both) logo across the top of my black resonant bass drum heads. I don't care about the tom and snare heads, but, to me, a plain black head on the front of a kick drum just looks empty. It's not a free advertising issue there; it's cosmetic. But, to each his own.

Maybe someday I will spring for a custom bass drum head, when I find or create an image that reflects something about me.

i take a razor and scrape the huge "Aquarian SK1" or whatever it said off my front kick head. just cause they aren't paying me and i use 3 brands of heads (toms are evans g1s, snare just got earthtones, kick is aquarian).

some cymbal freaks intentionally remove the logos because they claim it improves the sound. i wouldn't clean my cymbals if you paid me because i think the grime improves the sound. come to think of it, i fit into that cymbal freak category myself.

Last time I cleaned any of my cymbals was before the days when there were excessive logos being stamped onto them! Shows you how old I am! I clean them, and then avoid touching them with sweaty hands -always by the edges!

according to the cymbal book by hugh pinksterboer, nail polish remover is great for removing logos from cymbals.

Who has time? Taking off logos? Polishing? If I sweat on them I wipe them office. That's it! I like the logos if for no other reason than to remind me of what I bought (Custom session crash, dark thin crash, etc.) If it wasn't for the labels I wouldn't remember what I had. Maybe it's age or the fantastic number of series each manufacturer makes or both, but I can't name all my cymbals from memory. If somone says "hey I like your ride, what is it?" I read it to them. Too many names to keep track of anyway.

Regards,

Gary in Dix Hills, NY

Keep on Pl

I seem to be in the middle on this one. I like to have extremely shiny and mirror like cymbals no matter what the age is .......... BUT I also like the little markings as well to be present. The main problem is that those nice little black ink markings are eventually coming off one way or another. What I like to do is write on the underside of the cymbal in the bell area, using a permanent marker, what series, dark, thin, fast etc. and the size as it was stated on the cymbal when you could read it. It's worked great for me so far. If the marker starts to come off after a cleaning, well just write it again. It really helps if you ever go to trade in a cymbal too. Most guys in the music stores (Most is the keyword not all) can tell the difference between a Zildjian A series and a ZXT series by the lathing as well as any hammering that may be present. So with that said, not much you can do about the logos and such coming off. If you like spotless cymbals like I do, well I can only offer a suggestion as what you can do to keep the cymbal identified. The logos do tend to stay on much longer though if you don't clean them!! But ...... but........ I have to have clean, mirror like cymbals!!!! :)

it does bother me but you can put tape over the logos

Another slight wrinkle on the logo question - straight rubbing alcohol seems to take off most logos (and, since no one sponsors me anymore, I ain't advertising them).

Actually just picked up a bunch of Istanbul which (apart from sounding excellent and being massively cheap compared to their US, Canadian or Swiss couterparts) I've suddenly realised are actually signed by the artisan who beat the hell out of them - so I've taken off the big logos but not the signature of the particular cymbal maker. I also mess around with antiques and have realised that, in that world, a signature is all - and the way this vintage drum scene is developing, we're not far off that here either.

A little tip on getting rid of logos on bass drum skins or similar - glue remover (used very gently) gets rid of the logo but also most of the coating (though not all)as well - if you're really obsessive it's about the only thing I've found (what, me obsessive?).

DR