I usually recommend against cleaning cymbals because of how that changes the resale value, but in the case of green tarnish I make an exception. That will continue to eat into the bronze over time.

[COLOR="DarkRed"]Agreed. It's [COLOR="Green"]verdgris[/COLOR]...not as nasty as [COLOR="Red"]red rot[/COLOR]...but nevertheless, you should remove it.

I recommend either Sabian Performers Cymbal Cleaner (an acid-wash spray that will take off not just the verdgris but all of the patina as well)....or...Wright's Copper Cream...which will remove the verdgris but not strip off all of the 'good' patina. The latter may well take a couple of applications, but it's great stuff.

Don't use Brasso, Noxon, Wenol, Flitz, etc....too caustic and abrasive.[/COLOR]

I used to hate the green tarnish. Now, I accept it on a few of my gigging cymbals.

Interesting little journey you took me on there Jaye... "Verdigris!"

Used often, from antiquity through the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque. Verdigris was the most vibrant green available until the 19th century. Often mixed with, or glazed over lead white or lead-tin yellow because of its transparency.

Especially prepared in wine-growing areas, because acetic acid is a by-product of winemaking. Copper plates are covered with winemarc and allowed to stand, the resulting acetic acid reacts with the copper, forming a blue to blue-green crust which is scraped off and ground.

From.. http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/indiv/recipe/verdigris.html

[COLOR="SeaGreen"]Heck, yeah....everything's all one big connected whole...y'know ?

....history...art.....alchemy....music....flower

Hehehe...I won an old K, 22" off of eFlay years and years ago....the thing looked like it had grass growing on it, there was so much verdgris covering the whole damn top, edge to edge...you could barely make out the original stamp.

The Wright's took care of it...[/COLOR]

[COLOR="Silver"](of course, Jim...if you'd just STOP spitting your Cabernet all over your kit while you play...you wouldn't have this problem to begin withMind Blowi)[/COLOR]

[IMG]http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp231/kaaawa2000/GREEN.jpg[/IMG]

In the 90's I used this (above - the one on the right) 18" AZ as a doorbell.

There was a rope hanging down outside of my workshop and it went up, over a stainless steel pulley, through the side of my house and then down another pulley where it suspended that cymbal. There was a drumstick attached to a beam on the ceiling of my workshop and when you pulled the rope - voila - doorbell.

It worked nicely except for a few bozos that liked to overdo it (the same guys that ring doorbells repeatedly) and I used it for maybe 7-8 years until I painted my house and got rid of it.

Since the whole thing sits about 50 ft from the ocean there was some, er... showing of the green - Luck of the Irish!

Of course I wish I hadn't done it now. There's probably someone out there who would pay MORE for this cymbal, especially since it was done by genuine Hawaiian salt air. Someone really out there.

I've tried cymbal polish and Whink and I think a belt sander (36 grit) might be required on this puppy... the tone is about the same as my car door.

I sold a set of 2002 red ink Paiste crinkle fries to a friend and he stored them in a storage room here (probably 99F & 99% humidity) and they turned completly a sick red (like a penny) and there's nothing I can imagine would be able to remedy that as the grooves are gone.

In my studio stuff doesn't rust at all, because of the air con and my electronics gear keeps it fairly dry. I've had sheet metal screws on my rack for 20 years that aren't rusted at all and they'd be totaled in a month if they were outside here.

The cymbal polish I got was Blitz and it worked ok sorta... really about the same as others I've tried.

I've never been a cymbal cleaning guy... I never bought much into the sound improvement thing, I think funky cymbals look more mysterious, and old instruments always sound better (well almost always).

But if you see some tarnish doing something nasty, I'd probably clean that. I don't think that cleaning cymbals is really ever a problem, it's when someone gets overzealous about it and wants to see them really shiny, or does it to a really special cymbal.

I've had my old K's since the early 70's. When I got them I knew nothing about the different Zildjian companies, but right off the bat I realized that they were in a different league than the AZ's for me. In the 35+ years I've had them, I've used small amounts of cymbal cleaner on just spots maybe twice - to remove the gunk that gets on there from your hands on the underside when you take them off of a stand. I've never "gone for it" and polished them - no way!

But I would do some super-judicious maintenance on them every 20 years or so. It seems, to me, like the right thing to do.