Here are some more pics. The Luna is nickel silver, and you can really see the difference in hue in the pictures where it's next to the 18" Zildjian A thin crash.

It looks amazing.

How does it sound now? First of all, I've always liked the sound of this crash. After cleaning it, I immediately noticed that it has much more sustain. It has the same sparkling, glasses-shattering crash sound, but now it has a nice long sustain to it. I love it!

It looks great next to the other b20 bronze cymbals because of it's nickel color, and soundwise, it fits right in between the Zildjian A thin crash and my 16" Sabian XS20 medium-thin crash.

I don't own any really high-end cymbals, so I can't compare it's sound to anything like that. But I can say that the Luna sounds as good as the b20's that I have. It has a really great sound.

You did a excellent job, the imperfections and scuffs show up clearly, but that`s a good thing, you forgot to do one itty bitty thing,.....

...We wanted a before and after sound file !! Now we gotta wait for someone else !!

It looks great though, nice job !!

I cleaned it using the following process:

1) First, I used a sponge to wash it with some dishwashing liquid and warm water. This didn't do much because it was as dirty as a cymbal can get.

2) Then I let it soak in one part ammonia/three parts water for 30 minutes. After that I scrubbed it with a nylon-bristled scrub brush. This actually pulled a lot of dirt and gunk out of the grooves.

3) Then I sponged on Wright's Copper Cream >http://www.walmart.com/ip/Wright-s-Copper-Cream-8-oz/17352461 (I got it at Walmart for $6.) I just spent about 5 minutes rubbing it in on the top and bottom and then I started sponging warm water into the mixture.

4) Then I rinsed the rest of the cream off with warm water. I gave it one last sponge clean with dishwashing liquid and warm water to get the cream off. And then rinsed it really well with water and dried it.

Aside from the soak time in the diluted ammonia, the whole process took about 20 minutes, and the total cost for the ammonia and Wright's Copper Cream was just over $7.

I got all of this information from George Lawrence's excellent article, "The Dos and Don'ts of Cleaning and Polishing Cymbals" that I found at this link http://www.finishing.com/214/83.shtml It's about halfway down the page at that link.

Hope that info helps someone else,

E

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juNEhFUHME8&feature=plcp"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juNEhFUHME8&feature=plcp[/ame]

I can't believe I'm doing this, but there you go. Please forgive the drumming - I'm just starting out.

I should've recorded a soundfile before I cleaned it...

But I can say that it's fundamental pitch and tone didn't change after the cleaning. It just gained more sustain and shimmer at the end of the crash.

I go back and forth to an 18" Zildjian A just for comparison's sake.

It's definitely a cool cymbal.

Hey that sounds pretty good and you had nice solid groove going on in that video. Good job on caring for that cymbal!

Gary

nice clean up work and solid groove.

Great stuff! all of it. nice to see an older underrated cymbal brought back to life. the nickel silvers can be surprisingly good , especially as crashes and rides in larger sizes. the profile of this cymbal and the character are very reminiscent of a couple of ones I have floating around----one stamped for Roxy and another Korri.( I think perhaps Luna might have been a brand for Korri). What isn't thought much about is that Nickel/Silver is a generic alloy---each user of that metal was using a slightly different alloy rolled, cut spun,hammered, hardened and tempered in varying ways and yielding considerably different results. I can think of 4 makers of nickel/silver alloy cymbals----and there was possibly one out of Italy(Paiste? as well) and examples of all are quite different.