CYMBAL CARE TIPS

How To Care about your Cymbals?

In order to use your chosen cymbals for longer time and happily, there you must be aware of the following factors that would affect this:

Fingerprints!

They are the most nuisant factor that would affect how you look at your cymbal…at least cosmetically for aesthetic reasons!  Human fingers has oils that chemically imprints its effects on the surface of cymbals, making its appearance ugly and dull in time. This is especially most strident on the polished and shiny cymbals. But, is it so hopeless? Definitely No! There are some solutions in the market that helps this problem. You must be careful at how to apply such chemicals in right proportions and exposures, not to destroy apperance and structure of the cymbal, and also for your safety reasons.

Some Playing Tips:

• Here, the most important thing is about choosing a right playing angle for delivering a tolerable stress to the cymbal. Crashes are the most concern here as they get heavier strike and expected to have fast response in shorter time. As beares of stress, for Crashes,  you must choose an angle less than 90 degree, ex. by 20 degree less. If you strike on the cymbal with wrong angle, then, the cymbal cannot absorb such high energy and be broken or crack, which would make you unhappy in the end…Regarding Rides, since they are heavier and bigger they can relatively absorb more power to them, but keep in mind to observe structural limits, depending on the kind of music you play,for instance, jazz cymbals are thinner on which you cannot apply as much big force as playing on Rock cymbals.

• Adjusting wingnut tension is another important factor to consider about playing a cymbal in the right way. As you know, each stand comes with a nut and two felts to adjust the tension. As a first rule, the cymbal must be placed between two felts, while at the top it must be tightened by a nut. Too much stress due to over tightened nut can prevent the free movement of the cymbal which could destroy it in longer time as it could not absorb energy of a strong strike. This is especially most acute for Splash size cymbals! At the same time, a too loose nut will create a problem as well, by causing the middle of bell over-contacting the shaft of the metal stand unnecessarily which would, eventually, result in the weakening of the cymbal.

Transportation and Storing of Cymbals:

• Regarding transportation and store of the cymbals, it is a must to use gig bags with pads, and avoid carrying them with their stand hardware on. While storing, as a rule, do not leave them standing upward on their edges, as in time, it can cause to warp the cymbals. Also, do not put cymbals on top of each other without using pads in between and with a reasonable numbers.

If you keep these advises earnestly, for sure,  your dear cymbals will serve you longer time with little worries…