Paiste Brass-Tones 20" Power Ride

Wiki cymbal cleaning supplemental, aka: my journey to find the perfect cymbal cleaner!

"Copper does not react with water, but it does slowly react with atmospheric oxygen to form a layer of brown-black copper oxide which, unlike the rust that forms on iron in moist air, protects the underlying metal from further corrosion (passivation). A green layer of verdigris (copper carbonate) can often be seen on old copper structures, such as the roofing of many older buildings[15] and the Statue of Liberty.[16] Copper tarnishes when exposed to some sulfur compounds, with which it reacts to form various copper sulfides."

"Tin resists corrosion from water, but can be corroded by acids and alkalis. Tin can be highly polished and is used as a protective coat for other metals, a protective oxide (passivation) layer prevents further oxidation"

Here's my experience with several different cleaners suggested by drummers, I put them in order of most gentle to most abrasive::

Soap & water

If it's relatively new, soap (dish detergent), water and a VERY soft scrubbing pad made from plastic, NOT copper or metal! You need to get the salt, oil and dirt from your fingers off of the cymbal so it doesn't start to corrode the bronze.

Cymbal soap:

Flitz spray/tarnish remover:

Flitz tarnish remover spray will get rid of the green tarnish/oxidation in seconds, the drawback is it will leave the alloy "bare/exposed" and ready to oxidize/tarnish immediately. Because of all the copper, B8 cymbals tend to be very susceptible to this (see picture below), they must be coated right away, b20 cymbals are much less prone to this.

Flits spray in action

Blue magic:

Smelly and messy but easy on ink labels but will take them off if rubbed long and hard enough! is the mildest, smelly from the ammonia but is the most gentle on labels and clear coating.

Flitz paste

Good all around cleaner has tarnish remover chemicals in it, not nearly as messy as blue magic, will remove clear coat and labels if rubbed hard and long enough.

Paiste cymbal cleaner

has tarnish remover chemicals in it, will remove clear coat and labels if rubbed hard and long enough.

Mr. Muscle/stahl fix

Paiste cleaner in the original bottle**! Has tarnish remover chemicals in it, will remove clear coat and labels if rubbed hard and long enough.

- My source was at the factory about 20+ years ago and saw the techs pouring Stahl fix from a large bulk container into the orange Paiste cymbal cleaner bottles, you can't get much more confirmation than that!

The formula did change around that time as well, another German friend has some of the last Paiste cleaner and he says the "smell" changed from the old 1990's cleaner but does smell like the current Mr. Muscle. Possibly this is when SC Johnson bought them out and changed the name to "Mr. Muscle" (see the two pictures above)? What I can also tell you is the cleaner contains a mild acid to break down the oxidation/tarnish, you can see it work as you apply it to the cymbal, the color changes. Barkeeper's soft cleanser has oxalic acid and is much stronger that the acid in Mr. Muscle.

Ingredients for Mr. Muscle, aluminum oxide is the abrasive and there's a couple of different acids in it:

Barkeeper's soft cleanser

has tarnish remover chemicals in it, works well with really dirty cymbals, say goodbye to your clear coat and labels! it has oxalic acid which is great at removing tarnish and green corrosion from salty finger prints (see below), I only use it for the dirtiest cymbals that don't have a clear coat or label!