Cleaned up a cymbal, found out what type it was. Feels good.

[drumstix]

Hey guys,

A few months ago, I picked up a bit of a mixed bag of stuff: a pretty beat up beginner kit, misc. cymbals, misc. hardware etc. all for $40 (thread on that if interested: http://www.drumchat.com/showthread.p...9.html?t=28189).

Anyway, it all came with this dirty looking splash. I thought it was just a crappy no name bin lid but I eventually decided to flip it over and saw a Meinl logo on the bottom:



I then decided to chuck it in with the practice set, and give it a clean up since it had a ridiculous amount of patina and sounded a bit dull. After four rounds of Groove Juice, it gained back some brightness and upon inspection, I could just make out the logos on top the used to be there. Up the top was the same Meinl logo from the bottom and down the bottom, it said something like ‘rocker’ or something like that. Did a quick google search, found out that Meinl had a B8 series in the 80’s called Raker. Pretty interesting.

I’m thinking of ozoning it and drying it out a bit too, see what happens.

[EyePea]

Nice one.

[Drumbledore]

Oh good score Champion! I used own a couple of 8" Rakers some time in the 90's, sounded to me somewhat similar to Paiste RUDE splashes without the steeper price tag. You'll love them.


But one tiny bit of advice, don't "ozone" it!

Do that as some sort of experiment with another cymbal but not with this Raker, because they have become rarer and rarer, especially on the Australian collector's market.

Recently, some discontinued Meinl cymbals, such as a Meinl Profile Rock Ride (that came out in the early 90's I seem to recall), a Meinl Dragon China (probably one of the best Chinas Meinl produced in the past, came about briefly somewhere in the 80's/90's I think) and unbelievably, an even rarer Meinl Dragon Splash (I've only ever seen one other one of these here in Australia over my years of collecting and bargaining for twenty-plus years!) Those cymbals just mentioned can't be found even in a lot of places around my end of town, for sure, (apart from a couple of shops interstate of me that deal specifically with vintage gear) so the vendor could certainly get his money's worth from nutty collectors like me who appreciate the historical value of these now-classic and hard-to-find early Meinls.

In that same Dragon series, by the way, Meinl also manufactured some nowadays-highly-sought-after cup-chime like small cymbals. I remember going to a vendor's place one time to pick up a cymbal stand, and lo and behold, this guy had no less than half a dozen of them! Didn't matter that in my mind at the time I was prepared to throw a lot of dough for them, as a percussionist and drummer, he valued them like you wouldn't believe and wasn't willing to part from them. And one of my mates also owns a similar Dragon effects cymbal.

Have you got a pic of the top of that cymbal of yours, by the way?

[8beat]

I'm interested in seeing pictures of that cymbal after you cleaned it up.

[drumstix]

Wow, didn't know it was a bit of a rare bird. Thanks Drumbledore! I won’t ozone it I promise!

As per requests, here’s some pics. This is just the cleanup job. It is a bit patchy in places, I'll have to brush it a bit better.



The top with the Meinl logo. Bit easier to see, hopefully you can make out the letter M around the middle.



This is the bottom. Very hard to see, but this is where the Raker logo is. You can hopefully make out the top of the letter R around the small black specks, which I think are remains of the lettering.



For reference, this is what the logos would look like. After looking at this pic, I realised I may have cleaned the bell a bit too much:



I feel a bit bad for cleaning off all that patina, but then I suppose I wouldn’t found out what it was...

[drumsetsnide]

Really nice find. I don't low much about Meinl cymbals (just never took the time to try them or even research their site). But after seeing this and reading Drumbledore's history and playing a set of 14" Meinl Byzance hats at an open mic last night, I'm going to give Meinl cymbals a serious consideration.

And this is my opinion only… but I used to clean cymbals and don't any longer (personal preference). But I would suggest leaving it the way it is. It's probably much cleaner than it was but to me it looks nice. Adds a little character to the cymbal you have. Just my thoughts.

Thanks for sharing this drumstix.

[drumstix]

My pleasure

I think I will clean it a bit more cos most of the marks there at the moment are my fingerprints and they don’t really look that great haha

[pcs90]

Cool find. Those don't show up too much in the US either. Probably more than in Australia but still. When they do come up they sell for not very much (20-40). I guess this is a heavier splash? If so I wouldn't ozone it, that seems to work better for thinner cymbals...