Tweet
Cleaning 24K Gold Hardware
Here is the documented process I used to clean my gold hardware. I used drum tech Paul Carrizzo’s well published instructions as the basis. In all my research on the subject, I constantly found opinions, claims, and then, Paul’s instructions. But none of them included any before/after comments, pictures, etc. from anyone that’s actually cleaned their gold hardware. I have long been almost afraid to try because of no follow up information available out there. And as anyone knows that has gone through the process of having their hardware 24k gold plated, it is expensive. Because of that, I didn’t want to screw it up in any way.
It goes without saying that gold plated hardware is prone to looking scuffed up very easily. I, myself, always use special gloves to handle the drums – never using bare hands because the skin’s oil can tarnish the gold. And I clean them via a dry-cloth wipe down every month or so. But even with this “no touch” policy, the drums still manage to accumulate marks on them. I should mention that I have gigged these drums maybe five times in total, opting to do so at special shows only. Some of the grime is likely from those experiences. The rest of the time, these remain in my home studio for my own enjoyment, and I use one of three other gigging kits I have for that purpose.
Here are some of the steps involved:
Picture number one here shows one of the floor toms, and though it appears technically clean under normal lighting, close up and with the flash of a camera, you can see the marks that have generated.
Picture number two shows the hoop before being cleaned. Again, you don’t really notice this ‘filmy stuff’ at a casual glance in person, but upon close inspection and in this picture, it’s all too apparent.
Next up is my beloved 6 inch tom. You can see the same build up here. It is the same across the entire kit.
First step is to strip the drums of all hardware. At this stage I did not take off the badges themselves – electing to do so later when I cleaned the actual shells. Here is the majority of what I went ahead and cleaned. Not pictured are some miscellaneous stands, stand parts, holders, adapters, and the snare drum). Actually, I have not cleaned my snare drum yet. I plan to do so this week.
It goes without saying that gold plated hardware is prone to looking scuffed up very easily. I, myself, always use special gloves to handle the drums – never using bare hands because the skin’s oil can tarnish the gold. And I clean them via a dry-cloth wipe down every month or so. But even with this “no touch” policy, the drums still manage to accumulate marks on them. I should mention that I have gigged these drums maybe five times in total, opting to do so at special shows only. Some of the grime is likely from those experiences. The rest of the time, these remain in my home studio for my own enjoyment, and I use one of three other gigging kits I have for that purpose.
Here are some of the steps involved:
Picture number one here shows one of the floor toms, and though it appears technically clean under normal lighting, close up and with the flash of a camera, you can see the marks that have generated.
Picture number two shows the hoop before being cleaned. Again, you don’t really notice this ‘filmy stuff’ at a casual glance in person, but upon close inspection and in this picture, it’s all too apparent.
Next up is my beloved 6 inch tom. You can see the same build up here. It is the same across the entire kit.
First step is to strip the drums of all hardware. At this stage I did not take off the badges themselves – electing to do so later when I cleaned the actual shells. Here is the majority of what I went ahead and cleaned. Not pictured are some miscellaneous stands, stand parts, holders, adapters, and the snare drum). Actually, I have not cleaned my snare drum yet. I plan to do so this week.
Comment