Wolfgang MetallWerk™ Concours Metal Sealant or something else over brass?

[nrengle]

Wolfgang MetallWerk™ Concours Metal Sealant or something else over brass?

Ok so to continue on with making my professional life easier, I'm curious about this metal sealant and if it will work on Brass.

Per the description it says:

The water-based, acrylic formula is completely safe and nonabrasive on all types of metal: clear coated, painted, anodized, polished, and bare metals.


Now does this mean brass will be fine, these are cymbals from various manufactures btw. And if so, what cleaner would you recommend first?

Currently I use Brass-O by hand because of the pyro we use on my main client.

On another client that doesn't use pyro I use a citric acid based cleaner called Groove Juice.

Both have their purposes in these settings, but I'd like to get to a point where I don't have to polish/clean every 3 days. The main thing is, I don't want it to change the tone/sound too drastically (it does change a little each time you polish and remove metal).

To add to this, I'm willing to pick up a Flex Pixie to help on the polishing side if the sealant isn't recommended. Obviously the touring music industry is shut down, and as it stands will be for quite a while (more than likely minimum Fall, realistically next year) so I've got time for testing, I actually have some pyro encrusted cymbals here at home.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Wolfgang MetallWerk™ Concours Metal Sealant or something else over brass?

Ok so to continue on with making my professional life easier, I'm curious about this metal sealant and if it will work on Brass.

Per the description it says:

The water-based, acrylic formula is completely safe and nonabrasive on all types of metal: clear coated, painted, anodized, polished, and bare metals.


Now does this mean brass will be fine, these are cymbals from various manufactures btw. And if so, what cleaner would you recommend first?

I've never polished and protected cymbals?

Off hand I would say "yes" the sealant will work. I asked Andre about it last week and he said it gets a LOT of positive reviews.

As for a clean, use whatever polish you would normally use to polish first and then apply the sealant.

 

[nrengle]

Ok well I'll give it a shot. I seen your blackfire review after this thread. So it gives me a bit of hope.

I'm not going the Flex route yet but one of my clients has a rather large set of brass this may require it (I'm designing something now to hold the cymbals in place while polishing before mounting each day).

I'll update as it goes. Maybe a new combo pack for musicians hahaha.

 

[The Guz]

Wolfgang metal sealant is nice. Just used it on a the brushed aluminum bbq grill after polishing it with CarPro Metallicut

 

[nrengle]

Started my test yesterday we'll see how these hold up.

These cymbals have been in storage since late 2013, so the dirt, finger prints, pyro residue, and pitting have had a nice long time to set in. I approached this in the following manner. 19" Z3 was cleaned with Groove Juice (my everyday normal cleaner), and finished with Wolfgang Metal Sealant. 20" Z3 was hand cleaned with Brasso metal polish (what I had on hand, and my go to heavy cleaner since it's easy to find for most production runners), and finished with Wolfgang Metal Sealant.

And lastly the K series was Brasso machine applied with a LC hydrotech 3.5 tangerine pad using a drill, then Wolfgang Metal Sealant applied via a LC 3.5 blue pad and drill.


For those not familiar with Groove Juice it's a citric acid based cleaner. I use it by spraying the entire cymbal, counting to 10 (or watching my watch for 10 seconds), and then wipe with a wet towel, and immediately wipe with a dry towel. Otherwise it will etch and discolor the cymbal, and it's a pain in the butt to remove once hazed over.

Once it's removed you can feel just the metal though. There is no left behind residue.

Thing is, it only really works for removing oils/finger prints and light dust. Once applying the metal sealant though you could feel a noticeable difference in texture, it was quite slick. So we'll see how it holds up to sweat and fingers and a spritz of Isopar now and again.

I play these about an hour to an hour and a half a day so they will get used, just pyro simulated since well, even though being licensed, the state looks down on people putting on a pyro show in their house/yard.

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The Brasso hand cleaned cymbal had a bit of a oily film left behind, and some heavy cleaner smell as usual. But after applying the metal sealant by hand both went away much like Mike described in his write up on the Blackfire branded metal sealant, I think this has a mild cleaner effect to it. It definitely has a slick feel to it when finished.

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The machine applied Brasso, and sealant got the best results for cleaning and sealing action I feel. The picture will speak the most for it. This is the K series cymbal.

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Video: (skip to 2:10 to see the pyro if you don't want to watch the whole song).

Disturbed - Disturbed - Inside The Fire [Live in London] (360 Video) | Facebook



Older video from previous album cycle but same stuff.

Disturbed - Mike Wengren - Ten Thousand Fists Drums | Facebook



Something I need to add on these cymbals as someone might notice. Yes, they are Zildjian and yes, Disturbed is Sabian. I don't have any Sabian's here at the house, these Zildjians came from my time teching for Tommy Lee (2012-2015)

 

[nrengle]

Just a quick update. I'm sidelined due to a shoulder injury, so will be hard to actually play and see what sweat will do to these, but can still give a bit of Isopar mist, and some finger prints. So far after a few days they still look good, and no noticeable sound quality difference. They are a bit slick for cymbal grabs as compared to straight Groove Juice (acid cleaner). But not as greasy/slick as the Brass-O only cleaned grabs (neither of which are being tested here as I know those feelings quite well. This is a test of the sealant itself and what base and application method works best).

I'll try to get some shots tomorrow of how it's holding up.

 

[nrengle]

Just a quick update. So I haven't been playing due to my shoulder injury, which is more than likely a torn rotator cuff doc on Monday will tell me next step. But last time I played. Played some stuff with some cymbal grabs (chokes) and just fooling around flashiness for fun. Finger prints wiped right off and sweat actually headed up a bit and wiped off with a little if the 3D waterless wash I have. Though that makes them incredibly slippery now so it may be a per drummer preference in if I use the 3D on top of the sealant which is already slippery enough.

I am gonna prep one if my broken ones and apply some isopar to it and maybe even set it in fire if I can (I will get video of this). But safe to say this will hold up decently enough in a normal show.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Just to chime in,


Thanks for updating this thread. I edited your post above and spaced out all the attached pictures so they show up in a linear manner.

Also fixed the Facebook video links by removing the [video] BBC code and replacing it with just the direct link. For some reason Facebook video links don't like it when you insert them using the BBC video tags?


You have a very interesting background. Must have been cool to work with Tommy Lee from Motely Crew?


Tommy Lee

Motley Crue

Thanks for sharing, keep us updated.


:cheers:

 

[nrengle]

Mike

Thanks for the fixes. Web formatting isn't my strong suit.

It was definitely an interesting few years working for Tommy. I started in 2012 with them on the KISS/Motley tour, and was with them up to the very last show (or so we all thought) at Staples Center on 12/31/15. I still speak with Tommy on occasion, but he's busy with the misses, and rehearsing for this Stadium tour (or was), and his general life which is nuts even by my standards.

Would I do it again, NO. I was not gonna do the stadium tour this summer. Yeah it paid great when there, but I'm making more with Disturbed, and don't have nearly the same amount of stress. The roller coaster kits, and the stuff that comes with it, just aren't worth it to me.
I had fun, and learned a lot of what to do and how not to treat people in that time. I keep saying maybe one day I'll write a book, but I'm not very good at story telling.And to be honest Disturbed are pretty close to family, they've helped me out in the past and currently are taking care of all us main crew while the music industry is being torn apart.

And I'll try to get the flaming cymbal video whenever it stops raining long enough here that I can set it up on my driveway and light it up.