Journal: News & Comment

A new discovery

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Seb -- one of the guitarists in my fab band -- shares a recording studio/rehearsal space with Tara, who makes part of her living as a recording engineer. (Ten years ago, all three of us were roommates.)

The space, in the basement of an old office tower at the edge of downtown, is no longer worth renting for them, since they use it so rarely, so they're moving their stuff. I helped today by schlepping out Seb's drum kit and a few other items (stands, speakers, amplifiers).

Unfortunately, the drum kit, while of decent quality, was set up directly underneath a leak in the ceiling. The big ride cymbal has a massive green copper-corrosion splash stain, and much of the rest of the kit is coated with a fine layer of leached white precipitate from the water (which goes through the sidewalk and sub-street above before getting into the building), as well as significant amount of nubbly rust on most of the metal parts.

I spent some of this afternoon disassembling the big bass drum and the various stands, then spraying WD-40 and Windex liberally to try to clean things up a tad. When I have time, I'll tackle the rest of the drums. Apparently, one of the best ways to remove rust from chrome is to polish it with some aluminum foil dipped in water (or, some say, Coca-Cola). It makes sense from an electrolytic perspective. I'll try it.

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