The Vistas, again

Here's the current incarnation of the Vistalite kit. It's huge. This whole thing is quite a change from the smaller Gretsch drums I was playing. First off, you have the size issue. Bigger drums mean a less compact set up. Then there's more drums to tune and I'm going with lower tunings.

Still, it's fun. I'm going to tackle the cymbal set up next as I don't like the way the right hand ride is hanging up by itself. I think I'm also going to mothball that 22" Zildijan A and go back to my old 20" Paiste 602 for my ride. I think the 22" has a hairline crack somewhere and it's driving me nuts. Plus, I just want a different sound.

Weird coincidence that the same time I change up my kit from what I've been playing for about 10 years, everything with the band changes as well. Change is good, I guess.


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Now playing: Hiromi - Brain
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The Amber Vistalites...again.

A wise man once said you can't polish a turd. While it's true, you sure can give it hell trying.

Let me back up a second. The 12" and 13" rack toms finally have heads as of a few days ago. Those drums sprang to life when they were finished. Though you can still see the spider webs and whatnot, they really look a million times better than they did when I brought them home. I still need to put badges on them, but I'm saving that for another time.

Now, the bass drum...ugh, what a mess. I'd already put in a few hours on it and frankly it wasn't looking much better. Tonight, I decided to give it a last go. Really, I don't feel like I had anything to lose except for the fact I'd bought all the extra parts I needed to finish it. I prefer to look at that more as incentive.

Three hours later and, well, I'm really shocked at the difference. Yes, there are still numerous problems with that drum. There's still a funky grime in the shell I don't think anything but sanding will take out. There are still numerous scratches and I've done the best I can with that.

The lugs aren't so hot either. No amount of Brasso in the world will replace pitted chrome plating. I also discovered my favorite what were they thinking thing about this kit. Someone cut the ends off some of the swivel nuts so they don't come out of the lug casing. Why? I couldn't begin to guess.

Anyway, while this bass isn't going to win any awards, the difference again is night and day. Once I got the hardware on, it really ended up looking like a drum I won't be embarrassed to be sitting behind. I'm actually quite proud of how good it came out.

Now I need heads and it's done. Very cool stuff.

So, I should mention I won an eBay auction tonight an soon I will have an 18" floor tom to match. It's almost sad in a way that the red Vistas are quickly being phased out. I really dig the red. It's a cool color and less common than the amber. But the ambers are something I've always wanted and it's all just kind of falling into my lap. I still need a 16" floor tom to really complete this kit.

Well, that's all for now.

More fun with the Vistalites.

Finally got to play the red Vistas with the band. They sound great, though I'm not sold on the single head mounted toms. I'm also thoroughly disgusted with the modern Ludwig tom holder I bought to replace the original. I couldn't get the toms set up in anyway that made sense to me.

Put in some more work on the ambers today. Had to Dremel the screws off those rusted lugs I showed you a while ago. I was able to save the lugs though, which is nice.

I worked on the bass shell a bit, but I'm really skeptical about how much good I'm going to be able to do with it. Like the toms, it's got it's share of scratches, but it's also got this grimy film like they 13" tom had but worse. Working it with the Novus didn't really produce a dramatic difference.

Still, I guess I'm optimistic enough to have worked on one of the bass drum hoops today. One had an incorrect silver sparkle inlay. The other has the correct gold sparkle inlay, but was really roughly painted over with black paint. I scraped all the black off with a screwdriver, which is not a technique I'd recommend using on a drum. Only reason I did it that way was, it worked and I figure the hoop is going to be mostly covered and no one is going to notice if the inlay is scratched.

I also threw a head on that Acrolite snare. If I haven't mentioned it before, those are amazing little snares. I really didn't even tension the head carefully (and I didn't touch the snare side at all) and it sounds just great. I read a rumor (supposedly from Bill Ludwig Jr.) that the only difference between the Acrolite and the SupraPhonic is two lugs and chrome finish. Don't know how much truth there is to that, but I'd bet most people couldn't tell the two drums apart in a blind listening test.

I turned the old head into spacers for the lugs on the bass drum since the kit was missing about 12 of them. Old heads work great for this, if you don't mind cutting the things out.


Well, that's about it. I need a badge grommet tool and a couple more badges and then I'm ready to put the toms together. I'll probably use those with the red kit if nothing else, even though they don't look nearly as nice as the red toms.

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Now playing: Fiore - Proximity
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Day 2 With the Amber Vistas

No pictures this time, they wouldn't be too exciting anyway.

Tonight I polished all the tom lugs and rims with Brasso. Man, I hate that stuff. Works wonders but almost knocks me out every time even working in a very well ventilated area.

The lugs are slightly pitted, as you'd expect. Still, they cleaned up better than I expected. I'm becoming more and more convinced these drums were under water at some point. The amount of rust and the scummy film on all the chrome is a giveaway.

Right now, I need five of the gaskets that go beneath the lugs and heads. The 12" tom is ready to go. I have the suspension mount I'm going to use and I think I have tension rods that will work. It's the 13" that I'm waiting on. Of course, I still need badges (yes, I do need stinking badges) to finish the job correctly.

The bass drum is still a mess. The two screws I showed earlier still aren't budging. I have some Naval Jelly I'm going to try next, but if that doesn't work, it's the Dremel tool to those screw heads. The bad thing about that is, it will bring the number of large lugs I need up to five, but if that's the way it has to be, then so be it.

I still need the correct T-rods and claws as well. I have some that I could use, but the claws are way too wide and they're going to look really funky. Still, it'll do for right now, as I'm trying to to this as cheaply as possible, so I'm going to have to be patient for the parts I need.

My goal for now is getting those rack toms ready to roll so I can use them with the red kit. I've been playing the red drums and I don't know how I like the single headed toms yet. I'll have to hear them with the band, but they're different if nothing else. If I had a whole row of them, I could do the big fill from In the Air Tonight, but alas, I don't.

So that's my status. The before and after on this set are going to be dramatic. While the Fibes kit I used to own had more structural damage, these were the worst looking acrylics I've owned and they have cleaned up far better than I hoped. If only there was a market for this...

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Now playing: Panda Bear - Bros (Album Version)
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My newest drum set.

And they are real diamonds in the rough.

I'll spare you the long version of the story, but the short version goes like this: I'm in Sam Ash talking to Ivan, who has been helping me out with my e-drums. I mention that I'd just finished fixing up a Vistalite kit and he mentioned they had this kit in the back that was pretty beat up but the manager might let go cheap just to get them out of there.

So, he brings out this tom and it looks pretty sad. But my interest is piqued. He gets a manager and we go in back and all have a laugh at this disheveled heap of drums and the absurd price tag on it. (Apparently, someone in guitars bought this and gave the guy way too much money. Someone else seriously thought they could get $700 for what I'm about to show you.) A bit of haggling and a little time away to think about it, and I've got another drum kit for the princely sum of $75.

Anyway, let me show you what I got:



Let's start with the positive. This kit, for whatever reason, had an Acrolite snare with it. Honestly, I'm surprised no one pulled this and put it out by itself. This was also my ace in the hole as this drum is in great shape and is easily worth $75 alone. Plus, I've always wanted one.

Moving on...



Here's the mounted toms, a 12" and a 13". Obviously, both are without heads, but I did get the rims. The 12" has some spider cracks and both drums are scratched and filthy. There's a grimy film on both that I just can't place.

Close up of the 12":



So, these two are a challenge, but here's the real problem child of the bunch:



Where should I begin with this one? It's missing three lugs, some of the others are missing swivel nuts. Half of the T-rods and claws are wrong. The tom mount on tom is probably stripped. It's missing a leg and there's a crack from one of the leg holes. One of the hoops is wrong and the other one is painted over. And inside...



Ugly stuff, but it gets worse...



Two lugs are rusted in place. Did someone scoop this drum up from White River?

There's also two huge Velcro stickers inside I have no idea how I'm going to remove. Moving on...



Hello! Who's this? Are you lost, little Sonor Force 2001 floor tom? No. Some confused soul thought you belonged with this kit. I'm a little skeptical about this one, as 16" amber floor toms can go for some money on eBay. I have to wonder if someone inside the store didn't pull a switcheroo, as I don't even know how one would acquire a random Sonor floor tom. (Know anyone who needs one? I'll cut them a good deal.)

So, anyway, I played around with them a little today. Stripped the shells and did the Weld-On thing on the bass drum. I'm trying to soak those lugs in 3 in 1 oil, hoping the two stragglers will break loose.

I did get the toms cleaned up and to my surprise, they turned out pretty nice. Here's a comparison shot of the clean 12" and the dirty 13". It's kind of hard to see, but I think you can get the idea:



Not flawless, but the cleaned up 12" looks worlds better than the 13". I took a more radical approach to cleaning these up than I did my red kit. Since I figured I didn't have much to lose, I went straight from a cleaning swipe with Novus 1 to polishing with Novus 3. I really only used 2 when I'd buffed as much as I was going to and was getting ready to shine them up.

This approach worked pretty well. While I wasn't able to get every last scratch out, I wasn't expecting to either. I was more curious to see what I could get done than anything else. And I'm really pleased with the final results:



Right now, I'm focusing on the toms as it looks like they're going to turn out well. I've got RIMS mounts coming (again, not so much for sustain, but I hate the 70s Ludwig mounts and I won't drill the shells.) The internal mufflers and logo badges are missing. I'll probably try to score new badges, but I wouldn't use the mufflers anyway, so I'll just leave those be.

Ultimately, I'd like to find a matching floor tom and have another kit. I'm not prepared to pay eBay prices though. (The 16" amber tom is one of John Bonham's drums, so there's a premium on it.) If nothing else, I can use these with the red drums I already have and while they're a bit rougher, hopefully I can get them close to looking as nice as those red ones.

So, I've got a hot date with Brasso soon. (Brasso is my least favorite chemical I use. The stuff is just so noxious, I can't be in a big enough area to not feel like I'm huffing the stuff.) If nothing else, I'm going to have a couple of toms and a snare out of this deal. Starting a new job tomorrow, so I probably won't have time to play around with this for a little while though.

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Now playing: Jimmy Woods Sextet - Pazmuerte
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My new babies.

It's been a drum buying couple of weeks for me, much to my ever patient wife's bemusement. First, I got an electronic kit which I'll detail more when everything is working correctly (grr...) then I bought two more acoustic kits. Deals just seem to be dropping from the sky for me.

So it's the first acoustic kit I want to talk about right now.

I'd been thinking about changing up my sound for a while. See I play an old round badge Gretsch kit, which I love. I've had it about ten years and I honestly thought it was the last set of drums I was ever going to buy.

If you know anything about drums, you know those drums have a beautiful warm tone that just sings. The record beautifully and when you're playing them, they just sound great.

The problem is, I play in a loud guitar rock band (Svetlana) and while those drums sound fantastic on our recordings, they kind of get lost live. Part of the reason Gretsch never successfully made the transition to the rock era was that their drums just don't have the oomph to cut through loud amps.

Specifically, the 20" bass just isn't cutting it. Yeah, I could play around with different heads and tuning, but frankly that would rune the tone that was the whole reason I bought the kit in the first place.

After I bought the Gretsch kit, I bought a second kit to knock around. It was an old Fibes Crystalite acrylic kit. These drums were in pretty sad shape when I got them, but I fixed them up pretty nicely and, to my surprise, I really liked the way they sounded.

The big difference between those sets was the shells. Whereas the Gretsch are some magical mixture of maple and "other select hardwoods", the Fibes were acrylic. In addition to being transparent (which is a really cool look on stage) the drums were loud, cutting and very neutral sounding. Pretty much everything my Gretsch drums weren't.

I ended up selling the Fibes to my friend Jon because, at the time, I wasn't playing them and I had no where to store them. They were living at his studio anyway, so it only made sense that he owned them.

Fast forward 5 or 6 years and here I am. For some reason I've got acrylic drums on the mind again as I'd already owned a set and knew they'd solve my issues. Plus, they are really fun to play as they look so cool.

Specifically, I was thinking about Ludwig Vistalites. When I was growing up, these were the drums I wanted because John Bonham played a kit. Ever seen Song Remains the Same? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.



Ludwig reissued those specific drums a few years ago, along with some smaller kits, but the fact of the matter is, I wasn't looking to spend that kind of money. And, as much as I'd love the Bonham kit, I really don't want to transport a 26" bass drum. (I once had a 24" prior to the Gretsch and when I sold my Chevy Malibu for a Camry I couldn't fit it in the car!)

Anyway, I'm up at Guitar Center looking for heads and what do I see back around by the used kits?



What a coincidence!

I check them out (not as well as I thought, more on that later) and sleep on it. $500 seems fair as they're not in bad shape. Even though I just bought an electronic kit, I didn't spring for the top of the line V-drums kit I was eying, so I'm still $3000 under my original budget.

Sold!



Now, I'd done a lot of work with the Fibes set I'd owned prior, so I know how to get these things looking great. See, the acrylics are notorious for scratching and cracking. Scratches aren't a terrible thing, unless they are gouges. Some Novus Plastic polish and elbow grease and you're good to go.

Cracks are a drag though. They don't affect the sound really, my Fibes kit with it's multiple cracks (and ham fisted repair jobs) was a testament to that. But, they can get worse and they do mar visuals of the drums a bit.

Well, I thought I was in the clear until I got home and checked the floor tom again.



D'OH!!! How did I miss that?!?

Ok, it's not a deal breaker, but it is a disappointment. Still, a little time with Weld-On 3 and I fell pretty confident it's not going anywhere.

So, about a week later and here's what they look like:



Here's what I did to this kit:

Stripped the drums. Polished all the chrome with Brasso. Polished the shells with Novus 1,2,3 (three step process). RIMS mounted the toms and replaced the godawful 70s Ludwig mounts and holder with modern stuff. New heads.

One thing about this kit that's kind of odd, those mounted toms are single head. The floor tom is double. I can't find this configuration in any of the catalogs. At first I thought it was pieced together, but the serial numbers are all very close. Then I considered it could be a Quadra Plus kit missing two toms, but the toms have regular Ludwig tom mounts rather than the clip style they used on that kit. It's possible this could have been a custom order or who knows what the story is?

Now to get really drum geeky, I went with Evans heads on the drums. I used those on the old Fibes and they sounded great. All the toms have G2 two ply heads which gives just a little dampening but still sounds fairly open.

Can I tell you how much I miss the Gretsch die cast hoops though? Geez, I forgotten how hard tuning drums is with regular triple flanged hoops. Heh.

I also used a G2 on the resonant side of the bass, which seems weird, but works perfectly with th EQ4 I have on the batter. I don't feel I need any extra dampening on the bass because of this head combo.

Of course, I've only played this by myself in the basement, so we'll see what it sounds like on stage with the band. Still, I really like what I'm hearing so far. And if I decide I don't like the sound of those single head toms, well, let's just say I have options I'll discuss in a later blog post. (No, it's not drilling new lugs. I'm opposed to adding holes to drums.)

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Now playing: Aghora - Transfiguration
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