Ludwig Vistalite vs. Fibes or Zickos

[equipmentdork]

Hi!
I recently had an experience where a Vistalite drum I bought on eBay, a 22" kick, had split during shipping to my house. The seam had come apart. I got my $$ back, thankfully!

My question is: did Fibes or Zickos make seamless acrylic shells? I'm now a little scared that other Vistalite drums will split, either in shipping or enroute to a (rare) gig. I'm guessing that a seamless drum would fare better.

Thanks,
Dan

[Webmaster]

Good question and I would have to say the seam should never split if handled correctly.

I think in general they require a certain level of handling above a wood drum set. Ludwig did change the way the seam was cut and glued so the year will also make a difference. Some people feel the earlier shells had more problems.

With that said. From what I have heard the Fibes shells were made better, and I have no idea bout Zickos.

If vintage is the way you want to go and you do not want any of the new stuff coming out. (Yes, it is making a come back like bell bottoms!) and a variety of makers are going to be doing acrylic drums then any of them should work.

I'm amazed at how many vistalites are still around not cracked or with issues. So they are pretty strong drums just like the others mentioned.

Slingerland, Sonor, Pearl all had an acrylic set of drums and you see those once in awhile also.

You will also see a lot of cracked Ludwig shells not on the seam but else where on the shell.

Drop any acrylic shell and it will probably break.

Are you looking for anything in particular?

David
Webmaster

[equipmentdork]

I guess I'm just looking for something that I can use at home or on the very occasional gig. I went the used route so as to not break the bank, but if there are seamless acrylic shells made by someone, or just something better than the Vistas, I'd seriously consider it.




Dan

[Super B]

The new Ludwig Vistalites have a reinforcement on the seam, well, at least, it is on my Vistalites..(The John Bonham reissue). It was my understanding that this was done to prevent what happened to your drum in shipping. The 70's Vistalites did have a cracking problem on the bass drums, I have not heard of that problem on the new reissues. The old and new Fibes crystalite drums are great, and to my knowledge, did not have this problem. I have never seen the Zilkos drums. The Webmaster is right that Sonar, Slingerland, and Pearl had clear drum versions. There is a Fibes clear bass drum on Ebay right now, that looked to be pretty good. Porkpie might have a new line that is affordable.

[Pete Stoltman]

I can't say that I've ever seen a seamless acrylic set from any of the manufacturers. Ludwig certainly seemed to have more cracking issues than the others. I had a 1975 Sonor set that is now in the hands of my nephew. At the time I purchased them I had researched and tried all the acrylics that were available. The Sonors appeared to be the best constructed although Fibes and Zickos were awfully good too. I played those drums for many years and they performed very well in a lot of different applications.

[brandon81081]

Sonor just came out with a new acrylic set with sonor designer hardware. They are EXTREMLY nice. I also play bass guitar and i saw the set in Bass Player Magazine (febuary). there is a full review of the drums in the magazine

[robhowe88]

Hi all,

I recently acquired some used Zickos drums (from two different sources) on eBay and they both have seams. Zickos shells are thicker than Ludwig Vistalite shells. Although the one Ludwig Vistalite floor tom I do have, sounds really really nice, one of the nicest floor toms I've heard as far as just being out there in a very aggressive but really nice way.

I'm pretty sure that Zickos always had seams and according to statements on their web site today, they still do have seams.

One drum I acquired did arrive with the seam apart (cleanly separated)...so much for the glue being stronger than the material....wouldn't it break elsewhere if that was the case?

I've located what seems to be the best source of acrylic cement from other posters and online searches/advice for acrylic drum repair, including a syringe to get the glue into the smaller cracks (that shell was also broken elsewhere, probably from being dropped at one point).

So, anyway, yes, I'm pretty sure Zickos, the granddaddy of all acrylic drums, always had seams. There's a statement on the web site that extruded wasn't satisfactory, I'm pretty sure that means they tried to produce seamless in a mold but it didn't work as well, but, unfortunately, being a typical American, I'm too lazy to look it up (funny).

Hope this helps.

I have to say the sound is really incredible from these drums and the stage look, well, I have my first gigs with them at an outdoor gig coming up this weekend.

The rest of the Zickos shells I have seem very solid, and very round, and very very nice. The hardware on these drums also makes most other drums look like toys, by the way (at least the lugs and rims and the really heavy-duty metal bass drum hoops....the old tom mounts might be a different story although I haven't tried them).

The only thing about the Zickos drums is they appear to be somewhat on the large side and Remo heads don't fit well, which is a major drag of course....but, I don't have enough experience with them yet to really say this with confidence. the bass drum I have, the Remo heads fit fine.

A 14" tom, the heads were tight and didn't tune real well at first but now they're seated in and the drum is sounding very good. No doubt not as good as if the shell were nice and undersized like Rogers and the heads just spun and fit perfectly, but, very very good.

[FloydZKing]

Pearls' mid-70s CrystalBeat sets were indeed seamless. They sound really fantastic believe it or not, but they are unfortunately prone to clouding and fading in the tinted ones (clear, red, yellow, blue). Rather than bent from a sheet and seamed, these were somehow spun layers of molten acrylic melted together into a relatively ****genous material. Over time though, the layers could begin to separate minutely and cloudy patches and tiny internal micro-fractures developed.

Seriously, they sound killer. My buddy has one in his commercial studio and people track with them all the time. They were cosmetically trashed, so we wrapped them, so as not to wig out clients. The best acrylic drum sound I've heard (and I've heard the good ones except for the new Sonors).