Vistalites-What would you pay?

[bbeyer]

My local music store has this blue/olive badge vistalite kit for sale, the sizes are 24" kick, 14x10", 16x16", and 16x18". It comes with an acrolite snare.
The drums were originally clear, but at some point somebody sprayed the interiors of the shells in red. it looks not too terrible but i'm wondering what kinda work it would take to remove this paint. the shells themselves dont look terrible.
i cant find any cracks in the shells, but it may just be hard to see with the red paint on there
The only flaw i can see with the shells is, for some reason, there is a yellow-ish epoxy-resin or something like that spread on the outside of the shells around and under one tom lug and one floortom leg bracket. again, i cant see a crack here but i'd imagine this is some attempt to repair a crack. this epoxy stuff chipped off with my fingernail in one spot.
the set also is gonna come with two orphan toms, one of them is a rogers Holiday shell, 9x13 i think, but its been stripped and sprayed red, and has unoriginal lugs with extra holes. the other tom is some "made in japan" Gretsch tom, its got some weird name on the badge, not blackhawk like the new ones, but basically its a piece of crap

they are asking 700 bucks for this kit, its got all decent heads and i think it comes with a couple cymbal stands and a snare stand.
does this sound fair considering the work needed to bring these back? i left my phone # and said call if you wanna make a deal, but i dont think i can pay 700

[Ninefingers]

Oh, gosh...that isn't gonna be an easy remove on the paint.

Plexi is very very very sensitive to scratching.

IMHO...leave it be.

Now, if you wanna hunt down the folks who spraypainted it... and whack 'em...lemme know if you need a wingman.

[Vipercussionist]

Even though Vistalites seem to command good money, I personally would wait for one to come along that's in good shape and priced to move. They are pretty fragile drums and you have to be extra careful of cracking or scratching them as it really shows up big time with Vistas. A good crack can ruin a drum for good.

On the other hand, nothing sounds quite so "open" as a set of Vistalites, the raw power they can put out is amazing.

[Roscoe]

This might be a real candidate for parts.

RCI is kicking major booty on acrylic shells, ( check it out )

http://www.rcidrums.com/

Sometimes the bin is the final end...

[bbeyer]

Yeah those RCI guys are pretty good from what i've seen.. they started off as an acrylic repair service. I've seen some pics or pretty mangled acrylic shells that have been repaired amazingly. they can fuse broken seams and cracks back together and make it look like nothing ever happened.

The only reason I considered these Vistas at the music store is because I think the shells are in unusually sound condition, even with the stupid paint job. I thought all these old ludwig shells would be full of cracks, I own a newer fibes kit and the fibes shells are and always were known to be better than Ludwigs stuff. (By the way.. check out Ludwigs new website- on the vistalite
page they say something like "often imitated ludwig acrylic drums"-- well Thats total B.S. because Zickos was the first to the game and then Fibes.. ludwig just copied THEIR ideas and now claims that they were first. Ha)

[BegD]

The problem with vistalites is what you don't see. The joker that owned them previously probably (at least I hope) pulled the luges off to paint the shells. Over-tightening the lugs causes minute spider crags at the lug holes. This might be hard to see if they're painted. I would be sure to look at the bearing edges too. I'm sure that there is a way to remove the paint, and the acrylic can be buffed to shine clear again...it's more of a question of whether or not you want to spend that much energy getting them back in shape. I love and own a beautiful set of red vistas in the same big sizes, and I totally dig the vista sound. I would definitely low ball them on the offer though. $700 sounds steep for the mess that comes with the drums. Good luck!

[bbeyer]

The problem with vistalites is what you don't see. The joker that owned them previously probably (at least I hope) pulled the luges off to paint the shells. Over-tightening the lugs causes minute spider crags at the lug holes. This might be hard to see if they're painted. I would be sure to look at the bearing edges too. I'm sure that there is a way to remove the paint, and the acrylic can be buffed to shine clear again...it's more of a question of whether or not you want to spend that much energy getting them back in shape. I love and own a beautiful set of red vistas in the same big sizes, and I totally dig the vista sound. I would definitely low ball them on the offer though. $700 sounds steep for the mess that comes with the drums. Good luck!

the owner of the store called me today and i told him that with the work needed to straighten them out and everything, his price was way too steep.
BTW.. they are asking 799.00, i thought it was just 700. yikes. he said he could work with me and asked what my offer was. I didnt make an offer, instead i asked if i could come by with my digital camera and take some images of the drums, maybe take a head or two off to check the shells. hes ok with that so i may do that tomorrow, and post some images here for others to check out.

[Jaye]

Let's put it this way....if you kept in the back of your mind that the rehab of that kit might end in failure (by no fault of your own)...and still felt interested....offer $500-550 and see if he bites.

If not...really, you have probably saved yourself a lotta hassle and frustration.

Some remuddles can be reversed with care and time...others, unfortunatley, are just too bizarre to reverse....

[Ninefingers]

If $500 is the value of the lugs and hardware, that might be an OK idea. If not, I wouldn't bother. I think that rig is a goner.

[bbeyer]

Im glad I walked away from that one.. I finally found a matching FIBES 18" floortom on ebay and won it! The only reason I was looking at the luddies was because I wanted the 18" tom

[vintagedrums75]

I probably wouldn't buy them with the weird paint job. I think the epoxy though is a bigger problem. Getting that off would definitely hurt the shells. But if they sound really good and way better than any other vistalites you've played, you could talk them down quite a bit and get the kit for really cheap.