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Here's a picture of the set, when I brought it down from my friend's attic.

The bassdrum legs are not original. I had to replace the original ones many years ago. Notice that the 18" tom has a slightly different color. It's a wood shell with black wrapping. The rest of the set is made of god knows what.

What you have there are black Vistalite drums. They are an acrylic plastic shell. They did make solid black vistalites as well as the smoke ones. They are not as common as the smoke ones, so you have something special there, I'd hang on to them. :)

Wow, that was quick!

Thanks Ludwig-dude.

I'll hang on to them for sure. I'm not under the impression that they're valuable, or anything like that, though. Right now, I'm having fun restoring my kit to its 'former glory', and I'm looking forward to giving it a good beating any time soon, haha.

Be careful not to scratch the finish on the Vistalites when cleaning them. That will be a nice (and loud) kit when you finish it.

The lugs are cleaning up really nice. Some of the hoops are pretty rough, though. I may have to look for some replacement 16" hoops.

The wooden hoops on the bassdrum have also seen better days. Then again, I'm not aiming for mint condition. Clean and tidy is good enough for now.

Throw a set of clear black dot heads on those tubs and you won't believe how good they sound. Ludwig manufactured solid black and solid white vistalites as well as the other rainbow of colors they offered. The solid black and the solid white kits didn't sell very well for them so they started covering a bunch of shells in stainless steel. I had a black vista kit that had the stainless steel wrap and they were heavy and loud. If you're playing rock & roll, you've got the perfect kit for it.

You might want to reinforce the seams by adding a bead of Weld-On. Fill the V-shaped channel with the Weld-On and the seams won't pop on you. Vista's are notorious for popped seams. Ludwig went the cheap-o route and only added enough adhesive to hold the shell together. Fill the channel and problem solved -before- it happens.

Great kit. Enjoy them.

John

Thanks John. I had noticed the 'gap' on the inside of the drums, especially on the 14" tom. I'll take your advise, and try to fill in those gaps.

I had not decided on which heads to use. There used to be silver dot rockers on all drums, which sounded pretty good. I kinda like the look of plain white heads, though, but the sound is most important. I might have to try some different drumheads.

As for the resonant bassdrum head, I'm going for something with a smaller Ludwig logo. The ones they sell now are okay, but not for a 'semi-classic' kit. I want something of the 70's/80' era. Originally it had a clear head with a black/white ludwig sticker. That might be the way to go for me.

Frank - Here's a link to the Weld-On site:

http://www.eplastics.com/Plastic/Plexiglass_Glue

You'll want to use the thick/heavy stuff in the tube for the seams. Use blue painters tape to mask out the shell on each side of the seam. Lay the shell on a flat surface -seam down-. Then run a bead of the Weld-On until the V channel is filled to the top. Allow a full 24 hours for it to cure and dry properly. The shells will be stronger than when they left the factory and you won't have to worry about bad splits at the seam. Especially if you're going to gig the kit/play it out.

Try the clear black dot heads on just the floor tom and see if you like the sound. I would also like to strongly recommend adding air-cushioned rubber feet to the floor tom legs and the bass drum spurs. When you set them up like that, Vista's will sing!

Enjoy the drums... nice to have you in the forum.

John

Thanks John,

That's really helpful. I'll let you know how it works out. I'm not sure if the brand in the link is available here, but I'll look for it. If it's not, at least I'll know what type of stuff to look for.

Thanks again.