The Vistalite project - Part 2

So the Vistalite kit is on it's way to completion.. kind of. The acrylic adhesive did the trick on the floor tom and the bond on the seam is good and strong. The join still looks a mess, but wet sanding and buffing it out could cause problems by weakening the join. I'm gonna get on with finishing the rest of the kit, and if it still bugs me i'll do something about it, but really it's only cosmetic. I couldn't resist quickly throwing a head and the hoop on, just to see how it looked.. its damn sexy..

The bearing edges still need doing, which i'm gonna try and get done as soon as. With regards to fitting resonant heads and so on, I was under the impression that the resonant lugs would have to be in line with the batter side lugs. I asked around and a couple of people set me straight, the resonant lugs can be offset from the batter side, it has no adverse effect on tuning or anything. This means that the postioning of the legs on the floor tom aren't an issue, which will save work and money as I thought the best plan might be to use it as a floating tom attached to a cymbal stand or something, but I won't do this now. So I need to grab hoops, heads, lugs, and tension rods for the toms, and some tension rods for the kick, and just sort out the bearing edges and the kit should be all good. Though i'll be giving it a reet good polish as well. More pics..

Cool.

Will.

From vistashite to vistaright: The vistalite project

The 90's Man drum kit. A Ludwig Vistalite kit in clear. I don't even know where to start with this. 60 quid on ebay. 18, 15, and 12" vistalite shells. The whole thing is a mess. But it will be sorted, oh yes it will, and 90's Man will lay claim to one sexual looking drum kit.

The 12" rack tom. It's a concert tom as is the floor tom. The bottom of the rim has a bearing edge, but it's not 100% true. There's also a slight dip of about 1mm/2mm on the bottom edge of the shell which needs sorting, or the bottom head won't seat properly and the drum will be difficult to keep in tune. Shouldn't be too many problems here.

The 14" floor tom, where to start... When I got this the seam had split completely and the shell was held together by tape (which was a pain to get off). Since then it's been stripped and given a clean, though not a thorough one. It now resides on the work bench as the glue that should seal the seam does it's work. From the photos you can see the seam is a bit of a mess. I assume the previous owner tried to re-glue it, but he's messed it up royally and it's in a real state. Once i'm certain the seam is secured properly, it's a case of sanding and buffing the mess around the edge of the join. The other problem with this one is converting it to a two headed drum. It's not clear in the photos, but two of the fixings for the tom legs reside pretty much right where the lugs would go for the resonant head. There's no plan of attack for this yet, but I will be asking around for potential solutions.

 Lastly, the 18" kick. Or the 18" floor tom converted into a kick. It uses a riser and some extra long spurs, with the kick pedal attaching to the riser. It came with no resonant head, hoop, or tension rods, but has the lugs for a resonant head. There's a new hoop in the post. The tom holder and bracket don't look original, but who really cares about that? There's a small 3-4" crack along the shell. I filled this in with the same acrylic adhesive I used to sort out the 15" shell. It still shows up a bit, but it's only cosmetic.


Kick.

You can just about see the riser at the bottom of the drum (I didn't make this modification)

12" rack tom

Crappy bearing edge on the 12"

The fucked seam on the floor tom

This will be a sexy sounding kit again. I vow it. It's too awesome to consign to the scrap heap. 90's Man will enrich lives with this beautiful instrument. It is it's destiny..

Will.

More new stuff..

When we said slowly getting our act together, we sort of meant it. More songs. There's plenty of other new stuff as well, but we just haven't had time to get it all on tape. You'll notice the lack of words, they're getting done next week. It's just a taster!!

Skronk after the jump..

http://goldenmeat.bandcamp.com/releases