Wednesday 30 March 2011

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.