My new Vistalite Kit.

Kg_lee

Senior Member
I got this kit in August it's ok.. looks cool. All I can say it's nothing like a maple kit.

14x26
8x12
16x16

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Now THAT is a beautiful thing there.

Is it a mish-mashed Bonzo kit? I thought they only sold the 26" vista kicker as part of the Bonham shell pack.

What kind of snare is that?
 
Now THAT is a beautiful thing there.

Is it a mish-mashed Bonzo kit? I thought they only sold the 26" vista kicker as part of the Bonham shell pack.

What kind of snare is that?


I had to have the dealer contact Ludwig that I only play 26" bass drums and it was the only way I was going to buy the kit. So they were able to hook me up but I could only get it in Amber.

The snare is a Ludwig Black Magic engraved. It's a beautiful drum for what it is, sounds incredible. It's a loud drum with a lot of crack, very warm sounding.
 
Nice looking kit!
But I'm wondering if that 12" even stands a chance against that 26" and 16"?
 
Nice looking kit!
But I'm wondering if that 12" even stands a chance against that 26" and 16"?

Honestly I have a maple kit in the same sizes, believe it or not on the Vistalite kit it's the Bass drum that can't keep up with the kit which is a disappointment to me. I thought the Vistalite drums were suppose to be loud? Although it's a beautiful kit I would rather have another maple kit as my 2nd kit.
 
That's weird - when I had a solid black Vistalite kit, many people thought it sounded like wood ;)

No way to futz with that 26 to make it sound more to your liking?
 
Isit me or your kit looks "transparent-ish"

Anyways what's your cymbals?

Nice kit BTW C:
 
The bass drum sounds good it's just not loud.

And the cymbals I use are 14" Zildjian K hi-hats, 18 &19" zildjian K thin crashes, 16" zildjian K efx, Paiste 2002 rock ride,

I use a Pearl Eliminator double pedal, Yamaha hi-hat, and DW flush base snare & cymbal stands.
 
The bass drum sounds good it's just not loud.

And the cymbals I use are 14" Zildjian K hi-hats, 18 &19" zildjian K thin crashes, 16" zildjian K efx, Paiste 2002 rock ride,

I use a Pearl Eliminator double pedal, Yamaha hi-hat, and DW flush base snare & cymbal stands.

You say your bass drum isn't loud, yet you have a port and a pillow inside of it...

Smaller bass drums without either of those will outpace and outpunch your big'un any day if you leave it like that. Take the out the pillows at the very least, and if you want more boom, get an unported head too...
 
You say your bass drum isn't loud, yet you have a port and a pillow inside of it...

Smaller bass drums without either of those will outpace and outpunch your big'un any day if you leave it like that. Take the out the pillows at the very least, and if you want more boom, get an unported head too...


I laugh at 20" kick drums. I don't mean that in a bad way but I used small drums and they just don't do what a large drum will do. I would put my 26" maple up against any 20" kick drum and I know it would out perform it. It has low end deeper than any 20" drum will produce, it has punch and nice volume. Sounds like it is mic'd when hit. It's just that I have an identical maple kit to compare my vistalite to and the maple kit just out performs it in many ways.
 
I laugh at 20" kick drums. I don't mean that in a bad way but I used small drums and they just don't do what a large drum will do. I would put my 26" maple up against any 20" kick drum and I know it would out perform it. It has low end deeper than any 20" drum will produce, it has punch and nice volume. Sounds like it is mic'd when hit. It's just that I have an identical maple kit to compare my vistalite to and the maple kit just out performs it in many ways.
Probably why Bonham used the Maple Ludwigs in the studio except for I.T.T.O.D. which was the stainless steel kit......sweet kit regardless very nice.

Bonzolead
 
Why would you want or expect an Acrylic/Plasic material to sound like a wooden drum. The characteristics are simular and when their mic'd up and thousands of watts of power are added and going through 12 /18" subs and 20 12" speakers with 12 2" horns with outboard gear up the wazoo they ARE gonna sound like Bonham but when their set up in Joes basement they aren't gonna sound like a quality wood kit.
We used to use them for funk, take the bottom heads off all of them and drop a 3lb bag of sand in the kick drum with lightweight heads and go. Actually most of the funk drummers who used plastic used the Fibes offering they were better than the Ludwigs.
Plastic Drums.........thats just silly! Doc
 
Why would you want or expect an Acrylic/Plasic material to sound like a wooden drum. The characteristics are simular and when their mic'd up and thousands of watts of power are added and going through 12 /18" subs and 20 12" speakers with 12 2" horns with outboard gear up the wazoo they ARE gonna sound like Bonham but when their set up in Joes basement they aren't gonna sound like a quality wood kit.
We used to use them for funk, take the bottom heads off all of them and drop a 3lb bag of sand in the kick drum with lightweight heads and go. Actually most of the funk drummers who used plastic used the Fibes offering they were better than the Ludwigs.
Plastic Drums.........thats just silly! Doc


I bought the drums based on they looked kool. I didn't expect it to sound like wood. My biggest is complaint is the volume of the kick drum, my maple kick is so much louder. At band practice I can't hear the vistalite drum when I hit it. By no means is it bad sounding now that I have it I would have much rather spent the money on another maple kit. I'm considering selling the shell pack and getting a maple kit.
 
a 26" acrylic kick not loud? what? How is it tuned? what head are you running? Is your other 26 the same depth? I don't understand this. Take that pillow out bro. Also are you the only one it doesn't sound loud too? Maybe you are just comparing how it sounds compares to a boomy maple kick behind the kit, not in front.

My Vistalites are much brighter and have very little ring vs wooden ones. They are very focused and cut through more than most wooden drums would in a very loud live situation. Also I don't see a need to use any internal muffle devices even if I plan to play fast double bass. I run mine with PS3's rather tight and a dw5000 with the plastic side and steel bass drum hoops. It slays, it's only good at being loud.
 
a 26" acrylic kick not loud? what? How is it tuned? what head are you running? Is your other 26 the same depth? I don't understand this. Take that pillow out bro. Also are you the only one it doesn't sound loud too? Maybe you are just comparing how it sounds compares to a boomy maple kick behind the kit, not in front.

My Vistalites are much brighter and have very little ring vs wooden ones. They are very focused and cut through more than most wooden drums would in a very loud live situation. Also I don't see a need to use any internal muffle devices even if I plan to play fast double bass. I run mine with PS3's rather tight and a dw5000 with the plastic side and steel bass drum hoops. It slays, it's only good at being loud.

My maple kick is a 14x26 and the vistalite is 14x26. I really don't think that would make to much of a difference. I use a Remo power stroke 3 on the batter just above wrinkle stage and I use stock head on front (ported) tuned higher than batter. The pillow by no means kills any of the sound. I use the DW pillow and if you ever used one they are very light in weight and don't put hardly any pressure on the head so the drum keeps it's fullness. It's confusing to me because this is the first kick drum I owned that I can't hear when I'm playing with my band. And on top of that I kick really hard.
 
My suggestion is to try either a clear Emp., or a C.S. Clear Dot.
Use a piece of head (about 3x4) taped to the impact spot. That will give you more of a "no patch", sound on the bass drum.

The C.S. Clear Dot has a less "hard" tone to it on the bass drum.
I compared it to the Black Dot on a 26" bass drum and used it for quite a while.
Nice sounding head.

The Clear Dot also sounds less "hard" on the snare. Probably why Neil Peart used it on his snare for so many years. Durable like the Black Dot tons of drummers used back in the day, but not as harsh as sound as a Black Dot can get on a snare.

The DW pillow isn't going to do anything inside the drum as far as taking away volume or anything the OP wants out of his drum (other than stop the sound from bouncing around too much, and possibly creating a problem with a mic--which can happen to any size bass drum with nothing in it. I've seen it on big and smaller stages, which is why it should be in there IMO/E).
 
Hi KG!! I love you're kit dude!!! As far as the BD volume issue goes, have you tried tuning the kick up a bit? I play a large kick myself, and I've found that a slightly higher tuning can help the kick cut through in a live/unmic'd situation. I play a wood kick so I really have no experience with Vista kicks, just large kicks lol.

Good luck dude!!!

-Kyle
 
Put a Aq. Super Kick 1 on the batter the remo is to heavy especially if your looking for volumn. Put the Aq. regulator on the front unported, porting steals volumn and limits resonanting. If you don't internally mic the kick theres no reason for a ported head they steal alot of sound from the shell. Don't put the batter so sloppy tune it to a firm tension then tune the reso to get bottom not that batter head. Tighten the reso fairly tight then have some one hit the kick and as the hit decays you tune each lud down and one lug will cause the deepest depth sometimes 2 lugs put usually one. Doesn't anybody here know how to tune a drum??? Theres got a be someone on the net teaching this crap, how the hell can you call yourself a drummer but you don't know how to tune. You don't tune starting with a wrinkled head.....................you guys are tryin to duplicate a recorded bass drum and you won't get that out of an acoustic drum, that comes from mics and board work. Get on your knees in front of the drum and TUNE it!! Learn how to. Doc
 
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