Clear Ludwig Drums

[junkyardearl]

I just got most of a clear ludwig set from a friend. The set belonged to his brother who had a drug overdose, but lived. Unfortionately he's not in good enough conditition to play yet. Another unfortionate thing is that a lot of the set is missing, because the previous owner's loser friends went through his house and took what they could carry. Here's what I do have. 1 12" tom, 1 13" tom, a snare and the bass drum. The floor tom, and all of the mounting equipment is missing. So what I want to know is, what do I have here? By the logo on the drums I've found that it was made after 1980. It's all clear, plexiglass or fiberglass I assume. The lugs are there, and I have half of the lugs from the missing floor tom, only half of the rings and rods are there. I think it looks amazingly cool, and I really want to get it up and working. I'm going to have to take my time, because I don't have much money, but I think it's going to be really fun. Mainly I'd like a little history and some info on how good I can expect this thing to sound. I really hope you guys can help.
~james

[BigKahuna]

sounds a lot like Vistalites ... but not if they were made after 1980.

[junkyardearl]

I saw on a ludwig site that the logo on my drums was post 1980. It's the blue and olive one that is straight, not curved on the top.

[RichB]

Junkyard,

I have alot of Ludwig factory parts catalogs....if you need direct part numbers for anything let me know.

The kit your referring to used what Ludwig calls a spur-lok mounting system.(that is assuming your toms are double headed)

Just curious...what kind of snare do you have with that set?

[Tim Brown]

[

Well, I used Vistalites for years, and it was one of my favorite drumkits.
The things will sound AWESOME if they are tuned up right.
Ludwig used that Logo in the 1970's, whoever said that badge was "post 1980" was wrong, I have a Ludwig Catalog from the 70's, and they were using it then.
My Vistalites' badges were the same, and they were late 70's models.

They are Plexiglas/Acrylic; the only problem with them, is that after awhile, the shells started to crack (what happened to mine)around the Lugscrew holes and tom mount holes.
My kit was the "smoke grey"-they looked black, but you could see through them. I loved that kit, and I have sought to replicate the sound out of other drumsets, but haven't achieved it yet.
The key is, wooden drums will dampen the sound a little, while that plastic shell doesn't "suck up" any of the tone-it only projects and resonates-so those drums are also a bit louder than traditional wooden drums.

Once you get them up and going-they'll kick butt man!

You need to get in touch with some of the vintage places to find out where you can get a floor tom-they have singles all the time...

I can't think of the company, but I used to get a monthly newsletter from Ned....Oh I can't think of his last name, but they have a website, and they always had Vistalites. It's something to do with Vintage drums. (i.e, has "Vintage" in the name...)

When I find it I'll post back here.

Tim

[junkyardearl]

ok, the snare that's with the set is a vistalite. It has 10 lugs on each side and is 5 x 14. I'm actually in need of a bottom ring, and strainer for that right now. The strainer is about half gone, and I've added parts of a really bad Tama snare strainer to get it to work a little, even though I don't have any heads so it doesn't really matter. I also need two tuning/ muting piece, one for the 13" tom and one for the snare. I don't think I'll end up mountin my toms to my bass drum, I'm not a big fan of that set up. The tom do have two heads though. I actually used the snare for a while during the time that I was in a band with the guy who gave these to me, and it sounded really cool. He didn't like the toms, because they sounded too "big". The problem is that he didn't have bottom heads on either of them, nor did he have the tuning piece for on of them. So, I'm looking for the strainer, ringes for the bottom heads on the snare and the toms (will any rings work of the right size and whole work?), and two tuning pieces. Not to mention the floor tom (I'd like to get two of them at some point, a 16" square and 16 x 18). It's really great to get all this info, and thanks for sending that page it told me a lot. I'm so excited to get started with this!
~james

[Tim Brown]

Hi James,

You can get Counterhoops at Drum Supply House for pretty cheap.

The Snare mechanism you can get for about $25 or so (it should be the Ludwig " #P-85 ") if I remember correctly.

http://www.drummaker.com

Tim

[BigKahuna]

cool I'm glad that's what they were ... actually my bro had a blue set for years (full 5 piece w 2 concert toms) .... until he gave it to my brother-in-law a few years ago. They were both surprised to find out how much they're going for these days.
He uses it for his rehearsals and it's still in good shape ... no cracks ... the hardware could be cleaned, though. I was actually thinking of swapping kits with him for a couple weeks, cleaning it up and sampling it. Just another pet project, ya know.
Anyway ... glad you found what you were looking for, James. And welcome to homerecording.com!