Head suggestions for vintage vistalites?

G

geusey

New member
Okay, if anyone has experience playing and/or tuning these old vistalite kits, I'd love some thoughts.

Im Wanting to try out some new heads on the toms. I know what I like on the bass and snare, and I'm very satisfied with what I am getting there. I just need some direction on the toms. I've never been fully satisfied with the sound I'm getting from them and I've tried several heads over the past few years. I guess the Evans G2 clears on top with G1 clear on bottom got me the closest I've had it, but I've still though it could be better. I'm going for a blend of the big open thunderous sounds from back when this set was built and something more modern and punchy. Think All American Rejects on the move along album.

Drum sizes are 14 inch snare, 13 and 16 inch toms, and 22 inch bass. Really, I think I might just keep doing what I'm doing on the bass and snare. I'm more looking for Tom head recommendations. Keep in mind these are acrylic drums that are naturally very loud and ringy with fantastic projection.

Anyway, I'm in the market to try out something I haven't tried yet, so any suggestions are appreciated! Thanks!
 
I'm not sure why, but the trend in the 70's was to remove the bottom heads from toms. The bottom head serves to keep the energy inside the drum longer which causes the shell to resonate. That shell vibration is a very large and important part of the sound character of the drum...especially when recording.

In case you didn't know...
Apart from pitch, there seems to be two main/basic parts to the character of a drum sound; the attack and the sustain. The attack is the initial sound of the stick hitting the head. It is mainly determined by the type of head material, amount of muffling on the head, and how hard and where the head is hit. (If you strike concrete with a drum stick, you would hear mostly all attack and very little sustain.)

Sustain is the trailing part that follows the initial attack. It is the resulting vibration of both heads along with the shell...or the "ring" of the drum, so-to-speak. The length of sustain is mainly determined by top and bottom head thickness as well as shell thickness and hardness, (resonance properties.) I believe sustain contributes more to the sound character than does attack.

Some people describe "Punch" as more attack, some describe it as more sustain, some feel it is some combination of attack and sustain.

Here is my rule of thumb for heads...
Choosing thicker heads will give an overall deeper tone, (depth,) but longer sustain, (ring.)
Choosing thinner heads will shorten the sustain, but offer less low end frequency.
Clear heads offer more attack giving the drum a brighter more open sound.
A head with muffling (either coated or muted) tends to lessen the stick attack and sustain which makes the drum sound dull or choked.

There is no way to maximize attack, sustain, and depth. They tend to come as a trade-off. I suppose you just need to compromise on some things. Thus the vast variety and confusion of choosing heads.
 
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Back in the day - I played a set of Fibes (similar to the Vistilites) and a close friend played Vistilites (and I sat in on his kit many times). He used Remo Emperors and I used Remo Black dots (so we covered both the haeds Seafroggys referenced). However, back in those days, we did not have a lot of options other than Remo.

The thing I found with those synthetic drums - they were loud and had a lot of high end attack, but not much of the low end "warmth" wooden drums offer. Playing live, with no drum mics and competing with guitar stacks - the synthetic drums could cut through a mix - but they could be difficult to tame in the studio (and yeah, I know Bonham's recorded sound was great - but they recorded him with minimum close micing and a lot of ambience in huge, warm sounding rooms - and bottom line - he was Bonham!!!!)).

If I had a synthetic kit today - I would likely try Evans G2's (top) and G1's (bottom) - which geusey has already tried. Emperors and Black Dots would still be a logical option today - and if you can find them, Aquarian makes very decent heads (but their distribution chain is weak - and it can be hard to find them in stores). Certainly a 2-ply on the batter is a given - however, you could try a 2-ply on the bottom. I would never suggest that with a wooden kit - but the synthetic kits are different beasts - which could warrent an "outside the box" approach.
 
Xdrummer said:
Back in the day - I played a set of Fibes (similar to the Vistilites) and a close friend played Vistilites (and I sat in on his kit many times). He used Remo Emperors and I used Remo Black dots (so we covered both the haeds Seafroggys referenced). However, back in those days, we did not have a lot of options other than Remo.

The thing I found with those synthetic drums - they were loud and had a lot of high end attack, but not much of the low end "warmth" wooden drums offer. Playing live, with no drum mics and competing with guitar stacks - the synthetic drums could cut through a mix - but they could be difficult to tame in the studio (and yeah, I know Bonham's recorded sound was great - but they recorded him with minimum close micing and a lot of ambience in huge, warm sounding rooms - and bottom line - he was Bonham!!!!)).

If I had a synthetic kit today - I would likely try Evans G2's (top) and G1's (bottom) - which geusey has already tried. Emperors and Black Dots would still be a logical option today - and if you can find them, Aquarian makes very decent heads (but their distribution chain is weak - and it can be hard to find them in stores). Certainly a 2-ply on the batter is a given - however, you could try a 2-ply on the bottom. I would never suggest that with a wooden kit - but the synthetic kits are different beasts - which could warrent an "outside the box" approach.
Click to expand...

Interesting.
In reference to bonham, he actually only used the vistalites live, and recorded with his maple shell Ludwigs.

I was actually considering the black dots. They've been around forever, which tells me they've been doing something right. I also saw that Evans has a power dot head now. Could also be good, but the power dot thing for durability isn't exactly a selling point to me. I've got a lighter touch than most rock drummers I know - I started really hitting my stride on drum set while I was playing with my college jazz band.

Anyway, maybe G2s will work fine if I can find some resonant heads that work well. I've tried both the g1 and g2 heads on the resonant side in a variety of turnings. Still searching for that magical sound, though. I don't mind searching and trying out new things. I'm thinking ill try out some of those Evans head made specifically as resonant heads. Ec reso or genera reso, who knows. Seems like the EC resonant heads might be a good middle ground between G1 and G2. I might try them with G2 or Power Center on top. Anyway, I'm rambling now...

Thanks for the input. They sound fine right now, but I am not satisfied with fine, especially since the kick and the snare sound so fantastic right now.
 
I am a huge fan of Aquarian Studio-X/ Remo Diplomats for toms (nice blend of resonance and overtone control) and Aquarian Focus-X for snare. And Superkick II for kick batter with whatever resonant head you like.
 
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