I played my buddies drum kit last night..

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sirslurpee

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and it sounded amazing. It also played amazingly well! The kicker is, it's a 7-piece Pacific CX series. I did use my snare, from my vista lites cuz at the time his was broke, but, still. Amazing. Is the CX series a lot better than the LX series or any other for that matter? Or am I just so used to hearing acrylic drums that these sounded really good to me because they are not plastic?
He said he got the kit for really cheap (~300 w/ cymbals, bass pedal, high hat stand and hardware...) so I want to look into them because if they are decent then maybe I will try to find a deal like he got.
 
It's all about tuning. Assuming the bearing edges of the shells are correctly manufactured. Tuning and dampening make all the difference in the world. I've made 300 dollar drumsets sound excellent, and made Pearl Master Customs sound like complete crap. Although some drums are just downright shitty. I don't like the Vistalites and other acrylic drums.....just a weird sound to me.
 
Well.. I may have a really big problem then. The snare on my set sounds fine, in fact, I really like it. The kick however, sounds terrible. No matter what I do I can not get it to sound right.. and I think I know why now. You mention the bearing edges being right... well, mine are a little off, I think. A normal bearing edge should be round, and should have the same angle all the way around the edge right? My drums for some reason it looks like the drum is round, but the bearing was cut oval. In a couple of spots there isn't much of an angle at all on the edge. Also, my kick.. it's kind of broke. My dad used to play the set all the time and had the front head off of it and because the toms mount on the kick, it cracked it all the way through on the very bottom. I guess my dad has looked into having it fixed but it would cost him just as much to replace the shell completely, and then he just didn't do it. Also like I said the bearing edges appear to me like they are kind of messed up. I dunno if it would be worth trying to repair all of it as opposed to dropping 600 on like a pacific or pearl kit or something.

Another thing about the pacifics that wow'd me: I could double-bass about twice as fast as I can on my vista lites and I was using my own pedal and even sitting on one of those folding hunting-seats instead of a throne. I just imagine what I could do if I had my drum throne out there... :(
 
sirslurpee said:
Well.. I may have a really big problem then. The snare on my set sounds fine, in fact, I really like it. The kick however, sounds terrible. No matter what I do I can not get it to sound right.. and I think I know why now. You mention the bearing edges being right... well, mine are a little off, I think. A normal bearing edge should be round, and should have the same angle all the way around the edge right? My drums for some reason it looks like the drum is round, but the bearing was cut oval. In a couple of spots there isn't much of an angle at all on the edge. Also, my kick.. it's kind of broke. My dad used to play the set all the time and had the front head off of it and because the toms mount on the kick, it cracked it all the way through on the very bottom. I guess my dad has looked into having it fixed but it would cost him just as much to replace the shell completely, and then he just didn't do it. Also like I said the bearing edges appear to me like they are kind of messed up. I dunno if it would be worth trying to repair all of it as opposed to dropping 600 on like a pacific or pearl kit or something.

Another thing about the pacifics that wow'd me: I could double-bass about twice as fast as I can on my vista lites and I was using my own pedal and even sitting on one of those folding hunting-seats instead of a throne. I just imagine what I could do if I had my drum throne out there... :(
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What kind of kit do you currently have?
If it's a Ludwig, why not just purchase new Maple shells, drill them, and transfer your hardware from the drumkit you have over to the new shells?


Tim
 
I suppose.. I think I would end up messing it up though if I had to drill anything. I mean, it's like a '75-ish 6-piece vista-lite kit (i'm only using 3 toms so it's a 5-piece right now). I'm thinking about trying to find like a 6 piece pearl export or pacific kit. I really don't need a snare though because I love the acrylic snare. Everything else is kind of screwed. Another thing I really liked about the PDP set I played was the mounting. The toms were all pretty much racked in a row and it was really easy to do fast fills on. I dunno though... How much would it end up costing me to get some maple shells?
 
sirslurpee said:
I suppose.. I think I would end up messing it up though if I had to drill anything. I mean, it's like a '75-ish 6-piece vista-lite kit (i'm only using 3 toms so it's a 5-piece right now). I'm thinking about trying to find like a 6 piece pearl export or pacific kit. I really don't need a snare though because I love the acrylic snare. Everything else is kind of screwed. Another thing I really liked about the PDP set I played was the mounting. The toms were all pretty much racked in a row and it was really easy to do fast fills on. I dunno though... How much would it end up costing me to get some maple shells?
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Go to the website on Tim Brown's signature, the drummaker icon. They sell shells for good prices. You can also have them drilled for u.
 
jaykeMURD said:
It's all about tuning. Assuming the bearing edges of the shells are correctly manufactured. Tuning and dampening make all the difference in the world. I've made 300 dollar drumsets sound excellent, and made Pearl Master Customs sound like complete crap. Although some drums are just downright shitty. I don't like the Vistalites and other acrylic drums.....just a weird sound to me.
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yes.........I tuned a Pearl MMX kit for my friend........It just sound dead, very very narrow tuning range.......and finally, some toms sounded acceptable, and some dont.......but I can tune every low-mid price range drum sound OK.

I argee to you all, the keller maple shell are your way to go.
 
sirslurpee said:
Another thing about the pacifics that wow'd me: I could double-bass about twice as fast as I can on my vista lites
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I bought a broken Pacific double pedal from MF a few years ago. I think I paid $90 for it. Took it home and spent about 20 minutes fixing it. I have have about 10 drummers play on them and freak out because they are so much smoother and lighter than their Iron Cobra, Axis, Pearl....etc


Too bad I still suck with it!

As far as the sound, I concur with the tuning and add that the heads will make a big difference. I once played with a drummer who pieced together a set from junk he found in his music store. He threw some nice heads on it and tuned it up and it was on of the nicest sounding sets that I have ever heard.
 
Yeah, I have all new heads on my vistas. Remo pinstripes on the tops of the toms, ebony am's on the bottom. An emporer X on the top and ambassador snare on the bottom of the snare. Powerstroke 3's on the front and back of the kick with a hole in the front. I've spent hours trying to tune them and it still sounds OKAY but not to the caliber that nice ludwig drums should sound IMO. I've used different kinds of muffling on the kick and what have you and it still does not sound right. Even my girlfriend who knows nothing about drums is like "your drums sound like shit. I like the sound of wood drums better" :(
 
Just keep messing with it. I am just a part time drummer but luckily I learned early on about tuning and what not. I have had more than a few seasoned players sit down at my kit and litereally get pissed that my $500 Mapex sound better than they $2500 (insert cool name here) kit. I primarily use Aquarian Studio X heads. My kick head is the original Mapex job. I don't use any baffling at all and it sounds nice a tight. I have never messed with the vistas though so I am not sure what to tell you there. But I know you can pick up some decent wood drums these days pretty cheap and make sound darned nice. Good luck.
 
I got an old made in Japan Yamaha stage set. White, but all maple underneath. I like 'em because they aren't boomey, but holy sh*t are they loud. I have played some cheap Made in China sets like Pearl Exports and they sound different, no where's near as loud, but they sounded good. Much tighter and easier to tune too.
 
If you look into Exports....I know, first hand, that they can be tuned and set up to sound quite good. The Maple-to-acrylic shells would definatley be a big project, but would probably cost considerably less! Heck, if you want super-awesome sounding drums, buy (or build!) an electronic/triggered drumset. Not tuning required!!! :p
 
I haven't actually owned Vistalites but one of the best vistalite kits I've ever heard had Remo singly ply resonant heads on the bottoms, Pinstripes on top, with an ebony ambassador on the front bass head with an Evans Emad on the bass drum batter. KILLLER sound!! Sounds like you're close enough but your resonant heads are too thick and you need thinner heads for optimum resonance on the toms.

I also own set of maple Ludwigs (as well as a set of Pacific MX's) and I'm assumming you have a larger bass drum on it than 20". For years I played with Powerstroke heads, pinstripes, fiberskyn, etc...so, you might consider going the route of the emad for the bass drum only. I swear by em on the older ludwig kits as I also talked a drummer buddy of mine to try one on his vintake Ludwigs and he about s*it his pants after doing so it sounded so great. The emad added a depth and dimension to the bass drum sound it was lacking for years.
 
I really think that I could mess with the tuning for weeks on this kit and not be able to get it to sound right. Like I said, the bass drum shell is only held together by the mounting hardware and it's not really round at all. I talked to my friend who has this Pacific set and he said he might trade it for one of my guitars or something. I don't know if he will go through with it or not though...

I've seen a few kits on musiciansfriend around 800-900 that are what I am looking for. A 6-piece with the 8" tom w/ a 22" bass drum. I really don't need a snare I wonder if I could get someone at guitar center to hook me up if I don't buy the snare, snare stand, or high hat stand with it.... maybe?

Btw, how does poplar sound?
 
I decided I'd link to some kits I am looking at. Honestly, I cannot find a 6-piece maple kit in the configuration I want on MF but I know they are out there...

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/449141/
^This kit, it's birch though....

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/449179/
^And this one. Poplar.

Also, I should be getting some money soon. Say, around a grand. On top of that I have a couple of guitars I could throw in for a trade (I could probably get 900 for them both if I am lucky) plus I am selling my iron cobra power glide double pedal for 170 so say if I had around 2g to drop on a nicer set what do you think I should look at?
I like my snare so if it's any consolation to save some cash I would still use my vista lite snare...
 
sirslurpee said:
Yeah, I have all new heads on my vistas. Remo pinstripes on the tops of the toms, ebony am's on the bottom. An emporer X on the top and ambassador snare on the bottom of the snare. Powerstroke 3's on the front and back of the kick with a hole in the front. I've spent hours trying to tune them and it still sounds OKAY but not to the caliber that nice ludwig drums should sound IMO. I've used different kinds of muffling on the kick and what have you and it still does not sound right. Even my girlfriend who knows nothing about drums is like "your drums sound like shit. I like the sound of wood drums better" :(
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First of all - your kick drum shell is cracked. It will NEVER sound right, for that simple reason.

The Vistalites will never sound as good as a modern wooden kit for one simple reason - the bearing edge is not the same.


Tim
 
I have a vistalite set. I have not played that thing for about 5 years. I got a gretsch set after that. Maple. Yay. Vistalite may occasionally look cool but if I was playing it I would be laughing.
 
sirslurpee said:
I decided I'd link to some kits I am looking at. Honestly, I cannot find a 6-piece maple kit in the configuration I want on MF but I know they are out there...

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/449141/
^This kit, it's birch though....

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/449179/
^And this one. Poplar.

Also, I should be getting some money soon. Say, around a grand. On top of that I have a couple of guitars I could throw in for a trade (I could probably get 900 for them both if I am lucky) plus I am selling my iron cobra power glide double pedal for 170 so say if I had around 2g to drop on a nicer set what do you think I should look at?
I like my snare so if it's any consolation to save some cash I would still use my vista lite snare...
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I have had Pearl and Mapex. I like the tone of the Mapex over the Pearls but the Pearl are much more ergonomic for a big tall guy like me. I think you would be happy with either one though. Good luck!
 
I played some mapex one time for a show but I didn't really like the sound of them, although they were not tuned right and the bass drum was filled with newspaper clippings for muffling. I think I would be alright with anything wood though. I like the sound of wood over acrylic and especially wood over electric drums... I'm just worried about the different woods. If maybe I should definately try to stick to maple. I like a lot of attack with everything especially the kick.
 
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