Mr. Johnny Ringo,

I have never seen a smoke grey Crystallite Kit.

Can you show some pics please sir?

Kit looks like snare in pic, right?

Except grey?

Some refer to this shell type as "Shower Door."

Thanks

It looks like this one.

Yes, Mr. Ringo,

Clarification.

The snare in pic in my post is of a "Frost Crystallite" snare.

The normal smooth finish Fibes acrylic shells were called simply

"Crystallite."

Thanks for pic of the grey kit.

JR!

Actually there is quite a bit on/about Fibes drums here! I have written a LOT as I've been playing them since 1973! My 1st set back in 1973 were the clear Fibes Crystalites, and since then I have played .. and still do play! .. a couple sets of Fibes COF. That all said ...

There was never a "Smoke Grey" in Crystalite/acrylic, well not by that name anyway. The set you are looking at was simply called "Smoke". In the Fibes Crystalite line they offered: Clear, Smoke, and Frost. The "Shower Door" finish was actually called Frost. To answer your actual question however: Having owned/played Fibes Crystalite's .. two sets actually! .. I can honestly say that the Fibes were made with a higher quality acrylic than the Ludwig Vistalite's, and they seemed a bit thicker too. I felt the Fibes had a bit more "bark" to 'em that the Vistalite's, but as with so many things of this nature, a bit of it is completely subjective! I will say that Ludwig's Vistalite's were offered to cash in on the popularity of the clear acrylic drums back in the 70's that Fibes, and before them, Zicko's, started! With all the different head choices available today, it's a lot easier to get ANY of these acrylic drums dialed in to where the individual player might want them. They DO possess a different sound/timbre than wood though!, not that THAT is a bad thing of course. Here are a couple pics of my early 70's Fibes sets in clear Crystalite. I played these for a solid 10 years before taking a break and returning to wood. I loved 'em though! :)

Tommyp

I saw a set of these at Maxwell's in Chicago this weekend. That's the first kit I've seen like that! They were cool

Thank you Tommyp! As usual, always a book of knowledge. I love your clear Fibes. The owner is asking $700 for the three drums, I'm sure that's a reasonable price, but I'm not sure that I like the smoke, wish they were clear like yours. Cool1

Sounds like reasonable price.

Beware as the Fibes tom mounts were just atrocious in terms of end user experience.

I had to duct tape the mounts in order to get desired height adjustments and they often moved during a gig.

1977, chrome pre-Martin Fibes (1968 Super-Sensitive), loudest drums I've ever owned :)

Hey mark thank you for the opportunity on those rochefort drums still hoping for a set of Ludwig's in same level of condition of course thsnks