I have 3 vistalite sets. My blue set has black hoops with silver satin inlays. My red set has black hoops with red satin inlays. My green set has black hoops with silver sparkle inlays. I know the red and silver satin inlays are original. I can't tell if the silver sparkle inlay is original or not. It seems too new looking to me. Hope that helps you out. Gerald.

Thanks Gerald. I am going to do mine black with silver inlays. I am going to have it professionally airbrushed instead of me applying my very limited painting talent to yhe hoops.

Hi there - just an update. I only have the kick left to do. Waiting for glue from the USA to arrive - snare, 13"and floor tom done. Here's a few pics. I am not going to use the 12" tom for now. I prefer the one up one down set up. It is safely stored away.

Erik - Cool! I see you have clear black dots on the batter heads, excellent choice! For my money, if you're trying to get the best sound out of a set of Vistalite toms, clear black dots are -the- way to go.

Hope the adhesive arrives soon! Can't wait to see them all done and ready to rock.

John

PS - Man, you gotta lose those two TAMA/paiste logos! Use some Goo-Gone to get it off and replace it with a 70's Ludwig press-on logo. Sorry, just something about seeing the TAMA logo on a vintage set of Vista's that made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. LOL

Those are going to be nice. I think that is his Tama bass drum. Not the Ludwig.

Oops! My bad. Good catch, Tim!

John

LOL! Yep, that's the Tama kick. The Ludwig is lying on its side waiting patiently. As for the kick drum reso head - I have exactly what you suggested Purdie - an all white head, 10" hole in the middle (it was an old coated black dot 22" and I cut the black dot out and removed the Remo logo) with a Ludwig decal. It looks very cool - I will take a photo and post it later on.

I was actually surprised how easily the Vista toms tuned! I expected to battle with a whole lot of sharp ringing an overtones but it turned out to be just the opposite. They really have a lovely tone to them. My Tama kit is a Starclassic Maple and I was used to to the lovely warmth of the maple shells - it took me to time at all to really enjoy the Vista tone.

And the Vista snare is an absolute killer - I have a clear ambassador reso bead and a coated emperor batter on it - man, it has an unbelievable crack to it and I've tuned it to produce a lovely little controlled ring - once again very easy to tune. I really love this snare drum.

Cheers

Erik

Nice kit.

Can't wait to see the resto. :cool:

Trevor Rabin is such a great guitar player.

Best thing to happen to Yes. LoLoLoLo

FWIW - on the late 70s blue Vistas I had, the inlay was silver sparkle.

Ahhh..the Bay City Rollers. Everyone get ready - S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y !