About the kit: Purchased used during winter 1984-85 from a combined music store and used car dealer - no kidding - for $350. They were covered with dust, had what I assumed to be the original silver dots, and the store owner couldn't wait to see me leave with them. 5x14, 9x13, 10x14, 16x16, 16x18 and 14x24. Everybody wanted "power toms" back then, usually black, white or wine red, and my friends thought I was nuts for not putting the $350 towards a Rocker II set. I played some high school and college gigs and a bit of small-time studio work with them and they have held up great and of course everyone remembers them. I was working in a music store back in 1992 or so when the drum salesperson forwards a call to me of someone who wanted to trade in a sole 14x22 vistalite bass drum. The caller was playing the Ramada Inn for the weekend and just happened to dial up the store I worked at. He wanted a snare in trade, and the store would not have given him a pair of used sticks for that drum. I'm not sure how accurate this really is, but I felt like this guy just happened to get in touch with the one person in Jackson, Mississippi who liked Vistas at all, much less a rare pattern that matched my kit (well, almost... read on). I had an old Olympic Red Sparkle snare and the swap was made, both of us happy. Unusual characteristics about the kit [if anyone has info on these anomalies, please let me know at sportfury@bham.rr.com : The snare has a colorless badge and no s/n, and the kit actually has 2 patterns: red, white & blue and red, blue & white. The 14x22 I picked up later is red, blue white, which is the same pattern as the snare and 10x14. At a glance, you don't notice it, especially on the snare tucked behind the kit. But a second look at the 13 and 14 toms gives it away. I think this kit may be a "second" due to the patterns? Could this be the reason for the clear badge on the snare? I am not sure if the badge placement is normal, as this is my only complete kit of vistas, but when the 13 and 14 are mounted on the bass drum for a right handed drummer, the badges face opposite sides, slightly inward. The badges are mounted just below the dampener. The badges on the floor toms correctly face outward with the dampener on the opposite side of the drum, offset by 1 lug. If the kit were set up left handed, the 13 and 14 badges would be more visible, but still kind of on the side. I never noticed these variations in the kit until I began reassembling them after a couple of years of closet duty. I have never been one for dampeners of any kind on toms & snares, much less the internal, rattling kind, so I drilled out the rivets to remove the pads and mounted 15-watt bulbs in the toms & floors. The cords run through 2 of the 4 factory holes, so no extra drilling and the dampener acts as a natural "shock mount". The same bulbs have been in there for all this time and the drums have indeed been whacked soundly (ha ha) and even gigged with. I have figured out how to mount two in the Bass Drum without drilling or using the breather hole but haven't gotten around to it yet. Hey, it's not a Tivoli, but it works for me! It's easy to do, if you can sacrifice your knob-style dampeners' pads. They have clear emperors and ambassadors and sound incredible. Again, if anyone has info to share on the characteristics of this kit, please write me at: sportfury@bham.rr.com. Thanks for reading and thanks to Kenny for all of the hard work that goes into www.vistalitedrums.com.

Matt Brennan

I would like to thank Matt for taking the time to photograph his drums for us and writing that detailed story behind them.

Kenny V