Throughout the entire Vistalite there were three different production styles or era's as I like to call them.
The 'FIRST PRODUCTION' era which starts from 1973-1974. 'FIRST PRODUCTION' Vistalite shells have these different type of identification points to distinguish which approximate year they were produced.
Bass drum seams are positioned on the bottom part of the shell. Rack toms the seam is positioned towards the drummer or on the back side of the shell. Concert Toms, Floor Toms, and Snares followed the same seam position schemes.
Badges were the pointed Blue/Olive Parallelogram badges were used on all 70's Ludwig drums. These were placed on the front of the Vistalite shells.
Tone controls were placed on the back side like the seams. They used a nylon washer that stopped any metal to plastic contact. They used one mounting screw that was mounted below the control knob.
All Vistalites used tripple flanged hoops and classic lugs. High tension lugs were not available until 1977.
There were two different kind of concert toms. The single headed concert toms are call Melodic toms, most common used on Quadra and Octa-Plus outfits. Sometimes will show up with optioned out mega toms outfits. The double headed toms are also some times comes with large outfits. These were a little more common than the single headed versions, but now color, condition, and demand keep prices for them up in the hundreds of dollars just for one tom. One note, neither one used tone-control's they usually used tone-controlled heads and special tuning to make them sound good. Smaller toms had a high pitch as the bigger ones had a lower tone. Tuned correctly, they can sound very good.
All bass drums had usually the same color in sparkle pearl colors.
Clear Vistalite Bass Drums - Silver Sparkle Pearl Inlay
Red Vistalite Bass Drums - Red Sparkle Pearl Inlay
Yellow Vistalite Bass Drums - Gold Silk Pearl Inlay
Amber Vistalite Bass Drums - Gold Silk Pearl Inlay
Green Vistalite Bass Drums - Green Sparkle Pearl Inlay
Ludwig had 6 different color patterns in the Rainbow Vistalite department. They were; SPIRAL, 2-BAND SWIRL, 3-BAND SWIRL, 3-BAND 'STACK' RAINBOW, 5-BAND 'STACK' RAINBOW, and VERTICLE BAR. The 'SPIRAL' and 'VERTICLE BAR' color patterns you could option up to three different colors. Some common tri-color spirals and verticle bars are the red/white/blue, red/amber/yellow, in the spirals, and blue/white, red/amber/yellow in verticle bar. In the 3-band 'stack' rainbow color pattern, a very common color combination is the, red/amber/yellow "TEQUILA SUNRISE", and red/white/green. In the 2-band swirl rainbow color pattern is white/black. 3-band swirl a common one is the red/white/blue color scheme. In the 5-band 'stack' rainbow, the color red/white/blue and the black/clear color scheme.
One of the ways the shells were strengthed was the seam was now placed behind the first pair of lugs from their previous location. Bass drums the seam was placed behind the pair of lugs just up from the bottom. The rack toms, floor toms, snares, and concert toms, the seam was placed behind the pair just behind the mounting hardware.
The badges stayed in the same design, but were placed on the sides of each drums. Bass drums, the badges stayed on top like previous, and stayed they thoughout the entire Vistalite production life.
Tone-Controls were changed location. They now were placed below the badges on the side of the shells. The construction of the tone-controls changed from a small diameter shaft into a large diameter shaft that exceeded into the shell. The nylon washer now was replaced with a flanged type that also exceeded into the shell.
The "V" gap was now placed on the inside of the shell which stayed that way until end of production 1979. The resin was not sanded down and left rough to increase the strength of the shell and the seam area.
The bass drum inlays stayed the same on blue,clear,red, and green. Solid white and black used a cortex white or cortex black inlay, while the yellow and amber changed from Gold Silk Pearl into Gold Sparkle Pearl. Smoke used white cortex, black cortex, or silver sparkle pearl. Which these stayed the same until the end of production in 1979.
The color of the inlays on Rainbow Vistalites Varied. It depeneded on the color that was closest to the bass drum hoop. For example, lets say that you have a red/white/green 3-band 'stack' Rainbow outfit. Since red was the closest color to the front of the bass drum hoop, it was red sparkle pearl. And for the rear bass drum hoop, since green was the closest to the rear bass drum hoop, the inlay color was green sparkle pearl! Amber and yellow color bands used gold sparkle pearl instead of the introduction inlay color of Gold Silk Pearl. In the case of the Verticle Bar Rainbow pattern, the inlays were what ever color you wanted that were in the shell. Wether is blue and solid white and tri-colored, red/amber/yellow, you have a choice of those three colors in red sparkle pearl and gold sparkle pearl. Solid white and solid black used solid cortex colors of the same color, they were not sparkle pearl colors. Smoke used silver sparkle pearl, white cortex, or black cortex.
In order to make the multi-colored Rainbow patterns, they first layed out the colors in the pattern wanted. They were bonded togather using acrylic resin, and then both sides were sanded and polished. Then the heating and molding processes were executed just like before.
In 1977, Ludwig decided to drop green from the color lineup and introduced a semi-transparent grey color called smoke. They were no shell changes or hardware changes until 1979.
By 1978, Ludwig needed something to keep sales up. The result was Tivoli lighted 3-band rainbow outfits. Ludwig only offered lights in 4 5-piece outfits. 22/24/26" bass drums / 12/13/14" rack-toms / 16/18/20 floor toms / 5x14" and 6.5" x 14" snares. And the only rainbow pattern that allowed lights was the 3-band 'stack' rainbow color pattern.
The only colors that you could use were; red, blue, yellow, amber, and smoke. Solid white and black were not optional with Tivoli kits. The 'STOCK' color combination was the red/amber/yellow which was the outfit that you got unless you special ordered your colors to be different.
Each drum housed 2 rings of lights. The lights were placed inside of a clear protective tube. The light rings were held in by metal clips attatched to the lug bolts inside of the shell. The beginning of the lights were wired to receptacle. Each drum had a receptacle out of view from the audience. Usually mounted behind the mounting hardware of each drum. A moveable control box was used to power the lights. You plugged it into any house type power receptacle and at the other end of the control box a wire harness came out with one line for each drum. You could option your lights to flash and burn steady or just to burn steady. The lighting systems were designed by Ben Tivoli of Tivoli Industries of Santa Ana California. Tivoli kits was a one year production model only.
By 1979, Ludwig dropped 4 of the 6 Rainbow Patterns from production. The only 2 that were available was the spiral and 3-band 'stack' rainbow. Ludwig also introduced new hercules hardware which was heavy duty hardware. A new deep shell 'POWER FACTORY' outfit was introduced along with deep shelled concert toms.
The seams on each drum were now mounted behind the mounting hardware. The badges were changed to round corner Blue/Olive Parallelogram Badges. By late 1979 Ludwig decided to discontinue the Vistalite all togather...
All Vistalites were available in about any drum outfit configurations that Ludwig made, including marching drums, snares, bass, tenor duos, trios, ect.
All Vistalites were optional at no extra charge the Superphonic 400 Chrome snare in either 5x14 and 6.5x14 sizes. You just stated 'M' when you wanted the Chrome snare instead of the Vistalite snare. There were no changes between material, Vistaite or Chrome.
All Vistalites used the prefixs as follows; 'KP' for Clear Vistalite or Clear Plastic / 'TP' for tinted Vistalite or colored 'tinted plastic' / 'KPM' was for clear with metal model 400 snare instead of Vistalite snare / 'TPM' for Tinted Vistalite with metal model 400 snare. When Ordering a Rainbow Outfit you stated 'TP' for tinted Vistalite and then you selected Patterns A-F for your color patterns and then stated which colors wanted in that specific sequence. If you wanted your Rainbow Vistalite with a metal snare instead of the matching Vistalite snare you stated 'TPM' Patterns A-F for the color patterns, then the color sequence.