CHARLES “THE CRAB” COLLINGS: I’m Charles “The Crab” Collings of the Bama Lamas. My drum kit, that is actually my pride and joy. I have a green Ludwig Vistalites kit a la John Bonham, but it’s green and I guess they made 600 or 700 of those altogether, so I bought it maybe four or five years ago, and I might have paid so much for it but I don't care because I love it.

I’m a rock and roll drummer so, you know, I can play loud sometimes and it’s really good for the type of style drummer I am. The Vistalites are not known for their versatility. They’re known for being boomy, and that’s typically what I’m going for anyway, so they sound -- they compliment my playing style really well, and they look phenomenal. I love the way they look and they’re a collector’s item and they’re great.

I think a lot of drummers, you know, are always running in trouble of being too loud because we tend to, you know, play it loud and play it to the other instruments around us so I just -- simply I try to play lighter. It’s just a matter of concentrating on being more in the hands and less in the arms and that’s it. When I was just learning to play drums once in a long time ago, you couldn’t do that. You just bang away, but now you can -- now I’m better at doing that, so.

PATRICK OGLE: Do you know what year are those drums are from?

CHARLES “THE CRAB” COLLINGS: They are 1973. Yeah, ’72 or ’73.

PATRICK OGLE: Now, you say they made 700 of them. There are about -- Now that’s like that’s over the entire of making them or that year?

CHARLES “THE CRAB” COLLINGS: The entire run.

PATRICK OGLE: The entire run, so that’s a fairly limited amount of drums.

CHARLES “THE CRAB” COLLINGS: Yeah. They have many of those colors. A lot of drummers know about this stuff. They have, you know, a lot of colors in this delight, so what John Bonham used to play were those amber ones that he made famous in the “Song Remains the Same” video, so different colors are either, you know, rare or not at all rare. You see blue just lights everywhere. You know, they make them digitally, you know, so yeah that’s what it means [INDISCERNIBLE].

PATRICK OGLE: so, the green ones are less likely to be found?

CHARLES “THE CRAB” COLLINGS: Yes.

PATRICK OGLE: Yeah.

CHARLES “THE CRAB” COLLINGS: Yeah. You know, I track them on eBay just -- I’m not looking for anymore but I got an alert so I see very set of Vistalite that get’s sold through eBay or is up for sale, and the green ones pop up there maybe two or three times a year, and many times, you know, they’re -- My drums have appreciated about $500 since I bought them. I have no intention of ever selling them but, you know, the greens ones have caught up in value and the yellow ones are really popular. They’re really rare too.

I did have to replace a lug on my kick drum. The screw just broke. The metal just, after 30 or 40 years of being played, just broke. The screw just broke so I have to replace some of those. But there’s -- I’m kind of a -- I’m just a low-tech drummer guy. You know, I’m not Neil Peart with a hundred cymbals and a hundred drums and I play four piece.

PATRICK OGLE: Less to worry about.

CHARLES “THE CRAB” COLLINGS: Yeah. Less to worry about. When I started playing drums, it was, “Okay, I’ll add more drums when I can play them all effectively,” and you know, I just got to the point that I was with a four-piece and I don't need anything else and we’re sort of a garage band so we’re not doing the huge drum solos or anything like that. I just try and keep them in tune and, you know, just don’t let -- If something does get going wrong, you just don’t let it go. You just got to pay the money, get the new part, put the half hour into fixing it, and do it. When I was younger and had other crappy kits, I was less responsible so, “Oh, I got to fix that or that,” and then before you know it it’s unfixable because you’ve worked the kit, the stand, whatever.