Gretsch Catalina Jazz Kit. Snare tuning and feel

[branflakes992]

I just bought a catalina club jazz kit and I can't find a good sound for the snare. Any suggestions? The kit feels very foreign to me, I was playing a Pearl Vision kit, so it's very strange to play. I just put an Evans emad head on the bass drum, would making a porthole help the sound at all it seems to not have any sustain or anything or maybe I'm just not used to the sound. Any advice is appreciated!
Thanks!

[TheArchitect]

Without hearing it its tough to say. My Catalina Club Jazz kit tuned up pretty quickly. I would lose that EMAD though if you are looking for a jazzy tone. On the kick I used the stock reso intact and switched the batter to a Coated Emperor with a felt strip. Use a felt beater and think of tuning it as a 3rd tom instead of a "kick" drum.

AS for the snare, I got mine to sound fine but the sympthetic buzzing could just not be dialed out. I went with my 70's acro instead and life was good

[TTNW]

I just bought a catalina club jazz kit and I can't find a good sound for the snare. Any suggestions? The kit feels very foreign to me, I was playing a Pearl Vision kit, so it's very strange to play. I just put an Evans emad head on the bass drum, would making a porthole help the sound at all it seems to not have any sustain or anything or maybe I'm just not used to the sound. Any advice is appreciated!
Thanks!

I play one of these kits. I've struggled with the snare quite a bit and got a good sound out of it buy putting a 2 ply coated Emporer on the batter side and a coated Ambassador on the snare side. I'm not sure exactly why, maybe 30 degree edges like beefier heads. Also, it seems the drum likes a medium-tight to tight tuning.

I'm just not a big fan of the sound of a mahogany snare so I don't use mine very often. If you are a "Must Have the Matching Snare" kind of guy, then this snare needs a little more love and money. A set of 20 strand PureSound snares and some 8 lug diecast hoops (if you can find them) would probably help.

BTW, I use an Emad Clear single ply on the bass and I get a nice thump out of the drum. I use the smaller of the two included muffle rings and sometimes none at all. I keep my stock reso intact with no porting and I get a decent thump with a relatively "round" tone. Personally I don't want a lot of sustain in my bass drum sounds.

[branflakes992]

Ok thanks for the advice it helps a lot. Yea I'm probably going to use a different snare. Stock snares are very hard to tune most of the time anyway. I'll experiment with the muffling on the emad head a little and see what works best, it's weird to tune such a small bass drum I just need to get used to it I suppose. Thanks again!

[TTNW]

Ok thanks for the advice it helps a lot. Yea I'm probably going to use a different snare. Stock snares are very hard to tune most of the time anyway. I'll experiment with the muffling on the emad head a little and see what works best, it's weird to tune such a small bass drum I just need to get used to it I suppose. Thanks again!

On the bass drum tuning, try a tighter tuning than you normally would on a bigger drum. My Cat Jazz kit is my practice kit and I absolutely love the sound. When I have taken this kit to play out and mic'd it, everybody just can't believe the big sound you can get out of little drums.

What finish did you get? I have the white pearl and I wish I had gotten the natural finish but it wasn't available when I bought the kit.