70's gretsch restoration

[mcbike]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3396/3427177123_aed7b1988d_o.jpg
70's gretsch fully restored. covering removed, mounting holes patched up, lacquered with silver sparkle, and upgraded hardware with gibraltar style heavy duty spurs, and new gretsch floor tom legs and mounts. t-claws switched out to rods, notice the virgin bass drum, and tom mounts removed added a r.i.m.s mount.

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bass drum showing some of the finish and the stop sign badges

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3337/3427177185_8b1811b2ee_o.jpg
here is the new floor tom mounts much better than the 70's gear

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3334/3427177209_9ab4a8ff43_o.jpg
the new spurs with replacement hoops also done in the silver lacquer.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3583/3429351061_cd3b3fe578_o.jpg

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http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3601/3429348257_99fb1b2ed3_o.jpg

bass - 24"x14" aquarian batter evans emad resonant
tom - 13"x10" evans g1 batter g1 resonant
floor tom - 16"x16" evans g1 batter g1 resonant
snare - 14"x6.5" c&c 9 ply maple evans genera hd batter hazy 300 resonant

cymbals
14" zildjian quickbeat hi-hats
18" zildjian A custom crash
20" zildjian K dark custom ride
or
20" zildjian A custom ride

the sound is just incredible, last night at rehearsal my bass player said it sounds like each drum is sampled. the gretsch toms have such a low fundamental pitch they really sound amazing.

the finish is incredible too it's flawless i've never seen a sparkle lacquer this deep. incredible.

also i love the die-cast hoops. they are really heavy but they make tuning to easy! I want to put them on my snares now too.

[spirit]

Beautiful in every way mate!

[GRUNTERSDAD]

Welcome to the Gretsch group and what a wonderful job. That sparkle paint job is great.

[drumhead61]

WOW, that truly is a good looking kit great job!

[razorx]

That's an awesome refinish. I love the finish.

[mcbike]

i wish i had before pictures...

I think i'm going to do the same thing with my ludwigs after i find an 18" 3 ply b/o to go with them.

[2bsticks]

Very very nice, great job

[rmandelbaum]

FANTASTIC! http://robertmdrums.com/emocons/not%20worthy.gifhttp://robertmdrums.com/emocons/not%20worthy.gif

[eddiehimself]

I love the finish on this kit, looks like new. Very nice.

[Kramerica]

Love the finish. What did the finish cost? I have thought about refinishing my Starclassic Performers.

[SharkyBait911]

Thats amazing !! Well done !

[mcbike]

it's about $10 per inch of diameter roughly. so a 24" kick would be about 240 bucks. My local music shop did all the restoration and send it off to get finished but I asked them if I find an 18" tom they said it would be about $180 to get it painted to match.

you can shop around though. custom car painters can do this stuff too, and alot of motorcycle shops do this kind of work too. You just have to let them understand about the bearing edges and not to paint over them. It's alot of work and alot of labor to do a finish like this with lots of coats of lacquer and lots of sanding and sanding and buffing and waxing.

[theuntitleddrummer]

Looks great well done!

[mcbike]

http://www.martybellfinishing.com/

marty bell is the guy who does the finishing
contact him for price quotes. great work! I would recommend him to everybody.

[freebirdgdw]

Absolutely amazing mate. I dream of having a kit half as decent looking as that :)

[freebirdgdw]

I also didn't realise there was a market for Irish rock in Texas :P

[mcbike]

I also didn't realise there was a market for Irish rock in Texas :P

They can't get enough of it! we're the only band doing this kind of thing here but we are so busy! I think we did 22 shows in march. We go all over the u.s. though and we're going to ireland next year.

[GRUNTERSDAD]

After reading his site and his process, I wondered about the lacquer etc etc. He is using automtive urethane and clear coat which means he doesn't have to go thru all of the coats of lacquer and sanding and buffing. As he says the process requires thinner coats of product which in turn allows the wood to resonate.