View Full Version : A 1958 GRETSCH RESTORATION PROJECT
I've almost finished restoring these drums.
Gretsch 1420bd, 5.514snare, 812 rack & 1414 floor. All drums are 3ply except the floor - it's 6ply. The drums were bought new in 1961 therefore the floor tom was made in 58 or no later than 61 - the rack, snare & bass were made in 58 or before (Gretsch switched from 3 to 6ply in 58 and started to add silver sealer at that time).
I'm still waiting for a few parts and heads. All the heads on the drums in the photos here are used & temporary except the bd - it's a new Evans EMAD.
GRUNTERSDAD
11-12-2009, 04:50 PM
WOW..That is a keeper for sure. Nice job Kona
Mark Ahle
11-12-2009, 08:03 PM
Oh man dude thats just gorgeous.
-MA
RollingStone000
11-12-2009, 08:15 PM
What's that snare off to the left in your first pic? That's a nice looking drum as well.
harryconway
11-12-2009, 09:01 PM
Beautiful job....................................
.altamont.
11-12-2009, 09:05 PM
Snare on the left looks like a Tama Starclassic 14x8" to me.
Skulmoski
11-12-2009, 09:09 PM
Oh, that's nice; I'm all thumbs when it comes to many DIY projects. Is all the hardware original (including replacement parts?
Hats off to you Kona! Enjoy!
GJS
denisri
11-13-2009, 12:20 AM
Hi
Nice job..I bet they sound great!!!! Denis
Kothlow
11-13-2009, 03:19 AM
They do look great, I hope to have the same kind of kit someday,.. very jealous
bobdadruma
11-13-2009, 04:04 AM
Beautiful job! They look new! Stunning kit!
I can't wait to see the project completed.
Thank for all the nice complements everyone.
Skulmoski.....Most of the hardware is original except for some parts I had to get off eBay. I'm buying stuff from the 50's to keep it as original as possible. However, I did just today win a LudwigxSlingerland bd cymbal stand. Mine works okay but the top is damaged and I have to rethread it.
Yes - that is a Tama Starclassic - one of my very best drums. It's very sensitive so I don't talk about it much - haha.
This is one beautiful sounding kit........and I haven't even got my natural calf heads on it yet - or even the new plastic ones I've ordered. It's taking me a little getting used to the Ludwig Speed King Hi-Hat and BD Pedal but I kind of like the challenge.
I will post another photo or two when I get the new heads on and ...........the woodblock there in the photo I've restored/changed. I've removed the Red Mahogany, sanded it and applied many layers of Tung Oil. It's dried and got the first of 2-3 coats of Oil-Based clear gloss Varathane on as of tonight. The Varathane will give it a nice hard protective surface.
I'd like to mention that the Nomad fiber cases that came with the kit might be the oldest of their kind in exsistance and quite valuable - not my words - the builder told me that via email. I got in touch with him (in Ontario) just to ask a question about them and he was really excited to see them. I'm carefully restoring them now - cleaning and rust removal (rivets) only.
One of the cymbals that came with the kit..........lumped in with a cardboard box of parts.......is one of those old K's (not a Constantinople) and quite rare because of the size (18.5"). It has an old stamp. And man is it a nice sounding cymbal ! I have more than a dozen Istanbul Agop cymbals and they sound great, but this one K is so different and so good sounding - it's hard to discribe..kind of like those very nice cymbals you hear in a symphony. It's worth about $800 usd right now and appreciates 15%/yr I'm told. That one cymbal is worth about as much as I paid for everything. I had no idea.........
Sorry for the long email, but I get carried away with all this and I thought some of you might like to read a little about this stuff.
Cheers,
UP-DATE on the restore project:
Ray Ayotte has been helping with this restore project via email.
I sent him a photo of my snare batter edge - I was having a concern with a nick and dip there. I just asked if he does bearing edges. He said he does. I thought this was going to be sometime in the distant future. It was Wednesday and I said I get Fridays off - he said "Friday's good - bring all your drums over I'll look at them." Wow - pretty sweet!
He worked on them and they are in beautiful shape - he does awesome work and is such a great guy. I feel very lucky to have such an experience drum builder work on these drums.
The drums sounded great before he worked on them - even with the old heads, but now the heads will fit a lot better and they will be much easier to tune.
I have to say another thing here:
I broke my Micro Sensitive strainer for the snare drum - on Sunday. They are one of Gretsch's not-so-good designs I hear and don't hold up well. But it is part of the 58 kit and I want to try to keep as much of the original-type gear as I can. I was getting ready to go on eBay again and I sent an email to Ray just to ask if he knows anywhere I could get a part or the whole strainer. They're scarce and I just bought this one on eBay for $200. He said "anything can be fixed" and to send it over. It's going out in today's mail!
I'm still waiting for my plastic and calf-hide heads - they're in "Mail-dom" somewhere.
I'll post some more photos when I get closer to having everything together the way I want it.
Ray will be making drums - again - soon. From everything I know and have heard about "Ray Ayotte Era" Ayotte drums - Ray's new line of drums will be well worth lining up for.
Watch for them! And - knowing Ray - he will have some very interesting inovations to make us sit up an take notice of the drums......
I got a couple more heads today - including this nice Ebony Bass Reso.
I'm using my kit snare as a tom right now. My sensitive Micro Sensitive Gretsch snare switch is not working at the moment. This Tama snare fits in nicely for the time being.
The second photo is closer to what the colour is.............
criz p. critter
11-27-2009, 02:49 AM
That is one gorgeous kit Kona. And how great is it that you got the one and only Ray Ayotte to cut the edges! Congrats!
That is one gorgeous kit Kona. And how great is it that you got the one and only Ray Ayotte to cut the edges! Congrats!
Thanks - Yes - and good to read you again cris p - I think you were one of the very first people to reply to my first thread when I signed up on this Forum back in 07 - it's funny how one remembers things like that.
I'm really enjoying these drums.
It was good of Ray to offer to do that for me. I'm pretty excited that he'll be making drums again. There will be a lot of happy people in "drum land" when he starts taking orders.
criz p. critter
11-28-2009, 02:10 AM
I had seriously considered getting a Taye Tour Pro kit, back when Ray was still with the company. They seemed like killer drums for the price. It was pretty much a tie between the Taye and some Renowns. But then the Purewood Mahogany kit came out, and the choice became a no-brainer!
Following your posts of late, looks like you are building up quite a collection! Hope you still take time to play your Purewoods!
Derek
11-28-2009, 04:11 AM
Wow! That's a beautiful kit Kona. Looking forward to seeing the finished product. Congrats.
I had seriously considered getting a Taye Tour Pro kit, back when Ray was still with the company. They seemed like killer drums for the price. It was pretty much a tie between the Taye and some Renowns. But then the Purewood Mahogany kit came out, and the choice became a no-brainer!
Following your posts of late, looks like you are building up quite a collection! Hope you still take time to play your Purewoods!
I haven't played the Purewoods for a few months now - not since I bought these 58's. All my time is consumed with restoring them - it's my first kit restore. On top of that I completely renovated the drum room so I packed everything up to do that - and I only had room to play my Valje congas - that was refreshing. I don't have room for two kits in this room ..........maybe I should knock a wall down and expand........haha - could do it.
This little 3ply kit is so much fun to play and it sounds so nice - I can't wait to play them at every chance I get. The K Zildjian sizzle ride (have to put the complimentary rivet in that Zildjian sent me - nice of em) is the best sounding cymbal I have ever played - hands down - no question! I have 15 nice cymbals but this one is my favorite by far. It came with the drums and I've been told lately that it's worth some $$$ - I wouldn't sell it for $3,000 - no kidding. Because I know I'd never get a chance to buy another like it. I just really lucked out when the young lady I bought the drums off said "this cardboard box of stuff's included." I did not know the value of what was in there for a while - until I had stuff sorted out and cleaned. The "goodie" box has lots of nice old gear in there. But I'm ramblin on here.............
Wow! That's a beautiful kit Kona. Looking forward to seeing the finished product. Congrats.
Thanks for the comment - and yes - I will post some finish photos. I will be taking my time tucking the calf heads onto the unfinished wood flesh-hoops though. So it will be a while before I have the drums finished with those heads on. I will have White American Calf on both toms reso & batter heads and the snare batter. I'm leaving the new EMAD batter and Gretsch Ebany reso heads on the bass though - for now. If I'm totally sold on the calf hide heads I may do the bass too.
Artstar
11-28-2009, 01:36 PM
Very cool Kona. That Gold Sparkle? with the die cast looks so stellar. Have you played or do you own the modern USA Customs?
Very cool Kona. That Gold Sparkle? with the die cast looks so stellar. Have you played or do you own the modern USA Customs?
Yes - it's Gold Sparkle. Some call it Glitter but they didn't have Glitter then and the experts tell me if the finish has "little hexagon pieces" it's Sparkle not Glitter - so - Sparkle it is!
I don't own the modern Custom USA Gretsch. When I was thinking about getting back into drumming (a kit) after being away from it for 30+yrs I could have bought any shellpack. Not that I'm rich by any means, but I was going to treat myself after all these years with a nice Gretsch kit. I bought one new in 1969 and sold it - and my soul haha - in 1976. I sat behind, and almost bought, a nice Rosewood Lacquer finished USA Custom kit. The very kit Cindy Blackman used it a Clinic. They were very nice drums indeed and I was impressed by the quality and sound. There was a nice Sutdio Maple Taye kit and a Yamaha Oak Custom in Red set up on the floor as well........pretty nice drums all of them. But, I settled on the Purewood African Mahogany 6pc Renown shellpack and have not regretted it one bit.
I've wanted an old Gretsch kit for a long time - one from the 50's or 60's. Everytime I'd see one to die for it would be so far away that viewing live was out of the question - and I was only window shopping anyway most of the time. I was viewing Craigslist late this past Sept. and I could not believe my eyes.........here in little ole Nanaimo was a 1961 (advertised as 61) Gretsch 4pc. Long story....sort of short.....I bought em right away and they turned out to be 1958 - or earlier - drums (the floor tom is 6ply so it could be 58,59,60 or 61 - the drums were bought new in 1961.........the 3ply snare, rack & bass had to be made in 58 or earlier - lucky me!).
Artstar
11-28-2009, 11:10 PM
I was viewing Craigslist late this past Sept. and I could not believe my eyes.........here in little ole Nanaimo was a 1961 (advertised as 61) Gretsch 4pc. Long story....sort of short.....I bought em right away and they turned out to be 1958 - or earlier - drums (the floor tom is 6ply so it could be 58,59,60 or 61 - the drums were bought new in 1961.........the 3ply snare, rack & bass had to be made in 58 or earlier - lucky me!).
What a cool story !! Love that set !!
What a cool story !! Love that set !!
The story is even better via the long version.
Part of the long story:
One of the rusty ole cymbals in a falling-apart cardboard box that came with the kit turned out to be a K Zildjian - old stamp - a super nice 18.5" (rare size) sizzle ride! The hats are 50's A Zildjian 14's and they have that nice hiss to them that I like.
The drum sizes are small and more sought after - so I'm told by the collectors.
I contacted the owner of Nomad Cases and he told me I may have the oldest set of Normad Drum Cases in existance and may be valuable - but he didn't tell me anything more than that at the time.
Coincidences:
The owner bought the drums new in 1961 and died at the age of 61 - his name was Gary - same as mine. The seller, his daughter, was living at the other end of the City at the time I answered her add. One of the reasons she was selling the drums was she been moving around in the past few years and she was tired of keeping track of them. It turned out - this time - she was moving down the street from me!
Thirteen years ago the City was giving out trees - not much bigger than "whips." They had dozens of varieties - hundreds to choose from - first 300 get a free tree. I liked the scented leaves and feature bark on the Liquidambar tree - the leaves turn a nice red and yellow in the fall - maple-leaf like. It's the only actual tree I have in my yard. It's a fair size now. It turns out that the sap-wood in that tree is the very wood - American Sweet Gum Liquidambar styraciflua that Gretsch used for the inner layer of my drums! I had no idea of that fact. Ray Ayotte says he'll take the tree in 10" and 20" long billets (for drum making use) - he's just kidding of course.
An update to my on-going restore project:
I got all the calf-hide heads tucked just before Christmas. I bought unfinished wood flesh-hoops so I could make custom fitted heads for my snare batter and both heads on the toms. The whole process of fitting and glueing the hoops and tucking the heads went pretty good. I fashioned a "tucking tool" from an ordinary teaspoon and it worked beautifully - just like in Rob Cook's Calf-hide tucking instructional DVD.
The drums sound amazing - they sounded amazing with the new plastic heads on them, but they're even better sounding (to me) with these natural heads. The drums have that MoTown high tom sound if I want AND they "growl" when I have em tuned low. The bass I'm leaving with plastic heads on for now. The EMAD batter and new-for-2009 Gretsch 10 o'clock Logo resonant heads are working out great - for now.
I've been using my 8x14 Tama StarClassic (G Series) snare with the kit. The Micro Sensitive snare switch - I bought on eBay recently - gave out (it's very "sensitive" you know).
But - I have been playing the Gretsch snare with the kit a lot even though I don't have a snare switch for it.........I just love the sound of these drums!
Me & the kit as of yesterday.........thumpin around on the calf-hide heads.
I installed three of the eight rivets so far in the K Zildjian ride. Noel at Heartbeat Percussion sent me some nice brass (Istanbul) rivets.They're wooking out nicely - thanks Noel!
AND....a special "low-light" photo........cool - haha (tryin for that "lounge" atmosphere in the drum room).
alparrott
12-29-2009, 07:12 AM
This kit is a stunner. What a labor of love! Hope you enjoy them for many, many years to come. (How long has Charlie Watts played his Gretsch kit...?)
Concrete Pete
12-29-2009, 07:20 AM
Hey Kona,
Man, you should be proud, and pleased as punch. That's one hell of a nice kit, and great resto.
Now ya gotta do us all a big favor--Record you playing them and post it here, so we can hear how good that kit sounds....PLEEEEEEEZE!
C'mon, man, don't tease us!
Cheers,
C. P.
zepplin92
12-29-2009, 08:32 AM
That is an amazing looking kit congrats, your setup looks great. I concur with Concrete Pete about the soundfiles, i am sure the tone is spectacular.
Cheers,
This kit is a stunner. What a labor of love! Hope you enjoy them for many, many years to come. (How long has Charlie Watts played his Gretsch kit...?)
Thanks for the compliments. It has been - and still is - an interesting adventure restoring these drums. I learnt a lot more about drums and met a whole lot of interesting people on-line that I otherwise would not have met.
Charlie Watts:
He's been playing this one Gretsch kit since the early 70's - he says in this interview..
interesting....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PZug4854sI
Thanks guys.
I will see what I can do about getting a sound/video file together. I don't have any recording equipment - just a low tech Canon camera with video function and sterio pickup. We'll see..............
Gawd - it won't be like some of the guys on here........there are some "Monster" players here.......not that I'm going to be comparing.......you might - lol. No - seriously - even if it's just an explanation with some basic sound demos. They do sound like old Gretsch drums - no kidding - haha.
That is an amazing looking kit congrats, your setup looks great. I concur with Concrete Pete about the soundfiles, i am sure the tone is spectacular.
Cheers,
Hey Kona,
Man, you should be proud, and pleased as punch. That's one hell of a nice kit, and great resto.
Now ya gotta do us all a big favor--Record you playing them and post it here, so we can hear how good that kit sounds....PLEEEEEEEZE!
C'mon, man, don't tease us!
Cheers,
C. P.
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