1966 Champagne sparkle round badge
Gretsch Renown Purewood Hickory.
Was doing a bit of recording using 2 x CAD M179 condenser mike's. Alesis iodock, iPad 3 and Auria(iPad DAW).
Kona, I must say those are terribly desired drums. You hit the jack with that Birdland type reproduction (despite the chrome hardware). Now they are orphan drums no more. I see you stripped out the cocktail drum you bought some months ago. I hope you still got those 50's gold sparkle bass drum and floor tom. Great Gretsch parafernalia. Congratulations.
even after buying the second 10 tom for my set I have decided to go small, so I am now at 1 up and 2 down. Gretsch Brooklyn snare, 12 inch, 14 and 16. tired of trying to do too much and will work on simpler things.
Gretsch Orphan Cadillac Green Shellpack
THE DRUMS:
All 3ply 50's shells
9x13 original (54-58?) Cadillac Green
Bass Drum 22" 1951 (stamped in shell)
Floor Tom 16" 1953 (stamped)
Snare 6.5x14 1951 (stamped
THE PAINT:
The rack tom is original - I took it into a local paint suppier and he matched a paint as close as possible. It was difficult (his words) but I think he did a fine job.
A local automotive painter painted the shells and bd hoops. I did not want the original drum painted of course. It was very difficult to match the original drum because Gretsch painted over a clear Nitron plastic and the drum reflects the light accordingly.
The rack tom has all 24K gold hardware and I was going to plate all the other drums but decided not to sell the house and do that haha. I have all the era correct hardware - most original and some era correct. I chose to use the new Brooklyn Series 302 StickChopper hoops for the toms and low profile die-cast stickchopper hoops on the snare drum.
I have a Jimmy Pratt mute, a diamond cymbal mount and a rail tom mount but I can not bring myself to drill holes in this beautiful virgin bass drum. Yes - there were not mount or mute holes drilled on this 1950 Gretsch 3ply drum. I don't think there are many of these out there so it is staying like this ....for now.
It is a ton of fun to play. I will be tucking calfhide heads on the kit at some point but for now the bd has an EMAD, the snare has Gretsch Permatone, the Rack G2/G1 and Remo on the Floor.........it's just what I had in my stash....all except the EMAD - I bought that last week - I love the feel of them so I stuck with what works for me.