Gretsch Catalina Club Street

taiko

Senior Member
Here is a review of the Gretsch Catalina Club Street. I purchased this about a month ago and have gigged with it once. Overall, I am happy with this drum set. The kit consists of a 6” x 10” tom, 11” x 13” floor tom, 12.5” – 14” x 16” bass, and 5” x 13” snare. The bass drum has metal hoops and is unusually because it comes in two halves and can be opened up in the middle to change the depth and sound.

I play jazz and use this kit in a trio, for which it is perfect.

Quality and Construction

In general, the drum set is reasonably well-made for a relatively inexpensive kit ($599). The hardware is fine, if nothing spectacular. The bearing edges are all smooth and the fit in finish is generally good. The one odd thing is that the two halves of the bass drum don’t quite fit together right. This is a minor issue that is only noticeable when the drum is closed. I like the red sparkle wrap, which looks cool under lights.

Sound

The drums sound surprisingly good. The bass drum was quite a surprise. It has a deep strong sound with the drum open or closed. It dries out a bit when you open the drum. I have been impressed by the BD, which sounds better than a 14” x 18” on a custom made kit I had a while back. Toms both sound very good; I immediately replaced the batter heads with Aquarian Studio X heads, which work well on these drums. The snare sucks—a lot. It will take a fair amount of work to get the snare sounding good.

The drums are not particularly loud, which makes this kit great for small, acoustic clubs and coffee shops.

Portability

The best feature of this kit is that it is very small and easy to cart around. The drums are light and if Gretsch ever gets off its ass and makes the bags it advertises that are supposed to be designed for this kit available, it will be very easy to take to gigs.

Verdict

This is a great little kit for maximum portability that sounds good. It works very well for jazz and fits nicely into nice spaces. Good kit for the price.
 

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When you open the bass drum up, is it just an air gap of open space?

That's the way it looks in the pic.
 
Yes, that's what it is, just an air gap in the middle of the drum.
 
Not really sure how it affects the BD. Just wondering, is there a specific reason for the 27 in your username milesmetkodrums27 or is it just random?
 
Hi All - Joe from Gretsch here. I thought I would chime in. Thanks for the review Taiko. We appreciate your comments and your honesty. I did want to comment on the bags... Yes it has taken us a while to get them right. They are going into production now so look for them late summer. Once again, our apologies for the delay but we wanted to make sure the bags were right. Thanks again!
Joe
 
I thought it might be useful to write an update on the snare drum. I decided to see what I could do to improve the sound of the snare on this kit. I took the whole thing apart, used tung oil on the inside of the shell, lightly sanded the bearing edges so that they are actually smooth, and rubbed bees wax on the bearing edges. The snare no longer sounds like a 13 x 5 trash can--I would say that it is adequate, but not much better than that. The last thing I am going to try is new Canopus snares. I'm probably putting too much work into a drum that simply isn't going to sound good, but I kind of wanted to see what I could do with it.

Why does Gretsch bother to put these crappy snare drums with the Catalina Club kits? Otherwise, the kit sounds really nice, but the snare is a POS.
 
I thought it might be useful to write an update on the snare drum. I decided to see what I could do to improve the sound of the snare on this kit. I took the whole thing apart, used tung oil on the inside of the shell, lightly sanded the bearing edges so that they are actually smooth, and rubbed bees wax on the bearing edges. The snare no longer sounds like a 13 x 5 trash can--I would say that it is adequate, but not much better than that. The last thing I am going to try is new Canopus snares. I'm probably putting too much work into a drum that simply isn't going to sound good, but I kind of wanted to see what I could do with it.

Why does Gretsch bother to put these crappy snare drums with the Catalina Club kits? Otherwise, the kit sounds really nice, but the snare is a POS.
Don't go crazy with that snare. I went a similar route with the crappy snare from my Sonor Safari kit a few years ago. It is a waste of time and money to try to turn it around. Just use one of your good snare drums and save the original snare for possible resale with the kit if and when you ever do decide to sell it.
 
Of course I am using a good quality snare drum with the kit when gigging. I would only use the Gretsch snare as a back-up, anyway. But it was fun trying to see if I could make it sound better and I did. It didn't cost much--maybe about $10 altogether (excluding the new snares I bought, but they can be used on another 13" drum, so it doesn't matter). It was an interesting challenge and I sort of succeeded. It's better than it was. Now I have a high-end 13 x 5 trash can...
 
Hi All - Joe from Gretsch here. I thought I would chime in. Thanks for the review Taiko. We appreciate your comments and your honesty. I did want to comment on the bags... Yes it has taken us a while to get them right. They are going into production now so look for them late summer. Once again, our apologies for the delay but we wanted to make sure the bags were right. Thanks again!
Joe
Thank you Joe for showing interest in this thread. it is good to see that folks from Gretsch monitor what people say about their products. It shows that you are truly interested in listening to your customers. :)
 
Now I have a high-end 13 x 5 trash can...
That is exactly what I wound up with with my Sonor snare. except mine was a high end 5x14 trash can. I used the quality stuff that I bought for the Safari snare to upgrade other drums that I owned that were worth upgrading.
 
Same here sold my Safari snare (never even unwrapped it) for about $70 bucks ...
and bought a like new Ludwig Black Acrolite to replace it for $80 if I remember ... perfect match.
 
I was looking at the tom mount on that kit and I was thinking that it would really be nice if a sliding mount could be developed that would be part of the bass drum opening hardware and also allow the tom to slide closer and farther from the drummer.
it occurred to me that when you open the bass drum, the tom is moved forward because the current mount is on the front section of the bass drum.
Just a thought.
 
I have a Natal 5 x 13 snare that I have been using with the Gretsch kit. It is a maple snare and sounds very nice and works as a great replacement for the trash can that came with it.
 
Hi folks

I'm seriously considering one of these.
I recently converted my old Premier 16x16 floortom to a kick using the Pearl Jungle Gig adaptor, and have been using the 12 & 13 toms on cymbal stands via multiclamps and L rods, in the classic 4-piece configuration.

I like that this kit has all the necessary tom and cymbal mounts, and that you can muck about with the bass drum depth.

I'm sorry to hear the snare is so awful! I do have a Gretsch 12x7 maple snare (Natural Maple Gloss Lacquer) which would probably do.

Really need to find out when these promised bags/cases are going to be available in the UK.

I seem to be doing a lot of these small setup and teardown gigs lately, so even a standard Bop kit is a pain in the backside to transport,

Walking away from the gig with just 2/3 bags in one go, is a dream of mine!
 
Thanks for the thorough review. Enjoy that great Gretsch sound. Peace and goodwill.
 
Congrats. Those are nice kits. My local shop has one. The toms sounded great. I will say though, that I find it interesting that you loved the kick drum. I found it to be the weakest part of the kit. Did you put new heads on it? It sorta just sounded like a bitchslap when I heard it. I remember thinking to myself that it just had to sound better with a different batter. I dunno. Maybe it was just me.
 
As for the bass drum, I'm not sure I'd say I love it, but I have been surprised that it sounds quite good for such a small drum. I play jazz in a trio and it works well for my needs, particularly when I have to play in a very cramped space in a coffee shop or club. My regular gigging kit is a USA Custom in bop sizes, and obviously the Street is not at the same level, but it is surprisingly good for a relatively inexpensive kit.
 
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