Let's see your Gretsch kits (saved the best for last!)

Just bought my first Gretsch kit. A Catalina club jazz in white pearl.
All though a bugdet priced kit, I am very inpressed.
The Toms and bass sound amaizing, not so inpressed with the snare. Might have to get my Yam birch custom snare out. With out looking at it to closely it sounds like they haven't cut the snare beds properly but thats Taiwan for you.
I have a couple of gigs over the week end and then in the studio for two weeks so I'll get some photo's on here soon.
Cool! First off welcome to DW!
First Gretsch is prolly not gonna be your last! The Club jazz is a great gigging kit!
I have even done some recording with one!
The snare drum favors a higher tuning. Great rim shots, but it rings alittle. I like the snares from the Cat Jazz kits!
I have a Club mod kit that I am messing with the snare and general tuning on as well. Could be the snare bed?!?
I am thinking its more of a tweeking the drum issue!
Welcome to the Gretsch family..and let's see those pix! and a review would be cool as well!
 
The snares on the club jazz kit seem to be their weakest point. It's also the bottom head and wires to blame, i've never seen a thinner head!..I should really get some pics of mine up..
Same with the Mod 6.5x14 snare.
Yes! pix NOW! lol
 
My Gretsch kits. Hope you like.
New Classic-22x18, 12x9, 16x16, Gretsch 14x16.5 10 Ply Maple Snare.
Renown Maple-22x20, 12x9, 14x14, 16x16, Renown Maple Snare 14x6.5.
20" or 22" K Ride
14" K/Z Hi-hats or 14" Quick Beats
18" K Custom Dark Crash
19" K Dark Thin Crash
20" K Crash-Ride
 

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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

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

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here is the new floor tom mounts much better than the 70's gear

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the new spurs with replacement hoops also done in the silver lacquer.


i'll post some more pictures later on once I get everything set up.

Great job. I really like this kit!
 
My Gretsch kits. Hope you like.
New Classic-22x18, 12x9, 16x16, Gretsch 14x16.5 10 Ply Maple Snare.
Renown Maple-22x20, 12x9, 14x14, 16x16, Renown Maple Snare 14x6.5.
20" or 22" K Ride
14" K/Z Hi-hats or 14" Quick Beats
18" K Custom Dark Crash
19" K Dark Thin Crash
20" K Crash-Ride
Great kits drumac!
The NCs are very classy! I am also a huge fan of the Renown Mods as well!
The slate sparkle lacquer on those beauties is lookin killer under the stage lights!
 
I have to work on the tuning on the entire set.

(snip)

The kit needs more tweeking than I expected..so far, I'm less than impressed.

It'll get there, just be patient and have fun experimenting.

The bearing edges on mine needed a bit of wax to get the head gliding, maybe try that if you haven't already.
 
I've had a chance to have a good look at the Catalina jazz snare drum.
I was right, there has not been a snare bed cut in the bottom bearing edge.
That is criminal. everyone knows that a good snare is all in the bearing edge's and the snare bed.

Has anyone else noticed this and have you fixed the problem. I am interested in know what size's the snare beds on some of the top end Gretsch snares are so I can cut it my self.
 
If you had done your research you would have found most companies don’t cut a snare bed in their low to moderately priced drums. I even have a high end Gretsch and Sonor maple with no bed and these drums sound great with proper tuning. The snare bed while not a bad thing is not a necessary thing to have on a good sounding drum anymore. I played a Catalina jazz snare in a Guitar Center and it sounded much better than the DW snare setting right beside it. Was the DW poorly tuned? Most likely but the little cat sounded awesome non the less.
 
If you had done your research you would have found most companies don’t cut a snare bed in their low to moderately priced drums. I even have a high end Gretsch and Sonor maple with no bed and these drums sound great with proper tuning. The snare bed while not a bad thing is not a necessary thing to have on a good sounding drum anymore. I played a Catalina jazz snare in a Guitar Center and it sounded much better than the DW snare setting right beside it. Was the DW poorly tuned? Most likely but the little cat sounded awesome non the less.

Thats very interresting.
do you have any recomendations for tuning? I would like to get this thing sounding good
 
Re: Gig pics from this past Saturday night

Some gig pics of my Gretsch Renown (autumn burst) kit, set-up in a 4-pc configuration. Cymbals are all Zildjian: 13" K hats, 16" K Custom dark crash, 17" A Custom crash, 20" A Custom ping ride. Snare is a Ludwig Acrolite Black Galaxy

I was backing an artist named Brant Christopher (www.myspace.com/brantchristopher) down at a show in Vero Beach, FL

On to the pics....

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09May_Brant_Christopher_Vero_1077_IJFR%20(Medium).jpg

Sweet Kit! That finish is beautiful. Im sure that it sounds tremendous. How do you like the sound of the 17" A Custom Crash? does it cut?
 
all nice sets. i just bought a cat club jazz a little while ago and after the heads were broken in it didn't sound half bad but i'm still going to replace them with fiberskyns. anyway it's a pretty good all around kit. easily adjustable. the parts i like the best are the 2 toms. you can make those guys sing. I'll post some pics later
 
It'll get there, just be patient and have fun experimenting.

The bearing edges on mine needed a bit of wax to get the head gliding, maybe try that if you haven't already.
I actually went one better and smoothed out the bearing edges with 220 gt paper as well as the shell interiors and applied 2 coats of Minwax rub on polyurathane to both the interiors and the edges. I also went with Aquarian Studio x batters on the toms and a Hienergy snare batter. Big difference! I chucked the Attack thin skin 3 bass head I was running and slapped on the stock head. It actually sounds better now that the edges and interiors are sealed and smoothed out. The kick is really a powerhouse at a medium tension!
The little bit of work involved here was a big improvement IMHO. I am still in the process of replacing the stock resos on toms and snare to something Aquarian and the kick drum batter to an Aquarian SK1. Great sounding kit!!!

Now to dump that tribal tatoo ugliness!
I'm thinking of going with a silver sparkle wrap!?!?
 
Silver sparkle would look sharp.

I'm thinking about going ahead and sanding and sealing my kit like you'd done....but I have some studio time coming up at the end of the month. I might just do the bearing edges for now.
 
My Gretsch kits. Hope you like.
New Classic-22x18, 12x9, 16x16, Gretsch 14x16.5 10 Ply Maple Snare.
Renown Maple-22x20, 12x9, 14x14, 16x16, Renown Maple Snare 14x6.5.
20" or 22" K Ride
14" K/Z Hi-hats or 14" Quick Beats
18" K Custom Dark Crash
19" K Dark Thin Crash
20" K Crash-Ride

haha I love what you did with the floor tom head!
 
^^ Gretsch now has a 5 pc Club mod in a 1up 2 down configuration in silver/black sparkle fade finish. Looks pretty sweet!

GretschCatClubmod5pc.jpg

I like this. I like the custom look to it (sjc, ocdp). I be tempted to swap the lugs and rims around though and have the black hardware at the darker end of the fade and the silver hardware at the silver end of the fade.
 
I like this. I like the custom look to it (sjc, ocdp). I be tempted to swap the lugs and rims around though and have the black hardware at the darker end of the fade and the silver hardware at the silver end of the fade.
That was my thought too!
 
Gretsch is alittle on the slow side when updating their product releases.
Check the site again and look for the new for '09 link.
I am pretty sure that the black/silver fade 5pc Cat Club Mod is available worldwide.
 
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