Gretsch - Maple or Ash?

A difference of a hundred pounds - what else is the difference, i have read that both give a very good sound when tuned correctly and not to worry as you will not have reliability problems with Gretsch kits - however other people have said that the wood your kit is made from makes a huge difference - can anyone advise me on this??? thanks, also any experience of the Gretsch Cataline kits would be great! thanks.
 
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you will not have reliability with Gretsch kits

Did you mean to say you won't have reliability problems? Most Gretsch kits are very reliable. As for the different woods, most will produce a different sound but not be different with regard to quality or reliability.
 
The "big three" woods are mahogany, maple, and birch. Mahogany is best with low end pitches, birch is sharper, and better with high end pitches, and maple is the best of both worlds. I'd personally go for the maple, and if your decision lies between the Cat. Ash and the Cat. maple, I'd get the Catalina Maple. I've heard really great things about their value.
 
If you have the funds I'd say go for BUBINGA renowns!!!!
 
So this is pointing me towards the Maple kit then - looks like i may be saving for a bit longer yet.....

any good points about ash - or is it a case or listen to the kit in a store to make my mind up about whether it is worth investing in at all.

- thought i might add that i am currently playing a Yamaha Rydeen [ my first kit - was a bargain of eBay ] and if internet sources are reliable this is a mahogany kit. Should I just stick with this - it sounds okay as far as i am concerned but the attraction of moving on to bigger and better things and the low prices which are around at the moments is making me lean towards replacing it..... do i just stick with what i've got?
 
Well, not all mahogany is created equal, you see.

When a kit is made from Mahogany and it costs $10000000, then it's real mahogany. The thing is, most kits use a lower quality mahogany, which, obviously, isn't as good. The choice lies with you man, and don't forget to check out craigslist. If you look hard enough, you can find some great deals. Case-in-point- Gruntersdad (and hopefully me soon!).
 
Well obviously this is cheap mahogany, I cottoned on to how much mahogany furniture costs and how my kit doesn't look or cost anything like that... anyway, thanks for writing that down, I suppose that means it is cheap mahogany blended with something. So I should just get a new kit after all then... I like that, so which one should it be then !!!?!?!? Any other suggestions which I could possibly afford are welcome!
 
How did you decide to go with Gretsch? Reliability has been mentioned a few times in this thread. I must tell you honestly that I found Gretsch to have some quirks. And apparently, these quirks are well known amongst professional drummers.

For example, the screws they use to hold the lugs on are known to strip out. You might be playing the snare one day and suddenly hear screws rolling around in your drum! When you go to screw them back in, you will find that this is impossible because they're stripped out. This happened to me personally. When I mentioned it to the guys at the local drum shop, they said "Yeah, that's a Gretsch thing." You might also find that the badges on the toms rattle and buzz every time you hit the drums. I mentioned this one to a colleague of mine who used to play Gretsch. Without missing a beat, he said "Yeah, I know. You gotta take those badges off or tape them down."

So...I'm not saying that everyone's experience with Gretsch will be the same as mine was. It seems that Gruntersdad has had very good experiences with them. On the other hand, when I started having trouble, the professionals around me seemed to know exactly what I was talking about.

By the way, keep in mind that I am describing my experience with a top-of-the-line USA Custom which cost several thousand dollars. It was one of the most expensive kits I ever heard of. So, I would really be cautious about buying one of their lower end sets!
 
Thanks, that's interesting, did it happen after having had the kit for a while or not - can anyone else relate to this having happened??? Is it the sort of thing you can avoid by seeing the kit you are going to buy? The only other reason i was looking at buying Gretsch in oppose to the Mapex equivalent is that this kit is £100 less, which is a lot for my budget!!!
 
Thanks, that's interesting, did it happen after having had the kit for a while or not - can anyone else relate to this having happened??? Is it the sort of thing you can avoid by seeing the kit you are going to buy? The only other reason i was looking at buying Gretsch in oppose to the Mapex equivalent is that this kit is £100 less, which is a lot for my budget!!!

No, these things came up almost immediately. Plus, what I described so far was only the tip of the iceberg. In the 6 years I owned the kit, the snare tension knob broke a handful of times. The guys at the repair shop kept pleading with me to pull the thing off and put on a different one by a different company. I refused to do it because I wanted to preserve the collector value of the drum.

Here's my favorite: When I first got the set, I tried to tune the bass drum. The tension rods were extremely hard to turn. I took them out thinking maybe they needed to be lubricated. Instead, I found that they were shaped like bananas! It was REALLY absurd. And again...this was a set that cost many thousands of dollars.

Like I said before, it seems that some people have good experiences with Gretsch. Gruntersdad seems to be one such person. I just felt like I should tell you my story before you went out and spent your money!
 
and you don't think that this could just be a case of having a one of kit that was a bit dodgy when it came out the factory?
 
and you don't think that this could just be a case of having a one of kit that was a bit dodgy when it came out the factory?
Look, many people LOVE Gretsch drums. There must be a reason for that. I'm not trying to bash the company. I'm just telling you my honest personal experience with them. Maybe my story was a fluke. On the other hand, as I already mentioned, the professionals around me seemed to know exactly what I was talking about when I would tell them this stuff.
 
Thanks very much, I am grateful for a different opinion, what i will do is talk to some other people, I have opened another thread about Gretsch reliability so we shall see what comes out of that. I shall go warily on the Gretsch front, I am looking back at Mapex and possibly Tama now... I know that I want to get a kit for a good price that will last me, it seems that Gretsch may only do half of that so I shall research them a bit more. Thanks again.
 
Thanks very much, I am grateful for a different opinion, what i will do is talk to some other people, I have opened another thread about Gretsch reliability so we shall see what comes out of that. I shall go warily on the Gretsch front, I am looking back at Mapex and possibly Tama now... I know that I want to get a kit for a good price that will last me, it seems that Gretsch may only do half of that so I shall research them a bit more. Thanks again.

Best of luck to you. Check out Ludwig as well. They're another classic drum brand, and they have sets that are reasonably priced. When I got rid of the Gretsch, I asked the drum repair guy "What drums do you get asked to repair LEAST often? What are the drums that would never have problems like the ones we saw with my Gretsch set?" He said "Ludwig."
 
Thanks, I shall, the problem is my budget, The Gretsch Catalina Maple kit was going for £450 and I really don't want to spend any more on a drum kit... yet.
 
Check out these two (assuming the bidding price doesn't shoot up):

Renown 1.

Renown 2.

Renowns offer great value, and if you can win the bid under what your price limit is, then I am 99.99% sure that you'll love the kit.
 
Double-post (sorry)

Of course, it just hit that you're in the UK, so I'm not sure about the shipping price. Look around on craigslist too if those don't float your boat.
 
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