Gretsch Renown - thinking about buying

Kobld

Member
Went into Guitar Center and played the Gretsch Marquee Series, which is very similar (correct me if I'm wrong), to the renown,

The kit is up for like $1300 and I figure I may as well get a renown if I'm gonna fork out that kind of cash.

I just looked on ebay and found this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gretsch-Ren...ut-Burst-/171366241141?_trksid=p2054897.l4275

I would buy that in a second, but I'm conditioned to distrust prices that are too good to be true.

It says it's from Cascio Interstate Music?

Anyone bought drums from these people?

I've heard some pretty negative things, but if I could get a brand new renown for a grand, hell, i donno.
 
I've purchased hardware, bags, etc. and even a Renown snare. Never a full set.

My personal experience has been fine with them. But again, I have never transacted anything big with them. I leave that for Maxwells and a local shop.

Renowns are fabulous drums for the money. I say that as an owner of USA Customs, Brooklyns and New Classics. I own a Renown Groove set and it's a great sounding set.
 
Clearance renowns can be gotten for $1000. These are 2-3 year-old 'new' kits in discontinued finishes. The down side is that it's going to be next to impossible to obtain the 14" option tom later on in the same color/finish.

Used renowns sell for the $700-800 range. Here's one from GC for $850. The down side of used is that they often come without the tom-clamps, which come with the new kits. it's $100 for 3 of them. Make certain to ask for clamps if buying used. If you're dealing with GC, make certain they order 12.7's and not 10.5's.

These are wonderful kits. I purchased one about 3 months ago on clearance for approx $1000
 
renowns are nice drums.
Seems a little high relative to some other steals I have heard about on here.
but what was wrong with the nice maple Pearl shells you posted earlier? That seemed a good solid buy and you could go down on their price.
 
renowns are nice drums.
Seems a little high relative to some other steals I have heard about on here.
but what was wrong with the nice maple Pearl shells you posted earlier? That seemed a good solid buy and you could go down on their price.

The pearls are on craigslist still. I was thinking about going to see them soon. Also, I think those particular MMX's were from the 90's, which to me means more potential for damage and multiple owners. New kits are pretty sweet because the warranty. Still have to figure out if these Renowns have a warranty. Cascio music I'm finding out can be a big pain in the butt to return.
 
It says it's from Cascio Interstate Music?

Anyone bought drums from these people?

I've heard some pretty negative things, but if I could get a brand new renown for a grand, hell, i donno.

I've always found CASCIO to be on the up and up, reputable.
 
Cascio / Interstate Music is great. You should have no worries buying from them... However, that kit is overpriced considering these are the older models. You can probably find that exact same set for $300 cheaper somewhere else.
 
I LOVE Renowns. I have two of them in fact, one permanently set up in my rehearsal room, and one for gigging. I can't get over how good they sound, especially for the price. If that $999 set is within your budget and in a configuration you want, I say go for it. But as KamaK said, getting a matching 14" floor tom will be very tough (if you ever want one, that is). And I wouldn't worry about it being the discontinued version. The only real advantage to the new RN1s are the new tom mounts, which you can upgrade to at any point for around $50 per tom (I did just that on one of my kits).

BTW, I've ordered from Cascio and never had a problem.
 
I LOVE Renowns. I have two of them in fact, one permanently set up in my rehearsal room, and one for gigging. I can't get over how good they sound, especially for the price. If that $999 set is within your budget and in a configuration you want, I say go for it. But as KamaK said, getting a matching 14" floor tom will be very tough (if you ever want one, that is). And I wouldn't worry about it being the discontinued version. The only real advantage to the new RN1s are the new tom mounts, which you can upgrade to at any point for around $50 per tom (I did just that on one of my kits).

BTW, I've ordered from Cascio and never had a problem.

In honesty, $999 is close to the edge for my budget range, (got to buy hi-hat stand, hi-hats and a snare), but, like I said earlier, I played that marquee in the store and just fell in love. Figure I may as well get something that I really feel comfortable behind rather than just settling for a kit that I'm unsure about. What I've learned from these forums: drumming is all about personal preference (to a degree), especially with gear preference.
 
I played that marquee in the store and just fell in love.

Indeed. I have a feeling that the functional difference between the Marquee and the Renown is the cast-vs-flanged hoops. Both are wonderful drums and sound great.
 
Cascio / Interstate Music is great. You should have no worries buying from them... However, that kit is overpriced considering these are the older models. You can probably find that exact same set for $300 cheaper somewhere else.

Can you show us where? The kit in the first post is new, not used.
 
In honesty, $999 is close to the edge for my budget range, (got to buy hi-hat stand, hi-hats and a snare), but, like I said earlier, I played that marquee in the store and just fell in love. Figure I may as well get something that I really feel comfortable behind rather than just settling for a kit that I'm unsure about. What I've learned from these forums: drumming is all about personal preference (to a degree), especially with gear preference.

If you know you love the sound of Marquees, then you'll definitely be happy with the Renowns. They use the exact same shells, the only differences being 2.3mm triple-flange hoops on the Marquees vs. die-cast hoops on the Renowns, plus the Marquees don't use Gretsch's "Silver Sealer" on the shell interiors. I don't know what (if any) difference the Silver Sealer makes on sound quality, but I do know that every Gretsch kit with the Silver Sealer (Renown, New Classics, Brooklyn and USA Custom) sounds amazing. That said, I did play a Marquee kit briefly at NAMM, and I thought they sounded remarkably similar to the Renowns.

Obviously I can't tell you what to buy, I can only give my opinion. But if that's the sound you love and you can swing $999, you might kick yourself later for "settling" on something a little bit cheaper. Last year I found a great deal on a pretty nice used PDP kit, so I bought that for gigging. 6 months later, I decided it just wasn't cutting it for me, so I sold it and got my 2nd set of Renowns. Just keep that in mind when you decide what to do.

BTW, I don't know if you're going to find a much better deal than $999 for a new Renown kit in that configuration. But you can always search for used gear in good condition. That's what I did for my 2nd Renown kit, and scored a nice 4-piece (10/12/16/22) for $600. I ended up replacing all the heads top and bottom, but that was still a great deal.
 
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If you know you love the sound of Marquees, then you'll definitely be happy with the Renowns. They use the exact same shells, the only differences being 2.3mm triple-flange hoops on the Marquees vs. die-cast hoops on the Renowns, plus the Marquees don't use Gretsch's "Silver Sealer" on the shell interiors. I don't know what (if any) difference the Silver Sealer makes on sound quality, but I do know that every Gretsch kit with the Silver Sealer (Renown, New Classics, Brooklyn and USA Custom) sounds amazing. That said, I did play a Marquee kit briefly at NAMM, and I thought they sounded remarkably similar to the Renowns.

Obviously I can't tell you what to buy, I can only give my opinion. But if that's the sound you love and you can swing $999, you might kick yourself later for "settling" on something a little bit cheaper. Last year I found a great deal on a pretty nice used PDP kit, so I bought that for gigging. 6 months later, I decided it just wasn't cutting it for me, so I sold it and got my 2nd set of Renowns. Just keep that in mind when you decide what to do.

That post is actually really helpful. I'm almost ready to buy it once I get my figures right.
 
So did you fall in love with the Gretsch kit in person because of the way it already sounded? Or did you get a drum key out and start tuning? I can pretty much tune any kit and make it sound great - so you're sure it's that?

personally, if you were looking at that used Pearl, I'd still take a closer look at those. The Pearls, although used, were close to the top of the line for them, and their stuff from the late 80s onward is top-shelf stuff.

That said, Cascio is a great store and know their stuff. If you like the color and want to go for it, then by all means since they're new. But I'd take a used top-of-the-line kit with no damage any day over a new semi-intermediate kit. And the thing about not being able to add drums later? I don't think in those terms. If it has what I want and need now, I'd get them. If additional pieces are necessary later (that you wouldn't know about) I'd probably go find a whole 'nother kit with what I need (like a double bass kit or something where I need 17 toms ;)
 
Can you show us where? The kit in the first post is new, not used.

I've never seen new/clearance for $700. Someone linked some new/clearance renowns on Amazon for $800 a while ago, but they dried up pretty quick. They're posted when they show up. The 3-piece frequently shows up for $700, which may be where the confusion lies

Ultimately, the OP should be able to watch GC/Amazon/Ebay and pick up a Renown and an Acrolite for $1000.
 
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