Why does everyone hate Gretsch Catalina snares?

Cacaphony

Member
I've read alot of negative comments and reviews about the stock snare drum from people who'd bought Catalinas. I realize that this snare is far from high end, but I purchased a 5x12 as a side snare, and I love it. I'm saving up for a Catalina Jazz, but I came across this little bugger for $60 and couldn't pass it up. Even with the stock head, I'm getting a lovely sound from it.

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/5/0/0/561500.jpg

Anyone else have good/bad experience with this snare?
 
I used my Cat Club Jazz snare that came with my kit for a long time.
I thought it sounded really good, especially compared to my Forum snare.

It served me well until i bought my Supra, now its just sitting there.
Ill probably take it to college so it will get some more use out of it.
Mine came with a G1 stock so that was great too.
 
The only issue I had with mine was that it was impossible to tune out the sympathetic rattle when using the other drums. I replaced heads, the strainer and spent several hours trying to sort it out. I think its because there is virtually no snare bed on my drum. This was the snare that came with my Catalina Jazz kit.

To be clear, I have 2 other kits and a variety of snares. There will inevitable be a little rattle here and there. That's normal. With this drum it rattled as loud as whatever other drum I played. Not pleasant.
I simply swapped it for my 60's acrolite and the issue was fixed with about 5 minutes of tuning adjustments.

The drum sounded fine by itself but wouldn't play well others
 
I´ve read that it ends by losening 1/2 to 1 turn the snare side rods close to strainer & butt (total 4). I didn´t try yet. Catalina Club snare as well.
 
I´ve read that it ends by losening 1/2 to 1 turn the snare side rods close to strainer & butt (total 4). I didn´t try yet. Catalina Club snare as well.

That technique does work but its a worst case scenario thing to me. The other drums work fine without it so I use them instead.
 
Simple fix for the Catalina Club Jazz snare - sand in snare beds.
I recently bought a Catalina Club Jazz kit and I loved everything about it except the snare, which buzzed constantly. I noticed the previous owner had bought special Puresound Custom Pro Series snare wires and gone with one of those horrible Evans pre-muffled heads (the ones with little holes in them) both in an attempt to cut the snare buzz, and neither helped at all. I took the drum apart and discovered it didn't have any snare beds! I carefully hand-sanded in snare beds, about 1/16" deep and 4" wide - problem solved. And I mean SOLVED. And that was the only problem I discovered with this kit.
 
I have the 14" x 5" wood snare that came with the 20" bass drum kit and didn't get on with it at all.
I tried tuning, both heads, different directions, Moon Gel, snare wire tension, snare wire position etc and couldn't get much out of it.
It suffered on two fronts. Firstly, the rest of the Catalina Club kits (toms and bass, admittedly the easier parts) are so good from the outset that the snare "to me" stood out as being a very weak link in comparison. Secondly, when I already had 2 Mapex Black Panther snares tuned, fettled and ready to use, there didn't seem to be a lot of point in persevering/wasting time getting the snare drum up and running when it would never sound as good as my regular snares and it would take so long to get it to it's optimum set up.
 
Played a few at GC and my take is they feel stiff and the sensitivity leaves a lot to be desired.

Reminds me a lot of Ddrum snares(and that's not a good thing).

Maybe if your popping two and four and don't do any double stroke or ghosting it may be usable,but my opinion is in agreement with the post.
 
I was about to contribute to this until I realized someone brought back a 9 year old thread.
 
Simple fix for the Catalina Club Jazz snare - sand in snare beds.
I recently bought a Catalina Club Jazz kit and I loved everything about it except the snare, which buzzed constantly. I noticed the previous owner had bought special Puresound Custom Pro Series snare wires and gone with one of those horrible Evans pre-muffled heads (the ones with little holes in them) both in an attempt to cut the snare buzz, and neither helped at all. I took the drum apart and discovered it didn't have any snare beds! I carefully hand-sanded in snare beds, about 1/16" deep and 4" wide - problem solved. And I mean SOLVED. And that was the only problem I discovered with this kit.

THANKS for reviving this thread. Someone just gave me an almost new Caralina snare and it buzzes like crazy so I out it on the shelf....

Now I have something to try to "save it"!

I appreciate the tip....
 
I don't have anything against the snares specifically. I just hate Catalina everything.
 
THANKS for reviving this thread. Someone just gave me an almost new Caralina snare and it buzzes like crazy so I out it on the shelf....

Now I have something to try to "save it"!

I appreciate the tip....

This particular thread was the best thread I could find on Gretsch Catalina snare drums anywhere. I joined Drummerworld last week specifically so I could chime in about the snare beds.
 
I had, and sold, a Catalina snare I got for a steal. A dry head, Evans, tight reso, with the four lugs on either side of the snares loosened about 1/2 turn and it was fine. It wasn't meant to be a 1000.00 dollar snare and it doesn't cost 1000.00. Everything has it's purpose and with a little time and tuning it will be fine for everyday playing.
 
I also had one that came with a Catalina kit and both served their purpose. It was a 14x6.5 in red sparkle. At one point it was my main gigging snare.

I sold both the kit and snare a few months ago. Remember the snare being very very sensitive with a dry, woody tone after dampening the ring but it was mostly sat gathering dust after I bought a couple new snares that offered more so I let it go.
 
I bought my Satin Natural Catalina Jazz set in 2009, as a move toward lighter gear, my Pearl Masters/Sessions drums were killing my back and (and in hindsight) ears. First negative thing I noticed with them after replacing all batter heads was that the snare throw off wasn't working well. Couldn't be adjusted while "ON", could not get rattles out. Gretsch sent me a new, better one, that still is not great.

I also had buy a heavier batter hoop, should have also bought a heavier reso hoop. Been thru lots of Evans, Remo, and Aquarian heads trying to find "great" sound. Not there yet, but close.

After warming up to the Cats, and loving the toms and kick drum, I sold the Pearls. Not yet "thrilled" with the snare drum, hard to get ring out, sympathetic rattle is difficult, but I can get it workable by tuning tom heads higher, though I would prefer them to be lower.

I recently bought a set of Ludwig Questloves (to go lighter yet) that have a snare that beats the sound of my Gretsch, and I use it a lot. But I have kept after the jazz snare over the years and finally have it sounding pretty good, not great. To my ears, it's still thin and piercing, even as quietly as I play it. I hear other drummer's snares that I like better. Most have had Emperer heads.
 
I have the Catalina Club Rock set and the snare with that is awesome! Snappy, warm and full of attitude.
I will however check the snare bed issue and make sure it's good to go. Never thought to look TBH.
 
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