Gretsch Renown '57s Jazz Bop Shell Packs Now Deep Discounted?

I don't know if you would be willing to do this but could you post a photo of your kit set up but with the chevrons on the two toms and snare pointed away from the audience so they don't show from the front. I'm not a big fan of the chevrons on this kit but with this price I should be able to live with them if I can make them less viewable. Thanks!


From looking at the pics, it seems the only way to do that with the mounted tom would be to swivel its position from the left side, to the right (under the ride cymbal area). Or to flip the drum upside down. Neither one would work out too well I think.
 
From looking at the pics, it seems the only way to do that with the mounted tom would be to swivel its position from the left side, to the right (under the ride cymbal area). Or to flip the drum upside down. Neither one would work out too well I think.

On the tom just move the rims mount so the chevron is pointed towards the player. Easy fix. Obviously the floor tom and snare are an easy fix too. I just bought a kit for my son, the chevron is a decal, you can see the black laquer on the area between the decal and the bearing edge so they probably laquered the whole drum then stuck on the decal. I don't know if they sanded the laquer area first so it would stick better or if the glue residue would be a problem, but it may be a case where yu can take off the decals then buff out the laquer and have a soid blue, red or black kit with no logo.
PC
 
On the tom just move the rims mount so the chevron is pointed towards the player. Easy fix....


Ya - just noticed that and came back to edit my post. I don't have any drums with that type mount, so it wasn't the first thing that crossed my mind.
 
You didn't mention it specifically, but I'm thinking the snare probably worked out good for you too.

Oh yeah, I'm in love with the snare. Best of all, I have a dozen or so snare drums but this one is a unique voice in my collection. I actually didn't have a 6 1/2 deep 14" wood snare prior to this. It's got very pleasing crack, depth, and ample sensitivity, insert your favorite snare cliche here. Whatever, it's got it. It likes being tuned up high. I happen to like die cast rims on snares and this one is very precise. solid. drum.

I don't know if you would be willing to do this but could you post a photo of your kit set up but with the chevrons on the two toms and snare pointed away from the audience so they don't show from the front. I'm not a big fan of the chevrons on this kit but with this price I should be able to live with them if I can make them less viewable. Thanks!
Yesterday 10:26 AM

charliedrummer, I understand what you're trying to see...I will try and do this for you in the next couple of days, but I am working 18 hour days trying to catch up with a ton of work. I should be able to do that though....
 
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Long time since I posted here, but I had to share this because you guys a are partly to blame. LOL!

I was in the market for a decent bop kit. My chices for higher end kits were Gretsch NC's or Ludwig classic maples, and for budget kits my choices were Gretsch Catalina or Tama Silverstar. ( I didn't care for the Yamaha's) Then I stumbled on to the Renown 57's on ebay. I was blown away with the asking prices of these kits. First, I wasn't aware that Gretsch had these drums (57's) in bop sizes. In somewhat of disbelieve of the price and questioning "why so cheap?", I googled this kit and stumbled back into drummerworld and on this particular thread.
After reading everyones comments here my mind has been made up. I pulled the trigger on a 4 piece red kit. :) I'm super stoked!!! I love Gretsch drums and always wanted a set, now they're coming! Thanks guys for your posts. You made it a no brainer!
 
Ha ha - the plan is working.

Congrats on the new Gretsch's. Be sure to post some pics when they come in.

If that was the plan then yes, it worked! haha. It helped me to give this a reality check. Still can't believe the price on these drums. Renowns are really nice drums, and at this price? How could ya go wrong? I'll get pics posted when once they arrive.
 
Long time since I posted here, but I had to share this because you guys a are partly to blame. LOL!

I was in the market for a decent bop kit. My chices for higher end kits were Gretsch NC's or Ludwig classic maples, and for budget kits my choices were Gretsch Catalina or Tama Silverstar. ( I didn't care for the Yamaha's) Then I stumbled on to the Renown 57's on ebay. I was blown away with the asking prices of these kits. First, I wasn't aware that Gretsch had these drums (57's) in bop sizes. In somewhat of disbelieve of the price and questioning "why so cheap?", I googled this kit and stumbled back into drummerworld and on this particular thread.
After reading everyones comments here my mind has been made up. I pulled the trigger on a 4 piece red kit. :) I'm super stoked!!! I love Gretsch drums and always wanted a set, now they're coming! Thanks guys for your posts. You made it a no brainer!

Congrats I got one too. And even if the 57 Chevy thing isn't quite your bag, the construction and sound of this kit is top notch nonetheless. I can get use to the color scheme. By far the best deal of the year. The snare is the icing on the cake. Awesome.
 
Congrats I got one too. And even if the 57 Chevy thing isn't quite your bag, the construction and sound of this kit is top notch nonetheless. I can get use to the color scheme. By far the best deal of the year. The snare is the icing on the cake. Awesome.

Yes I saw your pics. It was another point that was screeming to me....BUY THIS KIT! Lol! Thanks and congrats to you as well.
 
Congrats I got one too. And even if the 57 Chevy thing isn't quite your bag, the construction and sound of this kit is top notch nonetheless. I can get use to the color scheme. By far the best deal of the year. The snare is the icing on the cake. Awesome.

Yeah, makes you wonder what they're really paying those chinese workers.
 
Yeah, makes you wonder what they're really paying those chinese workers.

Well, yeah I wonder what kind of markup dealers have in mind on these that they can drop them from 1500 to 750 dollars. I'm all for buying made in the usa too. But cmon. Ludwig Classics made in usa 2000 bucks? These were their standard everyday drum 30 or 40 years ago now they want us to pay crazy amts of money for US made drums? I think some american drum makers take advantage of our country loyalty.
 
Hello All,

Just wanted to say congradulations to all on this post who have had the privilage of purchasing the 57 bop kits at around $800.00 or so!!! I wish I had of waited another 3 weeks and found these prices now available. On Sept 11th, I found what I thought was the lowest possible price of $1,357.00 as most sites were selling them for $1,599.00 and at the same time the double tom set with the 22" bass were selling lower than the bop kit. ANYWAY, after ZZ Sounds sold me the kit for $ 1,357.00 ,no tax and no shipping charges -- I contacted them to jump on their price match 30 day refund and they would not do it ---- Very dishonest company . I seriously pondered returning them for full refund and buying from another site ;but as of 2 weeks ago ,I could not find the Motor City Blue color . Now, they are out there on several sites and if you are considering grabbing this kit do it now as they are going fast. This is a tremendous sounding kit and sooooo cool and retro in appearence. Steve Wiess drums also have them in sea foam green, very nice ,but they want $1,599.00 for them??? So , act fast if you really want one and enjoy ,this kit is hard to beat in any catgory. I will keep them forever.

Jazz Guy
 
I just bought these drums and they jumped right out of box and started playing themselves.
I agree with everyone here who say buy them now if you are on the fence.
I bet you could recoup your money if for some reason you didn't want them.
 
Here's a picture from the gig two weeks ago...all artistic like. I'll put up some more when I have time later. The pictures have a blue-ish hue to them because of the LED lighting.

Neal
 

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Well, yeah I wonder what kind of markup dealers have in mind on these that they can drop them from 1500 to 750 dollars. I'm all for buying made in the usa too. But cmon. Ludwig Classics made in usa 2000 bucks? These were their standard everyday drum 30 or 40 years ago now they want us to pay crazy amts of money for US made drums? I think some american drum makers take advantage of our country loyalty.

Dealers make their usual 25-40 points on these kits. The reason the price is slashed in half is because Kaman (US Distributor) and BJ Music (Canadian Distributor) decided to slash the price that they sell them to retailers for, in half. They have been discontinued by Gretsch and the distribs. want to move the remaining stock quickly. And boy did it work. At my local Long and McQuade, they had a 5 piece Onyx kit and a 4 piece blue kit, been there for about 3 months....they dropped the price finally (2 weeks after the US did)...and both kits sold within 4 hours.

Neal
 
Well whatever the deal was it is one of the most dramatic markdowns I've seen, from 1599 retail to 780 or so retail. I think list for the bop kit is like 2400 so they're selling them at 2/3 off list. outreageous. Glad I picked one up, they are nice sounding drums.
 
Pics or it didn't happen - ha ha.

I hate when that happens, it's always polkas.


Actually they didn't play themselves, I had to put the bass and floor-tom skins on first.



Seriously, all I had to do was tighten the lugs about 1 rotation and they sounded good.
I've got a really flat tuning. When I tire of that I'll try a higher tuning.

The snare is exceptional, very sensitive, so I can play softer and it still sounds good.
The bass drum has more lugs than I've see on a drum. I haven't got the sound I'm looking for on the it yet though
and the toms have an odd number of lugs. I've never seen that either. I guess I don't get out much.

These are a step up from what I've been playing.
 
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