Come on guys.

Where are all the Gretsch experts? :D

Nobody?

Lame

mac - I looked at the photo you posted. All I can tell you is; the three holes for the Pratt muffler on my late 50's RB bass drum are real close to the bearing edge. Yours are located further back than mine. The holes were also spaced a little further apart from each other on my drum. There were only -three holes-, for the Pratt muffler, I have no idea what the extra two holes are on your drum, or what they are for. I wish I could be more helpful, but that's about all I can tell you. Hey, you can always re-open the holes if it turns out you needed them. It's harder to fill a hole than to drill a new one. I'd plug them and if it turns out they are needed, I'd just whip out the drill and put them back real quick.

John

You're right. :D

The 3 in a row look like the same holes in my 13" tom for the mufflers.

I guess I should just plug them and let it rip.

I just wanted some Gretschperts to chime in and drop some science on me. :D

Here's my 13".

I plugged a couple of extra holes in it already. :cool:

Here's a couple more progress pics.

I filled the big hole with a piece of solid maple.

I'm not planning on doing a tom mount right now.

I could always drill it out later. :)

I am doing the same thing that you are doing right now. Though I am not using dowels, as when they are cut off, the end grain shows and if you were to stain the drum, then the plugs will look much darker than the rest of the drum. I used a 1/4 inch plug cutter and then just drilled out the holes I needed to fill with a 1/4 inch drill bit. For the larger holes, I glued rounded scrap veneer to a Dremel "grinding stone" thingy. Then just turned up the drill and ran it against sandpaper until it was the right size for the hole. Worked like a champ.

My big problem right now is to decide what to do for the finish. I wanted to stain it Red Oak, but I tried that on a scrap piece, with a practice plug in place, and I wasn't happy with the look. So...I don't know whether to go ahead and stain this color, maybe a maple/clear or try a more reddish stain, or try a wrap. I don't want the wraps offered for this time period, so maybe something custom. I would love a good idea for a custom wrap. Kind of like Chad Smith's tattoo Pearls.

That's cool.

With these I'm not too worried.

I am going with a black diamond pearl wrap I believe.

It'll be something a little more "traditional'. :cool: