Thanks for your insights to these strange drums. Apparently they put the techware mounts right over the other ball joint plate. Unfortunately, the wing nuts hit the screws from the plate making it impossible to tighten..That's what started this whole dialogue. I thought I'd just remove all the hardware and rim mount them, but it would leave these huge holes in the shell...What would you do?...T

Your Question:

To correctly answer that, I need to know if the drums are a laquer finish or if they are wrapped.baby crawl2

If I had pics it would make this easier, but . . .

I don't believe it is SUPPOSED to have wing screws, I believe it was designed with KEY screws as JUST so they wouldn't hit. But I really need a pic to be sure we're talking about the same thing.

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Most respect the badge, but all fear the drum.

Hey there, extremebeat !

Like vipercussionist says, knowing whether your drums are lacquered or wrapped can make a difference in offering various solutions.

For example, if they have a fairly common wrap, it wouldn't be too hard to get hold of a small piece of the same wrap - and maybe even a plug from an old shell of the same plies - and then you could plug the ball joint hole and cover it with a cut-out from the piece of wrap.

It would be noticeable, but it wouldn't be bad. Better than a big old hole there. And yours certainly wouldn't be the first or only drum like that.

If your drum is finished in Gretsch's nitrocelulose lacquer, then it wouldn't be so easy to plug the hole without it showing up pretty obviously.

Either way, you could:

A) Leave the ball joint in the tom, or, if it's missing anything, replace those parts, or replace the whole ball joint and plate. Then you'd need to get the corresponding tom arm with hex bars to make it work like it was originally designed and built. Or;

B) Plug the hole with a shell patch and matching wrap or stain, and mount your TechWare bracket over it. Or;

C) Patch the hole and use a R.I.M.s holder - they have some nice half-sized ones now that will accept a Gretsch TechWare mounting bracket, and not hide half the side of the drum. Or;

D) Leave the hole open and still use a R.I.M.s holder.

The hole left open wouldn't hurt the sound of the tom any more than a plug would "heal" it. It'd just look weird. But look at some of those new styles of multi-vented snare drums with four to six two-inch holes bored out around the shell... It's usually done on thick twelve or twenty-ply shells, but it would vent just the same on a six-ply shell. Again, it'd just look weird.

For the meantime, I'd suggest you take the ball joint plate out, and mount the TechWare bracket back on, and then you'd at least be able to play the drum while you're thinking over what to do about it. Once the plate's screws are out of the way, you'll be able to tighten the TechWare wing screw and make use of it.

Food for thought, my brother.... Food for thought...

Dig it !