Just like always, they are stencils, only now most are made in China, with some coming from India. There are 40 some Chinese stencil makers right now. There is a brand called "Stagg" that offer some incredibly bad shells. I looked at a new in the box set that were alreadly seperating plies. Most of the shells are muli ply maple, poplar and birch. There are some really good shells in the mix as well. I know that noone wants to hear it, but they are making some shells that rival Keller. I have an account that allows me to import these shells.

All I have to do now is get a permit, or find an importer that will bring them in for me. I have weeded thru the builders and found some 100% birch sheels and some 100% maple that I can purchase for less than half what Keller gets, with the wraps of my choiced. Not the crappy PVC either, but very nice cellulose type and they have some nice stuff. WMP is georgeous. All the classics and more. Now all I need is an importer, a few bucks and I am building drums! They even have a foundry for hardware, and will make any style I design. The costs are so sickeningly below what we can get here it is no wonder the big boys are buying them. And if we want to bypass the labor of doing it ourselves, I can just buy them ready to sell. A kit similar to a Catalina, if I buy a container, is, well I prefer to not say. Oh, and they will even badge them for me.

I get that you "can"........but I have to ask "why"?

Why would you want to do this? If you're going into business, that's one thing. Set it up, badge it, sell it. No sweat.

Let us know if you do this. You could set up some cool custom jazz kits that would be great for gigging forum members. I would be interested in seeing the choices. It might be difficult to hit that price mark established by Gretsch et al.

Keep us in the loop.

It sounds like a great project and fun to get into.

Yes - about the price - I can hardly believe that Gretsch can sell a Catalina kit for what I've been seeing on-line........not much over $400. They're very nice drums - I've played some and looked at lots and there are a whole bunch of people out there that play and like them too.

I own two Gretsch kits - one of them was put together in China in 2007.