I recently made a trade for a Round Badge 5-pc kit without seeing it in person, and though I'm very happy with the trade, now that the kit has showed up in the mail I find that it really won't take modern heads. I'd always heard about people having trouble with this but of the handful of Gretsch kits I've owned and worked on it's never been more than a minor annoyance. With this kit it's a big problem. They're a rewrap, tangerine sparkle, and the wrap was even trimmed nicely around where the head collars sit, and they still will only accept American Vintage heads, and then only very grudgingly. You can't tune them down, it's up and up only. Not cool.
They're 6-ply but they don't have paper tags on the insides, which I suppose makes them like 1960-62. All five drums are like this. There are some other minor issues, extra holes in the kick drum in particular, which I'm used to dealing with.
I'm obsessed with refurbishing RB stuff right now, but my restoring ethos is old school and doesn't allow for trimmed wrap, let alone unusable shell diameters. I was hoping to keep these and gig them. I can't do it.
So, I'm looking for absolution from you gents. This thing will become an albatross if I try to restore it. Can I take some parts I can use off this kit and then part the rest out? Can I be that guy?
