Well I have one very similar to this one, and I know Gretsch made a cheap beginner snare like this back in the 40's,50's I'm not sure about this color but it was a two tone snare and mine has this exact hardware. I have a catalog picture of this snare somewhere. Also a good question is how much did you pay? That's an authentic Gretsch badge and I've seen them sell for as much as 125. then throw in the vintage hardware, at least another 75 and you've got a 200 investment plus labor, and the shell, I guess what I'm getting at is if you paid 200-300 then they did a lot of work for a little profit.

I don't believe it's a fake, just a cheap Gretsch. And if you want to sell it just pm me.

(I am of corse no expert but I'm sure the real "Pro's" will weigh in soon.)

Thank you for your reply! In all honesty, I don't remember what I paid for it. I don't think I paid more than $300 for it though, that's something I'm almost certain of. The paint looks like it has been redone. It's also very light for a snare drum. Do you know what years they used that badge? Maybe it was a cheaper version that somebody refinished. You can almost tell where it was taped up for painting. I probably won't sell it as I like to hoard vintage instruments for my studio, but if I ever consider it, I will definitely PM you.

If anybody else could chime in, that would be great. Thanks again!

There is a dating guide which you can get to by clicking vintage drum identification, anyway your badge looks like it was 1920-1960 badge, I assume no paper tag inside.

It has the four point strainer, correct badge, and I have seen Gretsch snare drums with hoops and lugs like that. Like others have mentioned refer to the vintage drum guide. There are some giveaways on the jasper shells if that helps at all.

Not a fraud, but was repainted. Looks cool. Run it!

Awesome! Thanks guys! I will look for a paper tag next time I'm at the studio. When I got the drum and I hit it the first few times it sounded great, but then it didn't seem to hold it's tuning very well and eventually sounded kind of crappy. Is there any way to tune it up so it's more consistent?

Some replacement hardware, repainted exterior, looks OK but tough to tell without seeing the inside of the shell. The inside of the shell will tell the story... Painted grey or natural? Tag or no? 6 ply or 3 ply? Looks like it could be a 4105 Dixieland. It's a 6 lug, they're temperamental to tune and an acquired taste, mine was fine when it was cranked up but a little splonky when tuned lower.