That's the "Renown" throw off. As far as I know no modern replacement is available that works on that four hole bolt pattern. Closest in design is the Slingerland style model from Gibraltar which I have used on various drums and works pretty well. Unfortunately it uses a three hole mount (which oddly doesn't match that of the old slingerlands it was patterned after either). I'm not sure but it's possible that the top two holes on the Gibraltar might line up with the top two holes of the Gretsch. I have heard of guys mounting these on Slingerlands by just utilizing the top holes that do line up and having them work just fine. The other option would be an adaptor plate of some sort.

I have yet to run across an original one of these that still works smoothly and I don't think the design was all that great to begin with. Too bad Gretsch themselves wouldn't bring out a modern replacement.

Thanks KO. After spending some time this past weekend looking online I too came to the conclusion there is no direct replacement option. I think I saw the Gibraltar you’re talking about but the hole spacing was a little narrower than on the Gretsch. I have decided the adapter plate is probably my only option and plan to work on it tonight.

I used the snare at an outdoor gig for the first time Saturday night and really liked the sound, so I hope I can make something work.

I have four or five snares with that same throw. In each case the throw is really the weak point of the drum. They all "sorta" will work if you finesse them into the "on" position but don't entertain any notions of using one of these to rapidly engage/disengage the snares during a song (fortunately not something I need to do too often...and I have plenty of other snare drums anyway). I have never run across one of these at a show or in a store that didn't have this issue so I suspect that buying a different one off ebay or wherever is probably just going to net you a new variation of the same problem.

When that Gibraltar 3 point first came out many years ago it was not a Gibraltar product but an exclusive product for a guy out west who sold wrap and an assortment of other drum products through his website (I forget the name). Apparently this throw had been put together at his behest. He never quite had a specific answer as to why he went to that much trouble but failed to make the mounting points line up with the original ones. He claimed that one that did line up was also in the works. I lobbied him in several emails that he should look into doing a four hole version that would match the mounting pattern of the Gretsch Renown telling him there would be a pretty big market for such an animal. He said he'd consider it but nothing more came to be. His website crashed and burned and I've never heard any more about him. A couple years later the throw resurfaced as a Gibraltar product, no doubt whichever Chinese company had created the tooling sought out an alternate market for what wasn't a bad product (although..."missed it by that much" on the hole spacing).

I find it amazing that the vintage drums that sell for the most money, Gretsch, seems to have the weakest strainers; Lightning (both versions), Renown and the infamous Micro-sensitive! At least the Micro has been reproduced into an excellent strainer! The locking feature is really cool! Here's my USA Custom, 4.5x14, with the new Micro.

-Mark

So here is my solution: cut a small piece of metal, rounded it to match the curve of the shell, covered it in some WMP, some small nylon spacers from the hardware store, and a modern Gretsch strainer.

Very ingenious! Congrats!

-Mark

Thanks. It was a bit of a rush job, trying to get it done before a gig tonight. I’m not entirely happy with it, the WMP wrap isn’t real tight at the edges, and it’s not quite perfectly straight. Once the summer gigs are over I may make a better one.

Nice job on the adapter plate