Gretsch (and Slingerland) offered clip type rims on their student model snares into the sixties. All the majors offered single tension bass drums as well. Your drums were probably made in the early '60s as they have six plies. Also, the two screws holding on the cymbal mount are from the late '50s early '60s...this was changed a few years later. The orange labels on the inside of the tom indicates mid sixties. Probably a student type set (snare and bass) was purchased in the early '60s and toms were added later. Very common. The color is Gretsch's "midnight blue pearl"...probably their most popular color. The "peeling" of the wrap is very common on Gretsch drums. I'm guessing the last shot is the whole set, so it would have a 16" floor tom. You could break down the value this way...a six lug student snare, $150 to 250; a 3 pc. 22, 13, 16 in original shape with no extra holes could bring over $1000, the deduct a couple hundred for the single tension bass. Those original Gretsch cymbals arms are hard to come by and are worth (sometimes) $100 by themself. I wouldn't do any modifications or repairs on them...round badge Gretsch drums are very collectible, much more so in original condition.

Rich K.

Thank you very much for answering my questions on my Gretsch set. I do remember the color being Midnight Blue Pearl as one of the first things I did when I purchased the set back in 1971, was buy a new Gretsch snare drum and two new Gretsch hoops for the bass drum. And my local music store told me that my Gray Pearl set was actually Midnight Blue and that the new pieces would fade in time and match the rest of my set. The original bass drum hoops were black with a silver corrugated tape running around them. They were pretty beat up so I replaced them with the new hoops that have the Midnight Blue instead of the silver tape. The front skin on the bass drum was calf skin. I don't know if this helps to narrow down the year ( I should have mentioned it before). Also, looking at the shells of my 13in Tom and 16in Floor Tom, as well as the original snare drum, it appears to me that they are only 3-ply. I hope I'm wrong, but if they are only 3-ply would this lessen the value?

They are all silver inside, but the only one that has an orange label is the 16in. Floor Tom - Model 4418, Serial #35757. I've taken pictures of the 13in and 16in and added them to my Yahoo photo page, along with closeups of the shells as the heads are translucent so maybe you can make out how many plies there are. Thank you very much for your time. You have been more than helpful in providing me with this information. I appreciate it very much.

Three ply would make them earlier, as would the calf head, so probably late '50s. I'm not an expert on Gretsch. The 3 ply drums are actually more collectible and bring more $.