I surmise from your handle that you like burgundy sparkle.

Hi Bill!

Your Gretsch kit looks great! It's always nice to find a relative "bargain" every now and then. Many of the pawn shops I've been to will have some junk drums that they're asking a ridiculous price for! Kudos on your find...and for bringing them back to life!

-Mark

The serial numbers date the snare and bass drum to 1965, and the floor tom to 1966.

Thank you so much!

Two more "before" photos.

Thank you. The pawn shop owner thought it was champagne sparkle.

I've been to literally dozens of pawn shops over the years and this is the only time I've found decent drums for a good price. Once ran across a Ludwig Hollywood set from the early 1970s and they wanted something like $4500 for it. Insane.

The snare drum was on the shelf, looking tired and used, and I walked past it several times until one day the owner said, "Ya know I have the rest of the set, too." The moment was magic.

Well here is an update I just needed to share. The set was dated to '65 and '66, a couple of tags from each year. I was once going to sell this set and use the profits to buy one of the new Rogers sets. At that point only the Dyna-sonic snares were available and I had high hopes for the drum sets. Well, the new ones were unveiled I was underwhelmed and decided to keep the Gretschs and I eventually found a RB WMP 16x16 floor tom from '67 at a decent price to complete my one up-two down dream set.

I set the FT shell to Jack Lawton for a rewrap, ordered a sheet of Delmar old-timey Gretsch burgundy sparkle, and had it sent to Jack. I ordered the wrap back in September and he called last week to say the wrap arrived and the drum is ready. Jack says the wrap is beautiful and really so much different from the merlot sparkle they use today. I am hoping to use the remainder to do the inlays on the BD. Anyway, the FT is going in the mail and now I have to drive down to Alamogordo and pick up the hardware and the rest of the set, too, since I'm working in Albuquerque right now. Hopefully I can get down there next weekend or the following one.

I just had to tell someone!

I'll post pics as soon as the hardware is on and the family is reunited. I am so hoping the wrap is a close match to the original.

Thank you for updating us. I would love to see the full set once you have the second floor tom back from re-wrapping to complete the set.

Really looking forward to the pictures!

-Mark