Did they make clones of the Gretsch round badge as well? The tom I have has the Gretsch sticker on the inside and a round badge. Looks like other round badges I've seen, just the mount is suspect, but the shell has no extra holes. About the resonance...in your experience/opinion, you're saying that the less hardware there is on a shell, the more resonant the shell will be? What are your thoughts on the LOCATION of the hardware. If there is less hardware, but it is right smack-dab in the middle of the shell, wouldn't that stifle the resonance more than there being more hardware closer to the edge of the shell near the nodal points? I have conflicting thoughts about this myself, and would love to hear your thoughts about it...
Ok, then it sounds you have a Gretsch drum, but your diamond plate was replaced with a Japanese one. Chances are someone replaced yours with a plate that had the same hole spacing after the original one wore out. The slot can become loose over time after a lot of gigs, especially if the tom is at an angle.
Regarding the resonance of a shell, it's just a matter of how much metal is there to absorb the vibrations. A shell with 16 lugs rather than 8 will have 32 lug holes drilled rather than 16...so twice as many "invasions" into the wood. I'm not sure if the location on the shell itself affects the sound, but it wouldn't surprise me. What I can tell you is that if you compare a Ludwig Clubdate with a Downbeat, or a Rogers Delta with a Headliner, or a Slingerland Stage Band with a Krupa outfit, the center lug drums will all resonate more. This is not necessarily a good thing, as many people prefer a slightly drier sound from vintage drums.
And just for clarification, none of the above mentioned drums have super long tension rods that go through the center mounted lug....those are single tension drums, and are a whole other monster. These drums have separate tension rods that screw into the center mounted lug on each side.
