This is a 70's gretsch kit. Are you going to do the restoration work or someone else? With you not in the USA it of course is higher priced, get him down as cheap as you can on the price, get the color wrap you want and have a go at it.

I was planning on doing the work myself, but I've never done anything like that. I think I'd be able to clean it up but not so sure about the wrapping. I'm not sure about the bearing edges yet. There are the internal stickers with serial numbers on both toms but not the bass drum.

In terms of price I've been able to get him down to £500, but not sure if thats a good deal or not.

What's stopping you is that it's a ton of work, especially if you don't have the skills to do a wrap! On the other hand, all the parts look to be there so that's a huge plus and de-rusting and polishing is time consuming but not rocket science!

Personally I would grab them!

It certainly is a ton of work, I don't have bags of time but it would be something that I've always wanted to do. With the wrap I'm aware that could get expensive, is it difficult to do?

One thing that is holding me back is the price, I've seen some stop sign kits go for about £600 in playing condition.

It's a labor of love, you probably won't get back dollar wise what you put in time wise, but there have been some rewrapped gretsch kits sell for a descent buck.

As far as players kits going for a bit more, I haven't seen that here.

If it were me I would buy it, clean and polish it up and play it for a few months. It'll look great without re-wrapping it right away. If you love the kit then go at it otherwise resell it.

My plan would be to do it up and keep it. I am not bothered about making any money from it. I would love another kit, especially a 1970s Gretsch!!

I would never re-wrap those. Just glue down the FT flap, clean it up and play it forever. It just happens to be one of my favourite wraps, and I actually prefer it with some, or even lots, of aging.....even a *TON* of aging. :)

I can't comment on price but if you get it at all close to where you want it, I'd jump!

[edit] One thing I'd do would be harvest the BD hoop inlays for some old Gretsch wooden BD hoops.

Mitch

If I was to re-wrap it I would look at going for a similar wrap on it, just because its beautiful. I have to say I would look at getting some different bass drum hoops.