This post will probably be deleted as it references an item on eBay. I question this VDF policy as I would assume members would be actively interested in the current vintage drum market and what better source than eBay? OK the generic “Ludwig Supraphonic” (do you have any idea how many of these are out there?) listing would be redundant, but my post for a brush collection that I built over 30 years was deleted.
But I digress…until this is deleted, buyer beware, http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130483498530&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
A) This is not a Gretsch Gladstone, it is simply a Gretsch…a very rare early Max Roach Gretsch, but a Gretsch.
B) They are not “Gladstone” lugs but pre “Stream-Lined Castings.” I made the mistake of including in my a description of the early Max Roach snare lug “Like Gretsch-Gladstone lugs the lugs had a single nodal post” in the Gretsch book. If I had a dime for every time I have seen them called “Gretsch Gladstone lugs” since, I’d be a rich man. The designer of these “single nodal tube lugs,” Bill Hagner (who worked at the Gretsch factory when this drum was introduced) told me “I had to buy a screw machine part (tube) to make that lug. It was the same post that we used for the snare butt for the early Micro Sensitive…it got too damn expensive…we readily switched over to the (smaller version) Streamed-Lined casings (1954).
C) They are not ‘single flange’ hoops as the buyer believes, but early double flange die cast Gretsch rims as he correctly later identifies as ‘Stick Chopper” rims.
D) The missing Gretsch badge is not a big thing, but if a badge is added, for it to be period correct, a Gretsch badge from the 40’s/early 50’s badge is necessary. Significant difference is, the drumsticks on the earlier badges are thinner than the 60’s style we see so often on eBay (ops, I said that word again).
E) The “two very small holes” the seller references would indeed be for the “Max Roach” badge (as seen on pages 42 and 84 of my book).
F) The Frank’s Drum Shop decal is way cool.
G) “I do not believe this is the original snare strainer.” Yeah, I guess the four hole bolt pattern extra holes behind the Ludwig post 1929 model 338 strainer might lead one to think so. The correct throw would be the Gretsch “Feather Touch Strainer” that coincidently appears on eBay (darn, again).
H) Since the bottom rim covers the butt, one cannot determine if it is original, but what appears in the photo looks to be a later “bar clamp, two bolt” style (he also says the two mounting screws “do not match the period of this drum.” The early Max Roach snare was fitted with a “5381 back grip,” a single nodal (not Gladstone) post.
I) “can't tell what those rims are made of or if they were ever intended to be shiny” Gretsch used “pot metal” for their die cast rims and as we all know, did not hold chrome well. Yes they were meant to be shiny (read chrome plated).
J) Not mentioned in the description but before anyone who tries to identify the tension rods as Gladstone or Gretsch Gladstone, it appears there are two thick tension rod washers in place making the rod resemble a Gladstone rod.
Now I am not faulting anyone for glorifying an item description in their eWord (better?) description. I am certainly as guilty as anyone else for “selling the sizzle” but this seems to me to be a blatant misrepresentation. Thus it seems that eBay (WTF) items that some poor VFD soul would cough up their hard earned cash for should be ID. There’s my 2₵.
