This may be of interest to anyone thinking about having a Vintage drum replated

Some good advice with the experience to go with it (Chet's email below)

I recently bought a nice old Cadillac Green Gretsch 9x13 tom with the original gold plating. The plating is worn in places - mostly on the rims. I looked into having all the hardware replated in gold. I asked around if it was a good idea to do this. My concern of course was that I did not want to ruin the 'vintage' value of the drum.

Here's what Chet Falzerano sent me regarding my question about replating my drum. Basically he's saying if it is rare - like a Gretsch Cadillac Green drum with gold hardware - best to leave it alone....no matter how bad the hardware looks.

I added the bold and underline

In the next issue of Classic Drummer I have an article about Gretsch Max Roach snares. I quoted Steve regarding replating the rims on my Roach drum (that were REALLY bad "“These rims can get seriously ugly, to the point where it’s just not something that should go back on the drum. I don’t get too caught up in the issue of replating these rims for the very reason that they are so often just terrible. I had a Max Roach like (your drum) that I sold and it was the same exact thing; the drum looked terrific other than the ugly rims. Replating those rims isn’t, in my view, a big deal in terms of value impact. It’s not like a modification to the shell, and, it’s not like it was originally gold hardware like on a caddy green (drum). Then, I leave it as is no matter how bad it looks since the gold hardware is so rare.”