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Vintage Gretsch Drums

With the Unisaw restore finally behind me and no free tables to be found on my local Craigslist, I decided to take down my old drum kit from the garage shelves.

Back 15 years ago when my waistline was smaller and my paycheck was much much smaller, I bought a broken down set from my drum teacher for $100. He was very excited about it, and told me "Its a Gretsch" This meant nothing to me, as I was junior in high school.

Dave told me, "If you take your time and restore it, she'll be cherry."

Cherry? Who says that. So it's been with me, through 6 jobs, 4 houses and 2 kids. Sitting in the garage gathering dust and generally being demoralized. I've never set it up, because it's always been in pieces. Additionally, from all the holes in the shells, it appears to have been on a battle field at some point.

It's was at some point a 4 part Gretsch set from the mid 1960s. I know that, as I've located a sandwich baggie with three round badges in it. Looks like I've got a 20" bass, 16" floor tom, 14" small tom and a snare shell.

So enter my next project. Restoring a vintage set. I plan on being concerned mainly with preserving value, but not at the expensive of ugly. I want something beautiful, that sounds nice even it is not exactly perfect. We'll see where that lands me.

I have the tools and then time, and I'm ready for a new experience. So.. here are some now shots. Hopefully there will be some improvement in the near future.




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