My first drum set was a three piece no-name Japanese stencil kit made by Pearl. 22x14, 9x13, 5.5x14 with one ride cymbal on the bass drum and a hihat. It seems I have come full circle now.
So I play a good number of weddings in and around Memphis with a really good wedding band. (Most wedding music proves the old axiom: the worse the music, the higher pay). I have taken my nice, pretty full kits, on most of those gigs but decided I needed a smaller “beater set” for those gigs for practical reasons; fast set up and because the music played on those gigs doesn’t require a lot of toms and cymbals. Also one that I didn’t mind carrying without cases. I had sold my previous beater kit, a Rogers Holiday kit in blue sparkle with lots of extra holes and non original parts to my friend Rodney Polk who is doing a total refurbishing and refinishing job on them inside and out.
I already had a well used 14x22 Gretsch bass drum from the eighties with a single tom mounting post, and I bought a used 12” Gretsch single headed concert tom that matched on Ebay. I had $400 into those two drums and the original plan was to find a matching 14” Gretsch floor tom (expensive, I know) and refurbish and rewrap it all into yet another nice Gretsch kit. A year or two ago, I had thinned my Gretsch herd down from five Gretsch kits to one new-to-me Gretsch Renown 57 set in Detroit red and white finish. I swore that was going to be my last Gretsch kit ever, but the drum gear disease flares up every once in a while.
The black wrap on this 80s bass drum was split all the way around the drum, but it’s not lifting so doesn’t affect the sound. I was planning on rewrapping it and replacing the Gretsch “spears of death” spurs with more modern fold up spurs. That bass drum also has the internal metal support rods that go from the spurs to the tom mount - it’s an eighties hair band thing to support three or four toms on the bass drum. I was going to remove those supports. I was also going to put bottom lugs and a die cast hoop on the 12” tom to convert it to a double headed tom.
The last wedding band gig I played a couple of weeks ago, I decided to take the bass and tom as they are. I added a Taye floor tom. They sounded great, as they should - they ARE Gretsches. So I scrapped the refurbishing project and decided to let them be.
A three piece kit is really all I need to play weddings, so that Gretsch bass and tom plus whatever snare, crash/ride cymbal and hi hat cymbals I decide to take will be my beater kit for those and similar gigs. On weddings usually only the bass drum is mic’d. The cymbals and snare drum can usually be heard out front through the vocal and horn mics on stage. The only drums that have a hard time being heard as well out front without mics are the toms. But the single headed concert tom CAN be heard out front because single headed drums are so much more directional and louder that it balances out the volume of the kit. I tune that 12” pretty low and funky. I removed the old ball and socket Gretsch tom bracket from the tom and added a RIMS mount and Gretsch tom bracket that worked with the tom post. Though I religiously carry my nice drums in good hard cases, I carry this bass and tom without cases as I’m not concerned about the finish on them getting beat up - they are already beat up and 35 years old! Cases are just one more thing that have to be dealt with on a gig where you want to set up and break down quickly. I do carry the snare and hardware and cymbals in cases. So there ya go, new old beater kit! My jones is sated for a while.