On drums...

I'm about to begin putting my Gretsch bop kit into service. Some friends at a local church want me to play drums on Tuesday nights, and since I don't want to be pulling apart the Designers, which are set up here for our band rehearsals, I thought this would be a good opportunity to see what the Gretsch can do, other than wind up to New York bop tensions - speaking of which, is that a standard aspect of New York and the drums just followed suit, or what? The rods on this kit arrived wound so tight that they grind when I turn them.

The music my friends will be playing is amped and miked through a Bose PA, but I will not be miking the drums. Genre generally country and traditional bluegrass spirituals; volume low. Soft playing is a must.

I would appreciate any of you who are familiar with this family of kit giving me advice on heads and tuning. I spent a small fortune today, on heads. I plan on trying an EQ4 on the kick batter and leaving the Fiberskyn A on the reso. Toms are getting coated G1 batters and clear G1 resos. I have no idea about the snare, and may use the Lite instead of the Gretsch piece, although the Gretsch snare is purdy mounted with the kit. I picked up a Vintage Modern Medium, a Vintage Modern Thin, and a Fiberskyn Diplomat to try on it.

Thoughts?

_________________
Gregory

I think they tuned em that high so they sounded like something when the heads were two years old. But I like where you are going with that one Greg, its why the young kids are moving to Brooklyn, so they can slow down a little.
I would think your choices for that kit are fine. I just fitted my gretsch with some american vintage heads and they sound great, nice and thumpy, but when I was seating them I had them in bop territory, still sounded great. I think any coated single ply on those toms does the best for most music.
If it were me I would probably be ultra lazy and just bring a kick and snare to that gig, you don't need much on a Tuesday night

And I would also recommend you bring a variety sticks, brushes, Blasticks, rods, whatever, so you can adjust volume that way if needed. Some of those church settings are incredibly boomy.

- D.

As my bass player once said, while playing rock before the sun went down, "What can you hope to achieve?" Even truer playing in church on Tuesday nights! Leaving the toms at home would surely keep me out of musical trouble, anyway.

I thought of extending the Modern Vintage to the tom heads, but was given good advice by Cliff who likes to make incremental changes so one can understand how each component affects the whole, and not end up with an alien on hand with no understanding how you got there. Oh well, it's just two more heads. Is there a reason you are using American Vintage and not Modern Vintage? What vintage is your kit?

Do you find that the 12" reso likes to be tuned higher than the batter? The toms currently sport Dip resos, and the 12 seems lackluster until the reso is tweaked like a snare drum.

Thanks for the encouragement and direction, Tim.

_________________
Gregory

Hey, David, is that a response to the Gretsch, to playing in boomy rooms, or to both? Thanks for the suggestions!

This church is boomy, but I've played in that room before, so no surprises. Remarkably, I've been able to handle sticks in that environment, although the Gretsch are an unknown. I will take brushes, not so much against volume, but rather for texture.

I have stopped using rods altogether. I enjoyed them for a while, for the last few years I used big Signatures, in order to make the Sigs work more quickly, with more attack, and with less volume while retaining tone. I have since replaced the slower drums with quicker varieties, now use smaller drums and heads with more attack, learned finger and bounce strokes to control volume, and get more tone by using single ply heads and a more open tuning.

Rods are cool in a way, but I have not found that they work well with the tunings, heads, drums, or technique that I am now using: they sound thin. And most of all, they don't work with my thumb: because of their thick diameter, rods leveraged the middle joint of my left thumb and created a very unpleasant soreness, so I no longer invite them in.

But I am bringing several thicknesses of stick along. My favorites for fast and quiet work are a pair of Bopworks Storyville Jazz that I have had for about seven years; the tips are worn down to tiny, the weight considerably reduced, and they impart a brighter ping to the dark Bospherous Turks.

_________________
Gregory

Green Gretsch?!

..for that green Gretsch sound?

There's your problem, son - try a different color!

_________________
Cliff

River City Trio

What if we did all have the same opinions?

No, it's that Great Green Gretsch Sound. Or That Great Gretsch Green...

_________________
Gregory

Greg,
I don't have a 12 so I cant comment on that, but the 13's I have are a little bitchy. I have to tune them until they sound good. There is no precision happening at all, just twisting rods until I can make it work. That is sort of the mystical beauty of the Gretsch beast right? Keep in mind that they are over 60 years old so if they want to be ornery they will be, I am just along for the ride.

That said, I can always get them to sound great with some tweaking, a sound you cant get with any other shell. Mine are from 61 or so, they are oversized which is why I use the American Vintage heads, they have the biggest collar and give me the easiest tuning of any other head. Before I found out about(or they made) those heads I used to use Coated ambs, but I would have to smear Vaseline on the edge of the drum so the heads would get on them. For all this work they do sound like nothing else, even though they arent green, they are wrapped.

Generally the bottoms are tuned a little higher than the tops on the racks, but the floors I try to tune even to get that old time rumble. It seems to work for me.
Hope this helps!

Several laughs in this thread.

Great guidance and affirmation, thanks.

How comes it that we haven't seen any photos of your Gretsch? Or have we?

_________________
Gregory