In 2009 I saw an ad in the local C/L for an old gold coloured Gretsch drum kit. The owner lived nearby so I called and it was still for sale so I went and looked at it. I bought everything - the $900 price seemed very reasonable for the drums alone.
They are late 50's......maybe 60 (no paper tags) four piece with matching snare drum in a Gold Sparkle wrap. Drum sizes: 20/12/14 with 5.5x14 snare drum. That was a 'pleasant surprise' in itself but there was more. The seller.....the daughter of the original owner....said she had a cardboard box containing pieces that went with the drums. I took a quick look....there was a woodblock, a WFL SpeedKing pedal, an old Gretsch drum key, some drumsticks (the sticks were from a long-gone local music store - with the store logo on them), a pair of A Zildjian 14" hats, an old K cymbal (later identified as a 1956 Old Stamp K Zildjian) and a Beverley 16" Crash. The drums came with very old Nomad Fiber cases. I contacted the owner of Nomad here in Canada and he told me I have some of the oldest Nomad cases in existence and maybe not worth much on the open market but a nice old part of drum case history just the same. The drums also came with an 1121 WFL Hihat stand.......the same as the one Ringo Starr used early on (more sought after than the next...later...model).
It turns out the one old K Stamp Zildjian is worth more than what I paid for the lot. I didn't know that at the time. But, I did put over $1000 into the restoration alone....calfhide heads, resonant side bass drum t-rods n claws and hoop (they were missing), someone switched out the snare strainer for a Rogers....but did not mount it...= no extra holes in the shell....and some other parts here and there. The wrap was just mostly dirty and cleaned up very nice.
The one photo here shows what they looked like when I unpacked everything in my front yard. This is what the kit looks like today (the Gretsch Ebony head is an earlier photo). Tons of fun to play...great sound.
