I just acquired a very cool Gretsch Cocktail Drum outfit that I am rehabbing. The drums only need to be cleaned and re-headed to be ready to play. I'm pretty sure that I'll add a bottom head to the single headed cocktail drum with original equipment so that it will look like it left the factory as a two headed drum. I would like some information on estimating the age of these drums. This outfit is shown in the 1954 catalog. There are no dates stamped inside either of the shells. The shell interiors have the silver paint. There is no evidence of paper labels ever being inside the shells. Both drums have the store badge of a legendary music store in Houston that closed in 1968. But, the badges have the older address of the store. Can anyone help enlighten me on the approximate manufacturing year?
Gretsch Drum Age Information Please Last viewed: 2 hours ago
Are they 3 ply or 6 ply shells?
The shells are three ply--thick inner light colored wood--almost as thick middle ply of dark colored wood--thinner outer ply of light colored wood. The bongo tom has reinforcement ring, and the cocktail drum does not except for where the two halves of the shell are joined in the middle of the drum.
The Jasper six plies supposedly came in around 1957ish with some overlap as they transitioned. With the silver interior I'd guess your drums are from late in the three ply era. But that's just a guess.
K.O....Are you speculating that the drums are from sometime prior to 1957--maybe 1954-56?
K.O....Are you speculating that the drums are from sometime prior to 1957--maybe 1954-56?
Yes, and speculating is a good choice of words as I am no expert on that era of Gretsch drums. Obviously they date from sometime between their first appearance in the catalog and the end of the 3 ply era. So that's about a 3 year span (assuming 1957 is correct for the shell transition, some place it closer to 1960 but I've heard "mid to late fifties" as the time it occurred). Earlier 3 ply shells did not have the silver paint so I'd guess later in the range than earlier. That might be about as close as you can narrow it down unless someone spots another detail that further narrows the timeline down.
K.O.....Thank you very much for chiming in. I know very little about the history of Gretsch drums even though my first real drum set was Gretsch. It was a three piece second hand set of mid 1950's Gretsch in two tone Duco--Cameo Coral and Charcoal Grey. Pink and grey or black was a color combination that was everywhere back then. It took me a few weeks to figure out that the left footed/right handed set up for my first gig was not going to work out. My next gig found me playing lefty lead on a righty drum set with a lot of open handed playing. That same playing style has stayed with me ever since. See the 1956 DeSoto picture for colors and my first gig picture from 1959.
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