Super B"It's not the shell, it's the way it's put together at the USA Gretsch factory"Do you mean cutting the bearing edges and the interior paint etc.
It's all the same..30 degree bearing edge, silver sealer, the way the drum is made and the same people/machines. Gretsch still uses some of the same machines from the 50's. Here's a link to a mini movie Gretsch made. Go to the bottom of the page to the "The Making Of That Gretsch Sound" parts 1 aND 2.
That's correct. Most vintage drums have a rounded bearing edge profile.
As the story I was told goes: The bearing edges were rounded to help prevent the (at the time) calfskin heads from tearing along the perimeter. This allowed them to be tensioned higher without ripping the head.
And when synthetic heads came into being in the 1950's, no one bothered to change the edge profile -except, I guess, Rogers (Although my mid-70's Rogers "Big R" shells have rounded edges -go figure!). Anyway, it went on that way for quite awhile. And then all of a sudden, drum R&D went crazy and, as a result, almost everyone started doing the double 45 degree bevels. This edge profile moved the contact point inward making the actual diameter of that point of the shell, smaller. Additionally, since mylar (plastic) was less prone to being "cut", a sharper double 45 edge allowed a wider tuning range, muted the head less. And that made the drums sustain longer (which was an impressive thing for all of us who go into a drum shop and tap on the floor toms with our finger in order to determine the quality of the sound! -heh heh).
But, then, it seems that people grew tired of that "ultimate" sound ;) and started going back to the warmer vintage sound of the rounded and more shallow edge, again. And here we are!Burger Kin
For the record, I'm not a fan of the "sharp edge" sound. Also, my Gretsch Catalina Club Mod shells appear to be lauan with bare interiors (no paint).
drum lovers, i would like to chime in on this issue, to address some quick comments, the present gretsch shells are keller shell, I am 100% sure of this fact jasper was their shell supplier but went out of business in august 2002 they were a furniture manufacturer, they also made fibes and camco shells also a comment about gretsch shells they are not solid shells they are a staggered plied shell, the wood is what fred gretsch calls a maple blend shell which is actually a 6 ply shell with four plys of sound gun trapped between two plys of maple, this is only to address late 50's to 2002 shells!!! also ludwig makes there own high end shells and dw makes there on shells, but when dw first started making drums they first used keller shells up until the late 80;s. also you did not address the glue that was used by all the American drums of the era it was hide glue and each factory had their own formula, the largest contributor to a drums sound is the shell period+ the construction, the hardware has some effect but not as much as you would think, let me make a suggestion to you guys john Sheridan is the know to guy about gretsch drums he used to work for precision drum co, in new york,they are the largest keller dealer in the US, also not so modern drummer magazine who was started by my very good bud JOHN ALDRIDGE is a super good source as is classic drummer by my bud BILLY JEANSON, subscribe to both magazines, hope this is of help, thanks, mark
[QUOTE=O-Lugs;47782]I always associated Rogers drums with a slightly higher quality and consistency. They always incorporated advanced thinking with their hardware designs. The Swivomatic hardware was some of the coolest ever, in my opinion. Then in the mid-70's they switched to another revolutionary hardware design -the Memriloc stuff.QUOTE]I was once told that the Rogers drums after the late 60's are not as good.
Rogers from '64 thru '74 were all great as far as I'm concerned. After that when the big R came about the decline was prevalent.
Prior to the early 60s, I would put Gretsch at the top. So 50s- gretsch, 60s-rogers and camco, 70s- ludwig, gretsch, zickos.... 80s- yamaha. 90s- dw.
