The drums have never had the heads taken off according to the owner.

which would imply to me that the bearing edges are in good condition.

BUY. NOW. AWESOME DRUMS.

-Adam

If you can't buy them right now, please put me in touch with the seller. I'll buy them in a heartbeat.

John

^^^^^^ See! He gets it!

-Adam

Yes - buy now. No, you can't find the exact wrap. That snare, with the original head all beat to near death, is going to sound amazing.

jim

I would buy them in a heartbeat for $300. It looks like the wrap on the snare in ok so I wouldn't re-wrap it. I would then try and wrap the rest of the kit to match or just go straight black.

I paid $500 for this kit exactly how you see it.

[IMG]http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x246/dolfan54/1959%20Gretsch%20Drum%20Set%20Restoration%20Project/IMG_1276.jpg[/IMG]

And now they look like this. Still not done but I will have around $2500 into them when I'm done.

[IMG]http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x246/dolfan54/1959%20Gretsch%20Drum%20Set%20Restoration%20Project/IMG_1924.jpg[/IMG]

Damn those are beautiful! I love that red sparkle!

That's a classic Tangerine sparkle on those tubs! Great job, Steve. They look awesome so far. I'd love to sit down behind that kit and take it out for a spin. Beautiful restoration.

John

I'd pay $300 for them. Then I'd clean the snare up and sell it. Use that money to help fund a floor tom and materials to rewrap.

Just wondering if LudwigDrummer91 purchased this kit. Before you sell pieces of this kit, sit on it for awhile. It is possible that this was the One Nighter Plus kit that did not come with a floor tom. It only had a 13"x9" mounted tom and a 22"x14" bass drum and 14"x5 1/2" snare.

http://www.vintagedrumguide.com/gretsch_drumsets_1961.html

Plus, if it was very early 60's, some of the shells might even be 3-ply.

By looking at the few pictures posted, I see an original kit, with original heads that was well played and then put away for a long time. Yes, it's a re-wrap, but $300 for the drums, $300-$400 for the wrap, $100 in heads, maybe $200 for misc. parts and a lot of elbow grease, you will have an awesome players (almost collector's) kit.

If the heads have not been removed, then the bearing edges are probably just as they left the factory. Ask the seller for permission to removed the heads. If he agrees, check out the bearing edges, look for the orange/white tags and get the Model/Serial Numbers. If they are early 60's, they might not have tags.

Please keep us updated. I love these types of posts and I am patiently waiting for something like this to happen to me. ;)

Get the drums! Get the drums! Get the drums!

-Tim