I found this to be an interesting read. :D

http://www.gretschdrumdatingguide.com

Very interesting, the problem I'm having is determining if these are "thin stick" badges, and if this is medium or small font. The two tone is clearly a thin stick and it's the thinnest. Does that mean the others are "thick stick" badges? Or are they thin but not as thin?

Oh boy!!! Help2

The way I understood it was the reference to the size of the tip as thin stick or thick stick, not the shaft. It looks like the first two are thin and the last thick.

Maybe, if !i

The way I look at them, the middle picture (two-tone) is an earlier Skinny Stick/Large Font badge. I cannot detect a texturing in the background. If there is no texturing, this would correspond to the first badge described in the paper. That badge appears most often on drums that have other characteristics of 1930s-1950s drums.

The other two both appear to be Skinny Stick/Small Font type. These correspond to the 4th style of badge described in the paper. This lettering on this particular variation of badge is unique to that variation and quite unlike the other six badges identified in the paper. This style of badge is generally on drums that appear to have been manufactured in the 1950s-early 1960s.

I would consider all three of your badges to be Skinny Stick and not Thick Stick varieties. It is certainly possible that there are measurable differences between different skinny stick variations, but I did not attempt to determine is there are skinny and skinnier variations. I do not have a way to make that measurement with a sufficient level of accuracy and precision. If someone can come up with a way to do it, I am all ears. Instead, I would suggest that the size and style of the lettering be considered as a determining factor.

Note that the time frames of use of each badge shown in the paper are just rough estimates. I have a database of hundreds of badges, including information about other characteristics of the drums to which they are attached. With the database potential skewed by post-factory modifications (i.e.: replacing missing badges with ones from the wrong era) or even variation at original manufacture, it is difficult to say exactly when each variation of badge would have been in use. That is one of the reasons that I decided to write the paper. I am fairly confident of what is in the paper, as long as readers remember that it is far from an exact science.

Can you provide additional information about these drums - interior paint, date stamps, types of hoops, types of hardware - that might help to assess their age?

Rick