My Gretsch Brooklyn kit

Post Reply
Comet
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 11:23 pm

My Gretsch Brooklyn kit

Post by Comet »

Last year, I decided to get a cocktail kit. I was discouraged to see my favorite models (Stauffer, Yamaha, Metropolitan) had been discontinued. I wanted a substantial new kit and I ended up pulling the trigger on a Gretsch Brooklyn. I've been playing it and experimenting with different modifications for a few months and I've got everything dialed in to the point where I can post about it with some finality.

Image

The drums are made in Gretsch's South Carolina drum shop. The snare is 6x10", the ride tom is 6x8", and the bass tom is 24x14". The shells are 6-ply maple/poplar/maple with 30-degree bearing edges and no reinforcement rings. The finish is satin mahogany with a natural maple bass drum hoop. Getting the kit was an extremely frustrating test of patience and I will never special order drums from Gretsch again.

The crash/ride is a Sabian 16" AAX "Omni Prototype" (suspiciously resembling an El Sabor Picante Hand Crash cymbal). The hi hats are 10" UFiP Class series. I added a Yamaha Cascara Wedge and a 4" Remo Valencia cowbell (chosen for its size, not for its sound).

I swapped out the "Gretsch Permatone" (i.e. Remo Ambassador) top heads for Remo Renaissance Powerstrokes.on the snare and bass tom and an orphan Evans Strata 1000 on the ride tom. These are all tuned medium-low and sound awesome to me.

Image

The bass batter is a Remo Powermax 2 marching bass head with the felt muffling ring removed. A couple of days after I removed the felt ring, the head started to buzz; I taped the mylar control ring down with a few pieces of Scotch tape and the buzz went away. In hindsight, I probably could have gotten to the same endpoint simpler and cheaper with a Powerstroke 4. It's tuned just-above-wrinkle and I have 12-24 brass thumbnuts with washers tightened against the lugs to keep the tension rods from vibrating loose. It sounds good, but it's definitely a "cocktail" kick tone whereas all the other drums sound more like a proper bop kit.

Image

I use a Gibraltar G Class Pedal on a rug without any bracket (the kit came with a makeshift bar bracket that clamps to one leg only). The G Class pedal was amazingly simple to invert--it took about 5 minutes with the included drum key/Allen wrench; I stuck grip tape on top and industrial Velcro on the bottom; I also have a 2" electrical box as a makeshift heel riser which is a huge ergonomic improvement. I prefer my fuzzy Ludwig beater to the plastic/felt G Class beater.

Image

The stock Gibraltar Ultra-Adjust mounts are weird, heavy, solid and nicely adjustable. I can't find these parts in the Gibraltar catalog. The Ultra-Adjust ball joints had HUGE T-screws that were awkward in the tight space around the cocktail drum; so I replaced them with some socket-head screws--I don't move the ball joints when I break down the kit thus I don't need the T-screws. I added a short Gibraltar cymbal boom rod to place the hi hats and the cowbell near the center. I mount the main cymbal (with the aid of a long cymbal stacker) where Gretsch designed the hi hats to be. The legs and mounts are all memory locked to make a very quick (5 minute) set up.

Image

I have a beat up Beato conga (quinto) case that snugly accommodates the main drum and the 16" cymbal. The small drums, hi hat cymbals, and stick bag fit in a Rockbag 8/10 double tom case. The pedal, rug and hardware go in a Home Depot Husky tool box (I gig with a small $5 WalMart bath rug, not the round rug pictured). Altogether, the gear with the three cases weighs over 80 lbs; With a folding luggage cart, I load-in in a single trip.
digitaldrummer
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 6:53 pm

Re: My Gretsch Brooklyn kit

Post by digitaldrummer »

That's a really nice looking kit, well finished and classy.
Perhaps you bass drum disappointment stems for the 14" diameter, but you should still get a decent thump out of that with the right heads. I've been impressed with the performance of a couple of Aquarian heads - especially the Aquarian Performance II , but also the SuperKicks.
robertm
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2006 1:11 am
Location: Longview, WA

Re: My Gretsch Brooklyn kit

Post by robertm »

Congrats for sticking with the getting-it process and getting something you can use! It looks like, ultimately, a very well-done setup and hopefully sounds good too.
jottesen
Posts: 73
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2005 6:20 am
Location: Denmark

Re: My Gretsch Brooklyn kit

Post by jottesen »

What a great looking kit. I wish it was mine. :lol: :lol:

Jesper
jmettam
Site Admin
Posts: 610
Joined: Thu Nov 14, 2002 10:53 pm

Re: My Gretsch Brooklyn kit

Post by jmettam »

Hey Comet,

A very sweet kit! Thanks for all the detailed info. I have been wondering about these kits since they have shown up on he scene!

Congrats!

- John
Post Reply