Gretsch Drums [Paperback]

The first concern is that author buys into the myth that the only good Gretsch drums are old Gretsch drums. Since the company has used the same shells, lugs, and rims for the past 40 years or so, there's really not a heck of a lot of difference in sound between a drum from 1965 and one from 1995. An objective observer would also probably have to admit that the lacquer finished drums from the 1970s look a lot better than the older drums wrapped with generic plastic sparkle or pearl wrap. In recent (as in the past twenty) years, the company has made, with varying success, efforts to modernize its mounting hardware and cymbal stands. Despite this, the book only spends about a dozen pages on the last thirty years of the company (and those pages aren't very complimentary).

This book also gives superficial treatment to the fact that Gretsch is a somewhat "unusual" company. How is it that the drums have high levels of craftsmanship and very expensive parts, but seemingly absurd design flaws (I recently saw a drum technician struggle to fit a standard head on a mid 1970's brass snare - all the time cursing how they were ALL like that). When Gretsch had its offices in Ridgeland, South Carolina, the building was nothing but a fairly modest (I don't dare say dumpy, but some might) warehouse with a sign that looked as though it had been amateurishly hand painted on surplus plywood (if I didn't see it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it). What was up with that? Nowadays, even the drum magazines comment on the company's reputation for notoriously bad customer service. It's almost as if Fred Gretsch doesn't care if he ever sells another drum. Heck, you have to PAY to get a catalog. What's up with that? Does Fred Gretsch have a plan? Is the sales volume and profit margin of the imported guitar line going to eventually lead to the demise of the American-made Gretsch drum? Anybody who knows about Gretch knows about at least aome of these things. It would have been very interesting to read more about them.

Finally, you don't get a lot of book for the money. Thirty five bucks is a hefty price for a paperback with less than 150 pages. Did the page size make the book more expensive? It couldn't have been due to photo rights - most of the pictures come from the author's personal collection (but I give credit where due - there are some fantastic photographs here). I'm not making a quantity over quality argument here, but how can Jay Scott put an extra hundred quality pages in his book on Gretsch guitars, but charge the same thing? The potential buyer should know that the steep admission price gets you a book that's thinner than the average issue of Vogue. I guess the worst part of it is that the author probably knows (and could have written) enough to fill a LOT more pages, but chose, for whatever reasons, not to share the information with us. So much for the legacy of "That Great Gretsch Sound".

Now that I own a Gretch kit, it's sort of like being plugged into the lineage.

The "best" issue referred to in the first two reviews (see bottom of thread) is in the ear of the beholder.