Gretsch New Clasic 2009 Reserve

Gretsch New Classic Drum Kit
 
This is a new limited edition kit from Gretsch which has been created as part of the company’s 2009 Reserve program within the New Classic line.
 
The review kit I was given consisted of a 22x18” (8ply, 9mm) undrilled bass drum, 10x8” (6ply, 4.8mm) and 12x9” (6ply, 5.7mm) mounted toms and a 14x14” (6ply, 6.6mm) floor tom, with a 14x5 ½” (10ply, 12.55mm) snare.  You do also have the option of an additional 16" x 16" (6ply, 7.5mm) floor tom if you want, but that is available separately.  Externally, the maple shells have a natural finish to them, but also feature two single 1cm thick strips of bubinga to the lower part of the shell; the inside of each drum was finished in Silver Sealer, which is an elaborate way of saying they’re grey.
 
All of the drums, except the bass which had the usual wood hoops, had zinc die cast hoops on them.  The toms and bass had small single-ended tube lugs, while the snare drum had a double-ended version of the same thing.  Also included with the kit are two tom arms (with clamps) for the mounted toms which came on pre-fitted suspension mounts.  The L-rod style arms and floor tom legs (which feature chambered rubber feet) are the slightly thicker diameter variety than you might normally find.

The kit featured Evans heads – G1 coated on the batters of everything except the bass, G1 clears on the bottoms and pre-damped heads on the kick, the front of which had no hole.
 
For me, this kit gave off a positive vibe even before I played it and that’s great because it makes you think and feel differently when you do finally sit behind it.  It looked great and all the guys in the band I was with commented on it.  I felt that the overall sound of this kit was also pleasing.

The drums had depth and presence to them, especially the kick drum, which I was told could be heard some distance away.

The drums had depth and presence to them, especially the kick drum, which I was told could be heard some distance away; I think this is why it was my favourite drum of the bunch.  Together, all of the drums had a uniform continuity to them, with no drum particularly standing out over another and they all sounded great straight out of the box with no real amendments to the tuning from me.

I liked that the kit came with quality heads on it.  Having said that, I don’t want to give the wrong impression with this next observation, but I just can’t get on with one ply heads on toms and can’t figure out why they were put on them.
 
As a jazz kit and with that general style of tuning, I think the G1s would have worked well.  However, I think my observation on this point was most apparent to me on the floor tom when I was playing a Bo Diddley-type groove; the drum sounded fine up to a point, but it lacked the kind of body I’m used to hearing from the same sized drum with a thicker head.  Without overly pounding the drum, I did have to retune it after having played this one song which, although it wasn’t inconvenient, was, I think, reflective of the head that was on it.
 
Having used this kit on a country/blues/light rock gig, and not being the most heavy-handed of players either, I was a little concerned that I had left the tom heads with dents in them by the end of two and a half hours of playing.