I bought a round badge Gretsch kit in aqua satin flame yesterday, with 60's Avedis cymbals for a grand. It's a 6-pc, 8x12, 9x13, 16x16, 5x14 matching snare and two 14x20 kick drums. It's disassembled currently, waiting to be cleaned, and I'll post pictures later.
Condition is typical, lots of spiderwebbing and scuffs and a few missing parts but all in all it's in totally workable shape and needs no drastic surgery. No new holes, yes!
However, due to the configuration, I'm having trouble deciding what to do with it. The kick drums aren't identical, they are a left side and right side pair, that is, the rail mount is on the right side on one drum and on the left side on the other drum, and there is a cymbal arm bracket on only one drum. This tells me these drums were all purchased together, as a Louis Bellson style kit or something. I can't actually find any similar ones on eBay or even through Google.
That's cool and all but I don't play double kick. In fact, if I keep these I'll have no use for the 13" tom either, as I play a 4pc exclusively and don't see that changing. So my questions to you experts are:
1. How rare is this second kick drum with the rail mount on the right side? How rare were double bass Gretsch kits in the 60's?
2. Assuming I'll sell these, am I shortchanging myself by selling the second kick drum (and possibly the 13" tom) separately? The second kick drum needs a full set of rods and claws, and both new rims and heads. Not cheap, but cheaper if I'm not so concerned about these parts being era-correct Gretsch.
3. Assuming I keep it, am I being an idiot if I get rid of the second bass drum and 13" tom?
Thanks for any perspective you guys might have. I'll post some pics of the shells soon, but I won't be taking pro pictures til eveything is really cleaned up, which will take a few weeks.
