He is actually saying that Charlie Watts got his set for the Ron Wood recording he just called him uncle Charlie . It is known that CW's set is a RB set that was stripped of the wrap when he got them . They were from a guy who rented drums to studios and Charlie talked him into selling them as he loved them .

AH ok.That was my bad. But information gained!

"So we can assume that any sets that might be found, and can be accurately dated to before 1970, originally belonged to an artist?"

That would be correct. My Guru’s at the factory are very knowledgeable about the history of finishes and woods.

Christopher Coyle | Gretsch Consumer Relations

“That Great Gretsch Sound!”

NO... absolutely not.

Just think Charlie Watts is one of Gretsch's finest... but yet plays a STRIPPED RB set...

But he doesn't play a stripped set because he wanted a natural maple RB set and couldn't get one any other way. He plays a particular set he really liked that has been stripped. That's not the same thing, nor does it indicate that they don't exist elsewhere.

I don't quite even follow the argument that it wasn't a cataloged color. You could special order lacquer finish drums in various colors. Natural maple is simply clear lacquer, not anything special to achieve above and beyond the other colors beyond acquiring lacquer with no pigment added. Certainly the guitar dept. in the same building was producing some parts in clear coat finishes.

We do have some proof (in the form of some period photos) available that some must have been created, even if none survive. I personally don't see any conclusive proof that they absolutely did not ever exist.

Short of one of these "holy grail" set popping up (and we don't know for a fact that one isn't sitting in someone's drum room, or an attic, or a garage somewhere) I doubt we'll ever know for sure. There really aren't any production records going back that far so no concrete proof of that sort is likely to surface...but that doesn't prove the negative either.

Just my opinions of course.

K.O and others... all I ask in order to support this argument to one way or another is to see one (1) REAL factory original natural maple RB Gretsch kit... and I'm not talking about any old pictures that we already talked about or any stripped RB kits we already seen.

And about Charlie Watts stripped RB kit... you would think Gretsch would have done their absolute best to trade out his stripped RB kit for a real factory original kit since he was such a huge name for them.

I'm thinking that Charilie Watts' RB natural kit was originally his early 70's BDP Gretsch when he had it removed ? This is just me spit balling, cause i remember seeing him behind a Gretsch in BDP finish wrap ..Here is the pic..

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ed/80/3a/ed803a7daefb6cb568587943ccdcd8eb.jpg

Blair Holben a member here on the forum sold the kit to him the natural maple kit.

If Charlie wanted a Natural Maple RB kit he could marshal far more resources towards finding one than the tiny (fewer than 20 employees) Gretsch Drum Company likely could. Charlie has a warehouse full of vintage drums (overseen by Steve Maxwell), possibly including some factory RB natural maple ones, and yet chooses to use this one particular set for Stones gigs...for whatever reason.

Gretsch has provided him with new clones of that set that he used on a satellite stage on one tour. They'd probably make whatever he wanted, up to and including reworking an old set of shells into a "new" RB set.

He could also probably have a trailer load of free brand new Ludwigs, DWs, Yamahas, or whatever parked in his driveway within a day of having his people make a phone call to the right person, if that's what it took to get his endorsement. But that's not what he does. He has a set he likes and he uses it. It happens to be a stripped RB set that he became enamored with years ago. This is more common with famous guitar players with that one vintage guitar they are known for but here's a drummer doing the same. Even if Gretsch, or Steve Maxwell, or whomever, found him a factory maple RB set it seems unlikely he'd be switching sets at this point.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijl8-HmCJrQ"]Charlie Watts' vintage Gretsch drumset with Zildjian and UFIP cymbals - YouTube[/ame]

But we can agree to disagree and I think we BOTH hope that some of these drums ARE out there....somewhere, waiting to be found.