Hey y'all. Picked this snare up at a pawn shop this past week. It was tagged as a Pearl, but I believe it's actually an old Gretsch that someone has Frankensteined. The batter hoop is the correct heavy die cast and the tension casings are original, but that's it. The snare side hoop, strainer and butt plate are unoriginal. The drum key holder works perfectly with an old Gretsch key that I have. I do plan on restoring the drum.

Someone has spray painted white over the Silver sealer, but you can still see the silver paint inside of the original holes. I plan to gently sand the white paint back down to the original silver. The white wrap is certainly unoriginal, too, as the original holes don't pass all the way through the wrap. Any ideas as to how to remove this wrap safely? I do believe that at one time the round badge was in place over the vent hole, though. The white wrap is discolored in a circular shape, just off-center like I see in pics of other drums.

Can any of you Gretsch gurus help me figure out what the original strainer, etc was based on the old holes in the shell? Also, why are the holes for the muffler so close to the snare side of the shell? Actually all of the holes seem to be in reversed places from other images I have seen of these old snares. It's almost like it's been reassembled upside down. The snare beds seem correct as the drum is currently assembled, though, so I don't know what's going on here.

Also, is there a way to put the shell back in 'round' in a couple of places, maybe using steam? (The bearing edge over 2 of the tension casings where it looks like someone cranked down on it....)

Y'all don't laugh at my feeble attempt at adding text to the pics. I gotta get my son to show me how to do it right....

Thank you for your input!