This is what i think you have its a 1960's snare..The 1946 stamp is not the date if the drum was made in the 40's it would not be painted silver on the inside of the shell but if its 60's drum should have a paper tag on the inside or Gretsch could have used the 1946 stamp as the model number of the drum....To me the drum looks like its been re-worked painted Yellow and the snare beds looks to be re-cut..Gretsch snare beds go from lug to lug and not that deep..The muffler could have been re-moved from the drum at one time do you see any holes that have been filled in? Look across from the badge on the inside of the shell...Mikey

Thanks Mikey. Vintagemoore posted a picture for me yesterday of a yellow Gretsch Snare he had from the 60's . Maybe he can take a look at my pictures and see if the yellow paint job looks legit. I did find some other Vintage Gretsch student drums for sale and online that did not have a muffler.Plus I do not see any extra holes. The part that scares me are those massive snare beds. Any other "Dixieland" model owners out there that can tell me if this has been re-worked ?

The snare bed looks suspect but could probably be smoothed out. Otherwise looks original other than the Evans sticker. Student model.

Liked the model number idea but it looks like the Dixieland model was 4104 and 4105. Can't see any correlation to 1946 with any of the Gretsch serial numbers. Any other ideas ? Should I post more pictures of the interior and bearing edge ?

Hope that STOOPID Evan's decal comes off clean!

Did some more searching online and I think the Yellow is original. Between Vintagemoore's yellow finish and this drum I found for sale on Ebay. The yellow finish on this drum as well as the chipping look identical to mine. Still concerned about the snare bed. I saw Ludwig-Dude and Kona have refinished these old Dixieland Snares in the past. Maybe they could give me a take on the snare beds. Some of the snare beds online look similar but it is hard to tell with the photo's I found....still stumped by the big 1946 stamp.

Remember, whatever drummer owned that drum could have brought it his local drum store and had the snare beds deepened for a particular sound. Drummers did that all the time back then, no one was fussy about retaining the original config.

I think you have a late 50s Student drum and I think the yellow finish is original. It looks perfectly time appropriate to me.

Some people write or stamp things inside their drum shells to act as identifiers. If he had stamped "Leroy" inside the shell, would we be discussing whether or not Gretsch offered a "Leroy" model snare drum?

Yes Leedy

I had Mr. Fred Gretsch and Paul Cooper sign my shellpack. Mr. Gretsch wrote 'for Gary' in them as well.........Maybe if my drums are floating around out there in 50yrs. someone may ask...'who's Gary' .....didn't he drum for such and such band etc etc. "It's a mistery who the hell this 'Gary' guy is?????"

Just saying....you're right about stamping and writing on the inside of the drums. Could be an identifier of some kind that means/meant something to someone out there.