Worth more in parts....unfortunately......

I have this 49 Gretsch here and I paid a little over $100 for it a couple of years ago from what I remember. I love it and use it for a tom off my hats. It has great tone - mahogany shell. The hoops are gorgeous and I didn't do anything to them but I did have to refinish the shell and I did that in Tung Oil. In this photo I've included text showing what the drum was priced at in the 1949 catalog - today's dollars would make it $282. It does function really well as a snare drum as well and still has the original wrapped snare wires.

Your drum sounds like it would be a beauty = White Marine Pearl. Parted out (I personally would not do that) it may be worth $150-$200 or more. If you like the drum...it's priceless. Photos?

rogersfreek;

I too recently purchased a 15x12 inch marching snare. Mine is a Star. I think I paid around $70.00. It came with an original knee brace and sling attachment. The WMP wrap was ripped to shreds though. I re-wrapped it in turquoise sparkle to match the rest of my kit, cleaned and polished all of the hardware, purchased new heads and tuned it to my liking. I now use it as my main snare! My chrome snare is switched to tom and sits above my first rack tom on a stand. The sound I get from my marching snare is incredible. To me, it is priceless! Just a personal take.

Brian

P.S. I had been using another marching Star in chrome but, am having some dents repaired. Once it's restored, I'm sure I'll fit it in somewhere!

The main reason I bought this drum is for the parts, mainly the round

badge that's missing from my bass drum. I'm considering reducing the

heighth of the shell to 6 1/2"-8" range, and making another snare that's

useable with a set. The shell appears to be in the round and very

doable. I'd have to see if my current snare stands would accept a 15" dia.

drum. This drum had the original recessed drum key holder in the shell.

Have any of you out there ever done this with a 15" dia. shell??

That sounds like a great project - I think it would make a fantastic snare drum. I have a similar project on hold for now - although it's with a 13" 1920's Gretsch tom shell.

You should be able to uose the badge for the bass drum no problem - just drill it out a bit to accept the larger Gretsch BD grommet. I've taken a Gretsch tom badge and drilled it out for the snare grommet - worked perfect. The badges are all the same (different slightly in some years = thickness of the drumsticks varies on some badges and different tacks are used on the old RBs) - they just use different sized grommets for bass and snare.