Judging by the info I have found I would say that is an early 80's drum and that the finish might very well be Red Rosewood .

Yeah rosewood stain can really vary. Even with in the same set of drums.

I've seen the almost pinkish color to an eggplant like red/purple.

Thanks for the assist Jazzbo and Clubdate64 ... interesting about the "pink" comment because, when I removed the lugs, the area under the lug placement certainly had some pink to it (which suggests some slight fading of the shell finish). What keeps throwing me off is the "PK" written on the label; in all of the on-line vintage catologues that I found I cannot see any color-code listed that matches PK. Again, I'm not a Gretsch expert but I was always under the impression that the color-code was usually inserted just above the serial numbers on drums made in the area ... can anyone verify that this is a correct assumption?

Thanks in advance for all the help.

Joe.

It does look an awful lot like a faded rosewood stain. I had an 80's Gretsch in this finish. It's the one that Harvey Mason was pictured with in Gretsch ads in Modern Drummer for years, with the shallow 10" tom that has offset lugs because it wasn't deep enough. I'll see if I can reach my friend that bought it from me. Maybe it will shed some light on the PK code on the label.

Hot Pink Lacquer. It tends to look a lot like Burnt Orange but with a definite pink hue to it. You don't see a lot of drums in this finish but it was available from Gretsch in the 80's.

In the picture below the drum on the top left is Hot Pink, to the right is Burnt Orange. The drum below the B.O. is Rosewood.

Hi K.O., thanks for the assist! Hot Pink now makes sense (started googling it after your post) ... those Gretsch toms look like dealer samples from back in the day; how'd you get 'em?

Why Ebay of course....

Nice! I used to do a lot of custom work for Gretsch (Kaman) artist's kits back in the day and begged them for those tom samples for color matches ... never got 'em; they used to send completed regular-sized toms "because it was easier" ... great find on those samples ;-) Thanks again for the help on the hot pink. Joe

I got those probably 8-10 years ago. I've only seen one other auction for something similar and that was just the 6" shells in the different colors but without any hardware on them.

When I posted about these on another forum (shortly after I bought them) someone sent me a picture of what looks to possibly be the same color set on display at a NAMM show.

They are more of a conversation piece than anything but very cool to have (and I'm always getting messages from people wanting to buy one particular color....sorry, not for sale). I did snag a 6" RIMS mount so I could use the 6" Burnt orange with my USA Custom set if I ever wanted to.

BTW: the other details you described on your drum sound like the normal layout for a Gretsch 8" snare in the late 80's to early 90's.