GretschDrums Drum Set (CM1-E826P-SS)

Kit arrived as described. Everything was there, nothing missing with all the hardware. Nothing was damaged.First, disclaimer: the Remo heads and snare it comes with are just complete junk. Replaced all the toms with Evans G2 2-ply hydraulics and the kick with Aquarian for about $500. Sold snare for $50 bucks to friend (happy to get that?) . I paired shell pack with a custom $600 Pearl snare. I mic everything and run through 8-channel pre-amp mixer for one voice control and effects when I perform.Pros-shells are super light, weighs half the weight of my other maple kits. Shells are thin but well laminated with no seams. No buzzes. All lugs and hardware were tight. I thought finish would be wrapped laminate with seams for the price, but it appears to be painted and completely seamless. That was a huge positive! Spent a-lot of time tuning the toms and padding kick to resonance (this took a while-much harder than other higher quality shells I own) but I am surprised how well I was able to get them to sound with some considerable patience. I use Moon gells for dampening, one on each mounted tom and two each floor tom. Once I got everything tuned and padded and dampened right, the toms and the kick came alive. Really solid deep punch for a 20inch kick once I got the mid and high range cut out on mixer mic'd through Beta large diaphragm Sure (one of the best kick mic's out there for the $$)(Pro-tip, you can honestly make almost any shell-pack sound better with high-quality heads... better investment than the drums themselves.)Cons-I do not like the floating rack tom mounts. Only engages 4 lugs and tom shells leans against mount with stopper. It doesn’t seam to affect shell resonance significantly now, but over time it will... its weak. The lugs and hardware are all stamped metal, not cast and unfortunately relatively mid-grade quality. All the drum rims are all stamped steel and not high quality die-cast. Most disappointed with the kick-rim hooks, Chinese junk. They are not finished very well with some sharp edges and burs and not highly polished. That would be Ok if the price was under $1k, but over $1K should have better quality hardware.Gretsch markets the Catalina Maple as a low to mid level kit, but it’s actually better than that. If they paired the shells up with better die-cast hardware and much better heads, it would be a studio recordable kit. So, if you are willing to invest another $500 with pro quality heads and a better snare...its a really worthy kit. (Gretsch if you read this....offer a “Catalina Maple Pro” version with much better hardware and tom mounts and Evans 2-ply heads and leave the snare out all together for same price! That would be a great combo!!) Rock-on!

Tras bonne batterie