You were all I thought about from the time I started taking drum lessons the year prior. When the time had come to get you, you were not at all what I had pictured in my head as my 12 year old mind was set on finding a nice shiny Ludwig set that would stand out. The choice that fateful day back in June of 1983 was between you and the Ludwig Tivoli lighted set of Vista-lite drums set up in the window of Looney Tunes music that was at the southern end of Main Street in Concord NH. Naturally I wanted the Ludwig set, not only because they were red/amber/yellow see through color with built in lights, but because my favorite drummer Alex Van Halen played them. Even my teacher Barry, who was standing there with my mom and me that day had a 1973 mahogany cortex set of Ludwig drums. Those blue-olive Ludwig badges were on my mind night and day.
When it was suggested by both my mom and Barry that the Vista-Lite drums were a foolish thing to buy, the attention was turned to you; a rosewood red Gretsch set with beat up old cymbals and a metal Ludwig snare drum. My 12 year old innocence had never heard of “Gretsch” before and the stop sign looking badges on the set appeared very large and nothing close to the Ludwig blue and olive badges I was so focused on. Still I didn’t want to appear ungrateful as I was really hot to get a full set of drums so I acquiesced and you came home with me. You didn’t sound like the drums I was hearing on the records I liked and your hardware was not the easiest to manipulate. I was also not overly fond of your red color with the wood grain showing through as I found it to be a dreadful bore and paling in contrast to most of the bright shiny new drums I saw in magazines. Your snare drum while still a Ludwig, was not like any other Ludwig drum I had seen as the badge had a keystone look to it and the Ludwig name was written in a script font. Your snare strainer was also not working properly so I was unable to turn the snares on and off. The legs on your floor tom also did not hold all that well and at any un-opportune time, the drum could come crashing down into me, requiring me to hold it up with my leg until I was able to stop and fix it again.
With all that though, I still had a drum set that was all mine and through seeing ads for Gretsch drums at the very back of every issue of Modern Drummer, I was able to rationalize that the name Gretsch had to be a good one if they were able to land a spot like the inside of the back cover. Your ads also stated that you had been in business since 1883, which just happened to be 100 years prior to me acquiring you. I also saw that drummer Marc Droubay was an endorser and he was on a massive hit from his band Survivor with “Eye of the Tiger”. Sure Marc impressed me because of that, not that I had any real clue who Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Art Blakey and Max Roach were when I was 12! You were there for me throughout high school and became my practice set when I needed to escape the world and even when I had a fling with a Simmons set (still have those too), I routinely came back to you. You even suffered a bit of humiliation when I branded you with a Ludwig logo sticker as I still yearned to play a Ludwig set. You played many a show with me in all the jazz concerts I was a part of with the High School Jazz Band and you were there for me when I thought my first rock band would take over the world that senior year.
By the time I graduated high school, I had moved on to finding and collecting all the Ludwig drums of my dreams while you took a back seat. I still cared for you and kept you with me as I guess I am a sentimental kind of person at heart. Through the years you sat with all of the Ludwig drums I would find, patiently waiting for a chance to take the stage again. At some point later on, I was able to fully realize just how cool you actually are and understand your great heritage with your name going back to all those great jazz drummers from the 50’s and 60’s. Your Ludwig Supraphonic from October of 1966 had already been recognized by me as cool long before and was getting regular rotation at gigs now that it possessed a working functional P-83. Along with putting on a proper Gretsch logo head, I also decided that I needed to find a Gretsch snare to put with you as I really am a completest overall. A nice 70’s COB Gretsch 4160 for low money fit the bill, even if I never used it as I wasn’t crazy about the sound of it at first. Slowly as the years passed I became to really love and appreciate you as you had a really cool look and sound to you and you recorded really well. Some adjustments to that 4160 really made it come alive and blend perfectly with you. Adding some modern Gretsch legs to your floor tom was the trick as it required no modifications to your shell and worked much better than the original ones that have been safely tucked away. Even the red color has grown on me as it has a real classy look that my 12 year old eyes could not appreciate, while it will always remind me of my mom. I even learned that you were built around 1975 and have the famous Jasper shells. So after 40 years together, I can say that I am very happy we met and you will always be “my” set. Here’s to another 40 years together, as I will be a spry 92 years old when that time comes. Hopefully when I am gone, you will be loved and cared by someone else just as I have loved and cared for you. Cheers!