• Top Quality for Mid-Range Price.

  
  As reviewed by Vinnie Baggadonuts on 6/24/2010

  You get just about everything that USA Customs have...and more. The hardware is better (die-cast claws) and 100% maple shells means more guts. Shells are American and edges are cut in the US, by Gretsch. That being said, this is the best value in the market, hands down. They're professional-grade drums at a huge discount. Why go custom? Best sound ever!

  4 of 4 people found this review helpful.
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• Great drum set with room to improve...

  
  As reviewed by Mickey Piedmont on 1/18/2011

  I've owned the Grestch Renown kit that included 22" kick & came w/free 8" tom for probably a little over two years now. This drum set is interesting - while it's built very, very well - but can sometimes be challenging to make sound right. I almost traded this kit in for a different set - but instead I stuck it out until I got it right. I owned a Tama Superstar drum set before this kit - which today I regret getting rid of - but similar problems persisted with that kit and I gave it up too soon. Unfortunately it's usually not as easy as just buying a new kit, slapping heads on it - and wallah! It most likely won't work that way. Although, on rare occasions it sounds perfect from the get go. Ahhhh those lucky few. Buying a new kit is only half of it - while you have to spend the other half on trying to make it sound right. Anyway, this is not your typical old Grestch drum set that you may know of. In my opinion - this kit sounds very modern in'fact - and I could only believe Evans meant it to sound that way. The Evans G2 that come with this configuration happen to lend these particular maple toms allot of overtones that need taming. The EMAD bass drum head makes the bass drum too dark & boring for my liking. This is just my opinion though - while half the drummers out there use the EMAD on their kick. I spent lots of money & time trying different drum heads, tuning methods & other gadgets to help me get the Renowns right for me. Maybe someone like myself can help you save allot of money by lending some tips. First of all, I think that any other size bass drum that the Renowns can come with are a better idea then the 22" size. The 24", 20" or even the 18" bebop kick are just a better sounding design. If I had it my way - I would own the 24" Renown bass drum. But I have managed to make my 22" sound good. I found that the toms play very well with either Remo Pinstripes or Evans EC2 as batter. I'm using Remo Ambassadors as resonants on all my drums except the 12" tom. The 12" tom has been troublesome getting right - so I put an Evans EC resonant just on that particular drums resonant. It sounds good now. With helpful people on YouTube - I found the Powerstroke 3 for the bass batter with a regular Ambassador for resonant has been a life saver. The kick went from boring to a classic with just a change of heads. Although, in my opinion there's still room to improve the bass drum. I also added a felt strip to the bass resonant & installed a Dave Weckl muffler to the batter. It might also be interesting to note that I purchased the "medium size" Dave Weckle muffler that was actually designed for a 20" bass drum. This was a conscience decision because the larger version was too big in my opinion - and I didn't want something taking up too much acoustic space or lowering the resonance more then I had to. I actually would have purchased the smallest version (for 18") if I could have found it. The Grestch Renown sounded like it was designed for possibly fusion type music when I first set it up. With different heads & a few modifications, it now sounds allot more like a classic kit. Overall, if I had to do it all over again, I would probably buy the rock configuration with the 24" bass instead. The Grestch Renown be-bop kit with 18" bass looks like it would be amazing to.

  3 of 3 people found this review helpful.
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• just do it

  
  As reviewed by jarrett on 10/27/2010

  really wanted a gretsch set and i walked in and this baby. i was a little scared at first, but i went for it, and darn, im glad i did. this set is just epic. it looks great, it feels great, and it sounds amazing. really easy to tune and get a nice range of sound, and they are quality. A much higher quality then the price tag entails. if your thinking about this set, just do it.

  3 of 3 people found this review helpful.
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