DRUMANDSTAGE FORUM

tcbetka wrote: Sun Nov 30, 2025 8:23 pm

I was just going to say that! DW does a very similar thing with their shells now, and I've heard people rave about the sound. Personally I've never even seen a set of those shells, much less played them...so I cannot say.

I will say that I was premature to discount the undersize thing though--I think that's a great idea. Gretsch could take a lesson from Sonor on that, as you sometimes need a shoehorn to change heads on some of those older Gretsch kits.

Yeah and Sonor started that tested design WAY back plus they never even advertise it or mention it. Their factory capability was truly stunning from way back when. The only company I have seen that was close to the same level of capability and/or sophistication was Premier back in the day.

There was a clip from the Sonor factory from the 80's I believe that a guy had on Youtube which I cannot find anymore.. but there was some quick footage of this worker laying the veneer himself on the shell while the shell was on a machine.. and he was laying the veneer strip by strip. I was like.. WHAT ?? ... I have been looking at Jeff Speegle's vids but can't find it there.

Oh man--now there's a name I haven't heard in forever. Jeff was an original "shriner," as we called ourselves--a member of the RMMP Usenet group from back in the 90s. In fact, Jeff is the guy who (as I recall) bought the Designer kit I had ordered in my last year of Residency. Back then I had ordered it From Dana Bentley's shop, but it took several months longer than anticipated, and it arrived less than a month before we were moving 150 miles to the location of my first practice. So I asked in RMMP and someone (who I believe was Jeff--this was 25 years ago now) bought it from Dana and sent me a check for the downpayment. I think it was 8/10/12/14/16/22, in that blue color finish...like Steve Smith had? I forget the exact finish.