My Kits, Setups and Head Choices

Hello all! This time, I thought I'd do a bit of a roundup of the current kits in my collection - the different setups I use, my head choices, and which purpose each kit serves. As it is, I have three kits; two Gretsch Brooklyn's and one Gretsch Renown, and each one has it's own vibe and job to do. As you might be able to tell, I'm a sucker for a Gretsch!

The smaller Brooklyn with a 10/14/20 setup.

The smaller Brooklyn with a 12/14/20 setup.

First up, the smaller of the two Gretsch Brooklyn's. This one is in the Black Oyster finish, with sizes 10x7, 12x8, 14x12, 20x16, and for heads it's got Remo's Vintage Ambassadors over Clear Ambassadors, with a Coated PowerStroke 3 on the bass drum. I tend to tune this one up a little bit (but not full bop tuning unless necessary).

The toms have a really nice tone to them - just the right amount of resonance to make them sing! Having the slightly shallower floor tom on this kit (14x12) is cool too, as it give the floor tom the same kind of tone as the rack toms (rather than the usual rumble!).

This is my go-to kit for things of a jazzy nature, and often I use it as a 3 piece with either the 10 or 12 up top, depending on the vibe. If it's more traditional jazz I tend to go for the 12, or if it's something a little more contemporary I'll usually favour the 10. I tend to have the 20 slightly on the higher side tuning-wise, and try not to dampen it too much to leave it some breath. It is possible to tune this kit a little lower too and using 12/14/20 for instance, it can be nice and ballsy if it needs to be!

Next up, the bigger of the two Brooklyn's. This one is in a limited edition finish called Burnt Orange Oyster that Gretsch made a run of 40 (I think!) kits in a few years back - and I think it looks rather tasty! It's in 12x8, 14x14, 16x16, 22x14, and head-wise, I've gone for Remo's Vintage Emperors over Coated Ambassadors, again with a Coated PowerStroke 3 on the bass drum. Truth-be-told, I'm kind of trying out the Vintage Emperors at the moment as I've not used them before. Previously I had Vintage Ambassadors on this one too, but this time around I wanted to give each of the Brooklyn's a slightly different vibe.

The idea this time, was for this kit to sound big, deep and ballsy - really low pitched, dead toms. It seems to have worked nicely so far! Of course, I don't always use both floor toms, so often it's either the 14 or 16 depending on the music. The 22x14 on this kit is a gem - you can have it tuned/muffled quite open, but being nice and shallow, it doesn't boom uncontrollably - giving a nice bit of bottom end, but it doesn't hang around for too long.

I usually use this kit for things of a more poppy or rocky nature, but also it's my go-to kit for big band jazz - I just tune it up a bit. Hopefully with the Vintage Emperors it'll still work nicely for that job - time shall tell! Otherwise, I may go back to the Vintage Ambassadors next time.

The bigger Brooklyn in 12/14/16/22.

The bigger Brooklyn in 12/16/22 in the studio.

The Renown with 10/12/14/20.

The Renown in 8/10/12/14/20 in my practice space.

Finally, the Gretsch Renown. This one is in the Silver Oyster Pearl finish, and is in sizes 8x7, 10x7, 12x8, 14x14, 20x14. I've got Remo's Clear Emperors over Clear Ambassadors on the toms, with a Clear PowerStroke 3 on the bass drum.

I have this kit set to sound as "clean" and hi-fi as possible, where you could say that the Brooklyn's have a bit more character to them. I've always found Renown's to work really well at a low pitch with pretty little resonance. As a result, I tend to use this kit for gigs where the drums need to do their job, but get out the of the way nice and quickly.

Often, this is my go-to kit for things like musical theatre gigs, but also for the pop or R&B kind of sound. That said, Renown's are remarkably versatile drums in my experience, so with different head choices and tuning, I'm sure it could do most things! Setup wise, once again it really depends on the music I'm playing. Quite often with this kit, I'll use 10/12/14/20, but of course I can use just the 10 or 12 too where necessary. The 8 is great fun too, although I admit, that one doesn't get gigged as much as the rest do!

The other nice thing about this kit is that where it's a more mass-produced, slightly cheaper kit, it's a bit of a workhorse for gigs where I don't want to bring the fancy stuff, but having said that, it sounds fantastic regardless!

So there you have it - a roundup of my three current kits and the purposes they serve. I'm really pleased with my current selection of kits, as there are very few scenarios which I can't cater for. The only things that would be nice to add at some point are a 16 for the Renown (so I'll keep an eye out!), and very possibly an 18 bass drum for the smaller Brooklyn - although that would be a luxury. I did have a Brooklyn in bop sizes previously, and although I adored it, I must admit that I didn't use the 18 as much as I thought I would - which is why I then changed that for a kit with a 20. The only other thing, is that I don't have one single kit with 10/12/14/16 toms at the moment, so if I need that combination I have to mix and match a bit with the Brooklyn, taking the 10 & 12 from the Black Oyster kit, and the 14 & 16 from the Burnt Orange Oyster kit - but hey, I can live with that for the time being!

I hope you've found this an interesting read, and that you can understand how I justify having three drum kits! Thanks for checking in - all the best! Ed.

All three kits together - from left to right that's the two Brooklyn's then the Renown.