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Rating And Reviews: Gretsch Catalina Club

Does not include cymbals, cymbal stands, or snare stand.

User Ratings
Overall
Sound
Features
Ease of Use
Quality
Value
Manufacturer Support
The Wow Factor
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"More than just for Jazz!!!" submitted December 23, 2010

By a customer from mccoyfam.net
Overall
Sound
Features
Ease of Use
Quality
Value
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Musical Background: Active Musician
Music Style: Texas Rock / Country / Americana
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Sound: The toms pretty good with the stock heads, but they sound *great* with Vintage Emperors over the stock resos. The kick is OK with the stock heads, going to test out different heads to get a tiny bit more low end. Since I mic the kick on all but the smallest venues anyway, I'm not too worried about it. The snare was tricky, replaced the snare-side head with a Hazy 300 and the snares with Puresound Custom Pros. With the stock batter head cranked up a bit, it sounds pretty good. I'll probably put on a Coated CS and see what happens. Ease of Use: The kick drum tension rods were a bit hard to get started in the lugs, even with the grease packaged with the product. I thought I was going to cross-thread a couple of them at first, but they went in with a little bit of force. Otherwise, it was a snap to set up and get to playing! Quality: So far, everything seems very well constructed for the price point that they are shooting for. I have a Gretsch Renown kit and I can see the small price cutting measures that they took on the Catalina line, but overall it's a well-built and durable little kit. I do wish it came with better bass drum claws, the hollow claws can sometimes dig into the hoop. The Wow Factor: The Copper Sparkle wrap looks really nice, it's going to look good on stage. It is a tad more golden than reddish, so it's almost a champagne color. When my band mates show up for rehearsal next week, I can imagine one of them asking me why I bought a pink drumset. ;) Overall: I just got this got a few days ago and I am very happy with this purchase. I have a "normal" full-size kit but sometimes need a small kit that can fit in my trunk. This kit is perfect for that and I will probably use it for most of my gigging needs. It's just that much easier to move around!
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"WOW!!!" submitted December 31, 2007

By a customer from hotmail.com
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Value
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Musical Background: Active musician
Music Style: A little of everything
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Sound: Gretsch quality without the price! I was completely blown away with the punch, clarity, and tonal quality. What a great kit for gigs or recording. Manufacturer Support: N/A
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"The perfect backup kit/practice kit/budget kit that everyone should get!" submitted December 9, 2008

By a customer from matnet.com
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Sound
Features
Ease of Use
Quality
Value
The Wow Factor
Musical Background: Active Musician
Music Style: Rock & Country
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Sound: This is a great kit! For being such a small kit, it puts out some great sound! I play in a rock/country band, and usually use this kit for the smaller venues, and it cuts right through. With the strange sizes of the drums, and the 5 lug tuning on the 12" tom instead or 6 lugs, it takes some time and effort to get everything tuned right. But once it's dialed in, it's amazing! The snare has a terrific crack to it, the toms have great tone and punch to them, and the bass drum actually has a really deep boom for being 18"! Feature: The only real hardware that comes with the kit is the tom arm for the 12" rack tom that mounts on top of the bass drum. This has a nice look to it, but even after tightening it up after positioning the tom, I find I have to re-adjust the arm after every song or two because it seems to slip a little bit. Ease of Use: This kit is terrific for setup and tear-down! I have another big drum kit for the bigger venues, where I need more drums and volume, and that takes forever to set up. But this little kit takes me about 10 minutes to set-up or tear down, and it's pretty light. Hard to believe that little kit can look and sound so good. Quality: I've seen three different colors of shells on this kit, and they all look terrific, in cool retro styles. I've had mine about 3 years, and have had no problems or complaints. The shells are really good quality, and you can tell Gretsch put a lot of work into a great quality design for a small, budget kit. Value: I paid $500 for this kit about three years ago (Shipping included!) and I love it! One of the best buys I ever made, and whenever I'm at a gig setting up, I can't wait to play it, and love the way it looks on stage with the lights and other gear! You should all buy one! Great for a practice kit at home too! The Wow Factor: I've had some drummer friends jump on stage and play with my band and they all love the kit and ask where I got it and say they have to get one. I get a lot of compliments from non-musicians also at gigs about how cool the kit looks and how great it sounds. Overall: Overall, I would buy this kit again in a heartbeat! If you're looking for an easy kit to setup at smaller venues that won't take up much room, and just has a great sound and look to it, this is the kit to buy! I can't believe how much you get for that low a price. I also use this kit as a second kit for band practices, and also plan to record our next CD with it. The only reason I didn't give it a 10 is that it doesn't have enough power behind it to play some of the bigger venues we play, but it holds up well for most small to medium sized places.
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