This is the set I've been pondering upon for almost a year. I wanted a pro shell set in cca 1400¤ price range and basically I had 3 options, Pearl Masters Maple Complete, Mapex Saturn V and Gretsch Renown Maple.
Very soon I have eliminated first 2 for various reasons and ended up with Gretsch. To be honest , I wanted a Brooklyn set , which has a much bigger selection of finishes and has a virgin (undriled) bass drum but hey it is 70% more expensive, and besides new Renown RN2 models have the same 302 hoops as Brooklyn sets, only difference being that Renowns are made in Taiwan and Brooklyns in USA. Oher than that I would say they are identical.
So you pay a premium for made in USA.
So finally, am I satisfied with the Renowns ? Absolutely !!
After unpacking I checked every detail and there was no dents or scratches, everything top notch. One thing that is not stated on specifications is that you get extra 4 tension rods for bass drum, in case you loose some, nice addition, I hope this is a standard and a factory mistake. Also one minor problem that was solved very fast tnx to Thomann team : 10" tom had diecast hoops by mistake while other toms had 302 hoops !. I informed customer support and after a week I recevied 10" 302 hoops directly from Gretsch distributor free of charge offcourse, great support from Thomann as always.
Gretsch famous 30 degree bearing edge is really incredible, my 20" kick drum is sounding huge ,and toms have really nice resonance and responsiveness.
All in all , couldn't be more satisfied.
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