Gretsch Renown Maple

[Manicoti]

I was wondering if anyone could give me any info on the renown maple series. I'm a huge Gretsch fan and never thought i'd be able to own a set until the Renown series came out. Needless to say i bought a set immediately!
However, after having them for 2 months now, i'm not sure.
I've only played it in 5 different rooms. For the most part they sound absolutely awesome(but do take a little bit of work). But for 2 of the 5 rooms they were absolutely dead, no matter how much i fiddled with them.
I'm currently using Evans G2(i think) coated skins. I'm thinking of going to the clear skins to see if they'll be more "tune" friendly. I like a nice deep full sound as opposed to the sharper dead sound i'm getting now.
The reason i bring this up is because i used to have Pearl Exports and also have a set of Premier APKS (eucalyptus merranti blend) and i don't remember having such a hard time tuning them. It seemed that they sounded pretty well consistent room to room. But these seem to be more "high Maintenance" tuning wise.
Then i read on some buyer feedback that they had purchased a set of Renowns and took them back because no matter what he did, they sounded dead and were hard to tune.
Can anyone out there give me some feedback?
I'm starting to get a little bit of buyers remorse [img]frown.gif[/img]
I'd really like to know if there's a distinct difference in sound from the more expensive USA customs to the Renowns.
Can anyone recommend skins that would compliment these drums. My sizes are..10x8,12x9,14x11 and 22x18
Thanks,
Mani

[sashal3]

First of all,it is important to realize that Gretsch are made within a 16th/inch of said diameter.
I've had great success with The Aquarian heads. I prefer the clear heads for more "snap." Recently,I had trouble with the 12 inch tom,or so I thought. What I had discovered was that the brand new clear ambassador was flawed. I put a clear Aquarian on and it was fine. I believe that any drum will sound good with the right head combination and basic tuning skills. It is important to find good heads that will "seat" properly.
I'm not saying that Aquarian heads are the only ones that will work. I've just had success with them. Unfortunately,experimenting with heads can be costly. Good luck......