Premier Genista - Drum tuning

Kenny Bones

Junior Member
Hello people!

I've got this drum kit I bought from a local famous drummer here in Norway about 10 years ago. I never knew what kind of kit if was, and quite frankly I never even cared. Until now..

So I searched all over to find what the hell kind of model this kit was. Until I found that it's probably a Premier Genista kit. The previous owner told me it was from the late 70's, or beginning of the 80s. But it seems these kits were only made in the 90s?

Anyway, the kit consists of a 24" bass drum, and a tom and floor tom. And that's it. The snare is a horrible Sonor something that's worth nothing. So I'm going to replace that with something that suits me. Probably a Gretsh or Ludwig Maple snare.

But, I was wondering what kind of skins suits this kit the best? Right now I've got ambassador coated skins on all drums. I kind of like the Phil Collins/Bill Bruford proggy sound from the early 70s. That's why I use coated skins. But I'm not so sure if these are the skins that's best suited for this particular drum kit? I also like the dampened sound that Ringo Star has. But that's not very suited for live gigs.

To top it all, I've got new Paiste cymbals that cost a hell of a lot of money! I've got these:

Signature Crystal Hi-Hats
Signature 20" Full Ride
2002 16" Thin Crash
2002 16" Crash
2002 16" Medium

Now, these produce a whole lot of sound! And they sound fantastic! But I don't feel like the sound of the kit really matches the cymbals..

Any advice? I'll take any advace, in general or more specific :)

The genre I'm playing is pretty jazzy. But the band as a whole plays acoustic, country, light to heavy rock. Kind of like Radiohead in sound. So I'm not sure if the kit really suits these genres? I mean, 24" bass drum? Isn't that a bit overkill? How should I tune this kit?
 
Heya Kenny

Yes, the English built Genistas were definitely 90's (I have one!!)
You can probably tell the model from the tension lugs - have attached a pic of mine below.

If it is a Genista - these were made undersized by Premier - the shells are slightly under the standard sizes - you still use regular sized heads but the tuning (in my experience) is quite simple and the results awesome - the 90's Genista were only birch - I have 10,12,16 toms, 22 bass and 14 snare (all birch) - on the toms I use single-ply coated Aquarian, snare Remo Powerstroke 3, and bass drum Power stroke 3 (with no bedding stuffed in).

I guess we all like different sounds but I particularly go for tone, my bass drum is massive when I want it to be, toms have that lovely "tone drop" and snare is nice and snappy. I play in a light jazz/Latin combo and also big bands and I find the kit flexible enough for all.

Don't know if this helps or maybe it is just me waffling on.
Anyhow - good luck with the kit - there is an awesome guy,"Peter" (on this forum) - his forum name is "dancincrow" - he specialises in Premier for North America - great guy and very helpful - he might be worth contacting re Premier questions - please give him my regards if you do...

All the best

Pete ("Oz")
 

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To my ears, (I've got 2 Genista kits) they sound best with coated Ambassador over clear Ambassadors, or clear Emperors over clear Ambassadors if you're doing more rocky stuff or you're a hard hitter. PS3 on the bass drum and a coated Ambassador as the reso works best for me, no damping at all.

The Evans equivalents (coated G1/G1 or clear G2/G1) work just as well.
 
I had a Genista kit for 12 years. Still kicking myself for selling it (10, 12, 16, 18, 22" + snare). I tried tons of different head combos, but to my ears it sounded best with coated ambassadors over clear ambassadors. Or, clear ambassadors on batter AND reso.
 
Thanks for the replies :) I just bought myself a Supraphinic Black Beauty which I just tuned rather quickly. And it sounds amazing so easily :)

I tuned the resonant head to an A, and the batter head to a C#. Not quite sure I get the sound I'm after, muffling it with a muffler ring makes it "dead" immediatly. And probably sounds good on recordings. But I'd like to try not to use muffler rings. Any ideas on how I can tune the snare? Or any of the other drums for that matter :)

Btw, yes it's the very same model as those drums from the picture above it seems. Certainly looks a lot like mine! All heads are Ambassador coated. And the bottom skins are clear ones.

Again, the snare drum is tuned pretty tight to be able to "feel" the drum more. Perhaps I just have bad techneque. I can't use traditional grip as I've never learned it. So I just kinda tilt my left hand a bit in order to do small whirls when playing beats. Feel like I miss a few hits. And that's why I'm compensaiting with tuning the batter head really tight (If a c# is really tight that is)

Any ideas, tips, anything?
 
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