Show us your Premier kits!!

Thanks !
This picture is just for the show, since I never take that much equipment (less cymbals and 1 or 2 tom less). But it definitely sounds deep, plenty and powerful.
 
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The kit shown with the different lugs you are asking about is part of the Vintage series which were Hand Built in the UK prior to the departure of Keith Keough. This model has Solid Brass Single point Lugs, Birch core with inner ply of African Mahogany& outer ply of Sapele Pommele.
I see you are a Signia player? If you need any parts let me know as I am still the only Official Premier Service center in the US with the very last of Premier's Signia parts. Direct email is - [email protected]. I also just uncovered some Signia T Shirts I had made several years ago if you're interested, plus a few Signia Logo Stickers & Logo replacements for front Bass Drum Head.
Cheers
Peter
 
Hi again to all, especially SIGNIA players. In about 2 more weeks I will be receiving a small quantity of the SIGNIA Brass Badge. Most Signia kits, unless you have managed to keep the plastic on it but these ones will have a Clear Coat. If you decide to buy any I would suggest pushing out the pins from he inside to re-use on the New Badge. If anyone is interested in these Badges please email me direct on [email protected].
Cheers to all.
Dancincrow Drums
Official Service & Service Center
Monrovia Ca 91016
 
A friend of mine gave me his 1978 Premier Royale APK as a restoration project. He bought it new from Leicester (Premier's home town) and it's been in storage since 1984. I totally stripped it down and enjoyed every moment of bringing it back to it's former glory. Here are some 'before & after' photos -
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Another restoration :)

This old thing...........
Premier Artist Maple in 8, 10, 12, 14 & 22. Bought for next to nothing from a local rehearsal room. thorough clean & a few new parts & now looking well. The shells are quite marked but I kind of like it :) Will be used as my beater kit :)

As bought...........

21751349_10155124036783869_62465948169872474_n by Kevin Frost, on Flickr
21742948_10155124036788869_1559895883506076182_n by Kevin Frost, on Flickr

Once restored :)

21616159_10155135061523869_7574178518579622401_n by Kevin Frost, on Flickr
21685982_10155135061528869_3158802408699601745_n by Kevin Frost, on Flickr
 
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A friend of mine gave me his 1978 Premier Royale APK as a restoration project. He bought it new from Leicester (Premier's home town) and it's been in storage since 1984. I totally stripped it down and enjoyed every moment of bringing it back to it's former glory. Here are some 'before & after' photos -
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That's an amazing job you've done there. It must be extremely rewarding breathing new life into old drums. Sorry to be a nitpicker but I have doubts about the dates. According to a Premier history page I read and some old catalogues I found online a while back, the Royale wasn't introduced until '82 and the Royale APKs with the deeper toms, like the one you restored, didn't come out until '85. Looking at their 1978 range, the bottom to mid level kits were the Olympic and the Soundwave. I think that the ones you restored were the last of the breed that had that lovely design for the tom mounts on the BD and those gorgeous speedboat lugs. Great to see them coming back to their former glory.
 
Here's my 1972 B202 in Silver Star wrap and Premier 2000 snare, which I bought from the original owner in 2010.

Aside from a couple of scuffs, the kit is in great condition. I had to replace part of the Flobeam snare assembly, as both the inner casts were bent to the point of failure, but I hear this is a pretty common problem.

All four drums had their original 'Everplay Extra' reso heads, although the kick's was pretty badly split and had been gaffer-taped by the previous owner. I replaced these, but obviously held on to the originals. In keeping with the times, the floor tom has 'International Size' stamped on the inside.

I have occasionally used the kick-drum cymbal mount but it's no match for a proper boom and probably shouldn't be used for anything too heavy!

The bass drum has a factory-fitted internal muffler, which adds quite a low level of damping and so I use it in conjunction with the SKII. I also recently installed a Drumlite, which looks great behind the Fiberskyn reso - I'm tempted to add another of these to the floor tom as the punters seem to dig it and it's a handy way of adding stage lighting without using up valuable floor space!

Toms and kick are african mahogany with birch re-rings and sound great for the rock, blues and whatnot that I play.

Snare 14 x 5½
Rack 13 x 9
Floor 16 x 16
Kick 22 x 14

Cymbals in these shots:
13" Meinl Byzantium Serpent hats
8" Zildjian A Custom splash
18" Paiste 505 Medium (used as a ride- I'm an open-handed lefty, hence the positioning)
18" Istanbul Mehment Medium crash
 

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Here are my Premier kits - Genista in Damask Red from late 1990's / early 2000's, and my Blue Shimmer kit from late 1960's / early 1970's.
 

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https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10216043184085545&id=1027303065
1960-63 Gold Sparkle Premier drum kit.
With add-on 1950's 10"
10" tom 10.1"cast hoop 9" 7/16 shell(25cm)....
12" tom = 11" 11/16 shell (30cm)
14" snare (35cm) standard size with slightly larger hoop.
14" tom (35cm) add-on post 1967. Standard size hoop.
16" floor tom (40cm) = 16" 3/16 shell
20" bass drum (50cm) standard size.
22" bass drum (55cm) add-on post 1967 standard size.
 
A couple of Signia set ups.
 

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Sweet Signia Kit ! This british green is relatively rare. It's deep and beautiful.
 
Posting to a Premier thread is like sending out the proverbial 'message in a bottle' but I've enjoyed looking at the great kits in this thread and it takes me back to the day. To that end, here's my latest purchase. Last week, I found a set of used Genista's in my local Sam Ash. They are the newer models and this kit appears to be the maple version. 22x18 / 16x16 / 12x9 w/ 14x6 matching snare in Cherry Red Fade lacquer. They look like they were just taken out of the box except some slight damage to the badge on the snare and a little snare rash on the driver's side of the 12". They look and sound great! Loud, lively and punchy. I used to work at a music store in the 90's that was a Premier dealer and I fondly remember the APK's, XPK's and Genista's we had in the store, so I went ahead and brought these new ones into the fold. Here they are in my living room after being fitted with coated G2's on top and clear G1's on the bottom. I've got a couple of gigs this weekend, so I'll take them out and get some proper pics with the full rig and better lighting.
 

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Posting to a Premier thread is like sending out the proverbial 'message in a bottle' but I've enjoyed looking at the great kits in this thread and it takes me back to the day. To that end, here's my latest purchase. Last week, I found a set of used Genista's in my local Sam Ash. They are the newer models and this kit appears to be the maple version. 22x18 / 16x16 / 12x9 w/ 14x6 matching snare in Cherry Red Fade lacquer. They look like they were just taken out of the box except some slight damage to the badge on the snare and a little snare rash on the driver's side of the 12". They look and sound great! Loud, lively and punchy. I used to work at a music store in the 90's that was a Premier dealer and I fondly remember the APK's, XPK's and Genista's we had in the store, so I went ahead and brought these new ones into the fold. Here they are in my living room after being fitted with coated G2's on top and clear G1's on the bottom. I've got a couple of gigs this weekend, so I'll take them out and get some proper pics with the full rig and better lighting.
Beautiful set ! We don’t see the new Genista that often. How do they sound ?
 
Beautiful set ! We don’t see the new Genista that often. How do they sound ?
Thanks! They sound fantastic! You are correct, you never see these things around so when I saw this kit, I figured I'd take the opportunity to check it out. I had a chance to put them to the test last night and this afternoon and they were a lot of fun to play! Last night was an unmic'd gig at a local brewery playing blues. It's a good sounding room and the drums sounded very full with plenty of sustain. This afternoon was an outdoor gig playing country, fully mic'd through a nice sized sound rig on a mobile stage. The kick was beast for both shows. It filled up the room beautifully all by itself at the brewery and it sounded absolutely massive through the big PA at the outdoor show. The snare was superb at both shows, as well. The snares were always under control, without choking, and it was very articulate with a sharp attack and crisp definition. The strainer works very well and tension didn't back off at all, even under heavy playing. Likewise, the snare didn't detune and no lugs detuned or backed out. The cross stick sound was strong and rim shots were a deafening, dry crack. The toms were very full and really rang at the indoor gig it didn't take any time for the sound man to dial them in at the gig. I ran them wide open with no muffling, except for the fact that I used coated G2's. I will probably switch to my regular UV1 coated heads to pull the max tone out of the toms. I've switched to those for my MCA, BCA and DW toms and I've been very pleased with the results. All things considered, I'm very happy with this purchase and, technically, it wasn't even really a purchase. I bartered 3 snares and a set of hi-hats for this kit. I feel like I got a great deal because I traded a bunch of stuff I wasn't using and didn't care about for a sweet kit that looks and sounds great!
 

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Great review ! Uv1 on toms sounds like a good idea ! I run basic clear or coated G1 on my Signia toms : plenty of attack, good projection. If the room requires muffling : moongels are enough.
 
Great review ! Uv1 on toms sounds like a good idea ! I run basic clear or coated G1 on my Signia toms
Thanks! I've always been a fan of Signia and Genista kits! Now that I don't play *quite* as hard as I used to, I've been gravitating more towards single-ply heads for snare and toms. I was trying to burn through my stock of old heads since Evans changed their logo so I went with the coated G2's just to see how they would react. When I got the kit, the toms had clear hydraulics. They had mad sustain and tone, but no attack. I knew it was the heads and not the drums but at that point, they were the best part of the kit. The kick had the original heads, non-ported reso and no muffling and the snare had a coated G2 and Super 30 snare wires that just produced a big, thick, jangly, nasty note with no discernable articulation. They both sounded horrible! I can see why the person got rid of them, lol!!

I went with EMAD2 batter (using the thin muffle strip) and EMAD ported reso for the 22x18 kick and I threw one of my daughter's old black hoodies from when she was like 9 in there for a little extra control. The snare now has an Evans G14 coated batter, Hazy 300 reso and 16 strand Gibraltar snares. I used a half of a moongel at about 10 o'clock. The snare was really a dream to play for both gigs. It really checked off every box for what I want in a snare while using my choice of heads, snares and tuning. I knew the kick sounded great just from my living room but it really sounded great in the bigger room and then outdoors through the big PA.

Anecdotally, the bassist from the Fri night gig made an unsolicited comment about the kick sounding great and then, after the show, a black gentleman about my age came up to me. It was cold Fri night here (Central VA) and he was wearing a 3 piece suit, overcoat, and hat,...looking sharp and classy. He came up and said, "Man, you looked like an octopus back there and I don't know what you did to get those Premier's soundin' like that but man, that bass drum. Whew!" I don't even have a logo head so I could tell he knew his stuff. That just seems like a cool Premier story. The only person in the whole place that even knew what they were was a super classy cat dressed to the nines! Cheers!
 
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