Friday, September 18, 2015

Here Comes the Golden Sun: Premier B303, early 70's


I've come a long with Premier drums since my first post about Beverley Blue Badge here on this blog. A couple of years ago I basically knew nothing about Premier except that my hero, Keith Moon, played Premier. As I've mentioned elsewhere in this blog, for most of my drumming career I didn't care about drums as something other than something to play. I didn't know the history of any of the brands and never really bothered with any geeky details.

Well that all changed big-time in recent years.

And regarding Premier, I now consider it one of my obsessions.

For a couple of years now I've been eager to get a kit with 14x8 toms (like Mr Moon), so when I was recently invited to join a new The Who tribute band down here in Budapest, I finally had a perfect excuse to finally make a move.

Stacked up at Will's Drum Shop
Using various Facebook groups, I found this lovely kit for a good price at the legendary Will's Drum Shop in Sunderland, UK, owned and operated by Will Wright. If you don't know about Will and his shop, and if you love drums, be sure to read this article from the Drummer's Journal. It's worth your time.

Anyway, all I knew was that the sizes were what I wanted (12x8, 14x8, 16x15, 22x14) and that the kit had plenty of signs of wear and some extra holes on the kick. The price was right, so I placed total trust in Will's reputation and bought the kit without much pissing around, so to speak. Here's what it looked like stacked up at Will's shop (right).

When she arrived, I realized the main issue was certainly the extra holes. A previous owner had removed the disappearing spurs and added the Premier folding spurs. The job wasn't very well done, but the spurs do the job, and holes can be filled.

The edges on the 14" tom were really horrible. As former Premier endorser John Maher from the Buzzcocks has said on the Premier Group on Facebook, Premier made great shells but did not always cut the best edges. Again, no worries. I've already had them recut.

And now I'll let the pictures speak a thousand words. You can see that I've polished them up nicely. You can't hear how great they sound, so just take my word for it. When we have "Who practice" I really find myself in the room with The Who... it is THAT sound from LPs like Who's Next and Quadrophenia. Perfect. I have G2 Clear on top and Coated Ambassador on the botom. My theory is that the clear head will be more like Moon's Everyplay Extra, but I have no proof except that I'm hearing very Moonie sounds with this head combo.

This was the key to getting these babies clean and shiny
Newly painted hoops

Mahogany shells lightly sanded and polished with beeswax

My weapons: CX-80 is a teflon spray that really brought out the shine in the wrap. 

P for Premier. Love it.
All polished and shiny. Teflon spray did the job.
The kick has a funny little cowbell holder... Another extra hole, but I don't care!
The oval mount has a small stress fracture, as is typical of this model.



Monday, March 9, 2015

Tama Imperialstar King-Beat snare: Replacement Lugs

Far left = lugs prone to crack

It's a well-known fact that early-80's Tama Imperialstar "King-Beat" snares and some Superstar (Mastercraft) models have lugs that are prone to crack under extreme pressure.

Drum sites are full of guys lamenting a busted lug on their beloved old 80's Tama.

Looking for replacement lugs?

Well, you've just found 'em.

I'm gonna keep this post short and to the point:
  • Do not try lugs with 2" (51mm) spacing for your old Tama snare!!!
  • You need 1-15/16 inches (49mm)
  • You can get 1 15/16" lugs in Europe from ST Drums
  • UPDATE: I checked the ST Drums page and they seem to have changed this lug to 51mm, not 49. Please be careful before buying. Sorry for any trouble!
  • This one is listed as 49mm: https://stdrums.com/en/p/st352sn 
  • This baby right here: ST-LUGSNDO80
They will work perfectly for your Tama snare. I also heard they may work for Rogers Dynasonic, which apparently also has 1 15/16" spacing center-to-center.

My snare with ST Drums lugs, model ST-LUGSNDO80


This is a 2" lug. It won't work.



You want this. From ST Drums. Model ST-LUGSNDO80.
As noted above, they changed the hole spacing on this model! Be careful when buying anything! This one is listed as 49mm: https://stdrums.com/en/p/st352sn




(Pardon my cats)


OTHER OPTIONS

  • Another option with 1 15/16" spacing seems to be from the Premier Elite line (formerly available at Drum Factory Direct in the States)
  • A forum member over at Vintage Drum Forum (latzanimal) says he had luck with lugs from Allstar Drum Co in the USA.