britdrums Posted October 11, 2004 Share Posted October 11, 2004 Do any lines still use Premier drums? I know that years ago loads of lines used them but more and more people seem to be turning to Dynasty these days? If anyone does how do you find their customer service? Over here in the UK in recent years it hasn't been the greatest, just wondered how you guys fare on your side of the pond? cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PercussionMafia Posted October 12, 2004 Share Posted October 12, 2004 (edited) Well, as you said, Premier has been dying in the drum corps market, but some corps still use them (Cascades '04, for example). The biggest thing hurting them is quality of products and availability of parts. They tend to fall apart and becuase they're over in the UK, parts are hard (and expensive to get). For a corps on tour, this presents an obvious problem. With Dynasty growing and Yamaha and Pearl holding their strong ground, it will be hard for Premier to make a comeback. Plus, Yamaha and Dynasty also offer package deals on the horns they make. Premier (and Pearl, for that matter) don't have that edge. Edited October 12, 2004 by PercussionMafia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted October 12, 2004 Share Posted October 12, 2004 Wow, this is just like a big neon sign saying: "Jason, ##### here!" Premier has been the bane of my existance. 1. The drums are horribly designed. Numerous....numerous....NUMEROUS problems with them. Some of the cosmetic, some of them QUITE severe in regards to structural integrity. There is a structural flaw which will strip out the lugs, causing them to freeze up, GOUGE OUT the lower rim, and make it IMPOSSIBLE to even remove the head, much less tune the drum. In order to fix this, you have to take a bolt cutter to the lugnut, break it off, remove the ENTIRE BOTTOM RIM on the upper head assembly, and send it to Premier for replacement. The triggers on the snare throws are cheap plastic. ALL of ours busted off within the first month. We have ALSO had problems with removing drum heads (the rims are too large for Flams, Black Max, and even Powerstrokes, resulting in the heads literaly WEDGING onto the drum, requiring one to pry the thing off.) This makes head replacement on the fly darn near impossible. The outer covering of the drum CRACKS at the slightest thing. We've had to remove ALL of the coverings on our premier equipment and paint the drums. The HTS series of tenors has a metal lower rim (like a HTS snare). Unfortunatly the black coating on these rims chips, creating sharp edges which eat through tenor heads like you wouldn't believe. Compaired to the Pearls we got in, we replace heads on the HTS Tenors THREE TIMES as often as the Pearls. 2. Getting parts state side is akin to trying to pull out one's teeth with a toothpick. 3. Turn around time for getting the drums in is redicilous. It took us 8 MONTHS from the time we ordered our first batch of drums to get them in our hands. Even WORSE: We spent a year and a half waiting to get a 24 inch bass in our hands. WHY? Because they're built in England, and only done in one batch at a time. Premier COULD make a comeback if: A: They had better equpment. Equipment that ACTUALLY held up. and B: Tossed some money at corps to increase their visability in the competive market. But untill they focus on A, B doesn't mean one hill of beans, because there are STILL going to be guys like me out there letting people know what a pain in the butt those drums are to work with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tylerdurden Posted October 17, 2004 Share Posted October 17, 2004 Premier's blow. After what happend to the Blue Stars in 2002 and my personal dealings with them, I'll never put one cent into Premier. I keep hearing they are changing some design issues, if they do I might give them a chance. Dynasty did it, and their new drums are great. The guy I teach winter with now delt with them at a local high school, and on state finals day one of the kids blew a head. He couldent get the old head off since the rim and shell had warped. I mean there were 3 people around this drum pulling as hard as possible and the head would not come off. I own a premier snare for personal use, it isnt that bad, but i'd be afraid to take it outside and march it for a summer. The god #### snare unit up and falls off SITTING ON A STAND. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCIFanOfAllDivisions Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 are you all talking about the new premier snares though like what Seattle, Colts, Troopers use?... or the old models with the free-floating tenors Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Percman Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 I have an older premier snare, free-floater.. This is the model with solid hardware. When they had full metal inserts inside of the metal tubes..The inserts went from top to bottom and never popped.. The top head had those inserts that just went into the hoop..again they were as strong as s***....The sound was always great.. But then again its 14years old..Back then they were built like a machine... Right now my favorite snare is Dynasty... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeN Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 Our pipe band uses HTS-200's (the older model) - they're heavier, but we've had good luck with them. (Though the wrap on mine is fairly cracked - but it seems like mine's the only one with that trouble.) Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 I have an older premier snare, free-floater.. This is the model with solid hardware.When they had full metal inserts inside of the metal tubes..The inserts went from top to bottom and never popped.. The top head had those inserts that just went into the hoop..again they were as strong as s***....The sound was always great.. But then again its 14years old..Back then they were built like a machine... Right now my favorite snare is Dynasty... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The old 780's were built like I tank. That's what the old line I use to march at used. I swear, you can drop them off of a cliff and they'ld hold up with little more then a scratch. The 784 is the updated and "current" model. It's the model we picked up around 1999/2000, and are the worst drums I've ever had the misfortune of working with. I cant comment on the pipe band models. I've talked to a pipe drummer from Winnepeg, and he had heard that the newer pipe band models were suffering from a lot of the same problems that the marching band models were suffering from. Like I said, I'ld swear by premier up till our batch, and will never drop another dime on them again. Our pearls are holding up VERY nicely. This will be our second year with them and they've worked absolutly perfectly. Easy to tune, no problems at ALL with anything. In fact after dealing with the Premiers for four years, it's kind of unsettling how many things they got wrong, and how much the pearls got right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 after my experiences the last 4 years i refuse to ever go near them again. between drum issues, customer service issues and generally spending more time fixing the drums than what was played on them, i'd rather have a 15 inch slingerland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 And you'ld have an easier time finding parts for the slingerland I'ld wager.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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