Premier Percussion

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Premier Percussion Limited is an English manufacturer of drums and percussion instruments.

The company was founded in 1922 as the Premier Drum Company by London drummer Albert Della Porta and drum builder George Smith. At first, the company produced drum kits for wholesalers, who then would sell them as their own, but Premier soon began producing drums under its own name.

Premier also began producing symphonic percussion, marching percussion, and cymbals in addition to drum kits. Premier was originally located in central London (where the current Footes Music Store is now) and moved to purpose built premises in Acton in the 1930s. When WW2 broke out, Premier was engaged in the manufacture of gun sights for tanks and aircraft, but the factory was bombed out in 1940 and the company was relocated to a new Leicester facility shortly thereafter.

The company enjoyed great success during the Beat Boom of the 1960s not only in the UK, but worldwide and won the Queens Award to Industry in 1966. During the 1970s, Premier invested heavily in a new, purpose built factory to meet demand for their products, but in 1983, the Della-Porta family resigned from the board and the company's name was changed to Premier Percussion in 1984 following a management buyout.

In October 1987, Premier was merged with Yamaha, which owned the Leicester factory until 1992. During this period, Limited was appended to the company name. In 1992, Tony Doughty, who originally arranged the Yamaha merger, took over the company. By 1997, Premier was sold to the Verity Group of Companies before yet another buyout by a British consortium a few years later. Today, Premier continues to produce drum kits, marching percussion, and symphonic percussion (including timpani and mallet percussion).

Premier has had a history of new ownership. Although the chrome plating was lauded, the actual hardware and drum quality has been variable. In the 2000's, Premier started making drums in Taiwan under the Artists maple and birch series. The Premier series, maple, birch or hydbrid/ gen-x shells are made in England. Distribution in the USA isn't as large as it was in the past. The hardware is made on the same assembly line in Taiwan as Tama's.

Noteworthy drums: - Premier 2000 Snare - All drums made of African Mahogany at 70:s - Resonator Series - Signia and Genista Series - APK/XPK - Olympic Series - Artist Series - Premier Series (Maple/Birch/Gen-X Hybrid)


The most of Premier drumssets are made of birch or maple, an excellent wood for making drums, loud, with attack and warm sound. Some new low-budget Premier can be made of another cheap material. Early Premier drums was 3-ply birch, with reinforcing hoops as the most drums from that period.

For some years, at the middle of the 70:s, Premier use an African Mahogany for some drums. Premier drums from that period were three-ply mahogany with beech wood reinforcing hoops (or glue rings.). True mahogany from Africa , Khaya Nyasica, have about a 20% increase in low frequency resonance over the maple drum, mid and high frequencies will be the same from a reproduction point of view, but because the Mahogany has the 20% low end increase, the perceived tone is warmer. It says that Rolls Royce uses the same chrome platters that Premier uses, that's why there plating is still very very good at the most of old Premier. Old Premier always used die cast hoops, what proves that quality has been significant.

Those few mahogany drum sets are very rare and collectable, and sounds fantastic good.

Then most rock stars on 60: s came from USA, all drummers begun to play on Ludwig, Roger's and Slingerland, despite that Premier been equally good, sometimes also better, with great warm sound.


Contents

[edit] Notable artists

[edit] Trivia

  • During an appearance on the Smothers Brothers television show, Keith Moon over-loaded his Premier bass drum with explosive charges which were detonated during the finale of "My Generation", which according to legend resulted in permanent hearing damage for bandmate Pete Townshend and caused Bette Davis to faint.
  • Led Zeppelin's John Bonham received his first drum kit at the age of 14, an old rusty Premier set.

[edit] References

  • "History". Premier Percussion official website. Retrieved February 11,

[edit] External links

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