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“The best of the best”

written by on 28/01/2013

I read loads of poorly informed comments on Premier Signia drums posted on the internet,let me put a few things straight for you.
I bought a Premier signia kit in around 1994 (new) and I played it professionally for about 15 years before (stupidly) selling it. The Signia was Premiers greatest triumph and it's top of the range pro kit. All maple, very thin shells, with support hoops, I preferred to fit Remo Ambassador clears to the toms and a Remo Powerstroke 3 coated bass drum head.It sounded wonderful and as I was lucky to be playing it in big venues, it got the best chance to sound at it's best. Sound engineers often marvelled at it and it was capable of being so loud (if required) that often it was not miked up when lesser kits would have had to be. The Signia Marquis which came afterwards was not better (I had one)and by that time, the build quality at Premier's Leicester England factory, was in it's death throws and the workers were obviously trying to kill the company themselves!. I understand (as I had long suspected) that the later Premier Series drums(where the quality improved again for a while)which also had thin shells with support rings (as one of the options) was the same shell as the original Signia's.
Premier signia drums were showered with awards when they were first launched. I've tried other drums since including my present Mapex Saturn, but none sound so great as a signia. I'm always on the look out for a replacement set, but as mine were immaculate when I sold them, I'm struggling to find some as good.