APK and long lug XPK, it was to hide the meranti (lauan) much the same as Tama used Zola Coat etc

I had a set of Premier Royale drums from the 80's that also had black interiors.

And, if memory serves, even early Rogers drums had black interiors!

-Mark

Yeah thats correct. Royale morphed into the APK and Royale Excel morphed in to the XPK lines

Got a 1990 set of XPKs myself. Birch over Luan and very black inside. Can be very good values.

Pete

Edit: wouldn't really call them cheap. My XPK 5-pc was 1000 dollars in 1990 without plates. APK was cheaper but not that much. Thing about Premier was they didn't sell a bargain kit with plywood until years later. So even their lower end kits would have been considered mid range by other manufactures.

I totally agree! XPK's/APK's from the early 90's are fantastic drums for the money.

The APK and XPK like all Premier drums are plywood

(Warning - eyes may glaze over if you're not into drum shells or lumber products!)

Soooort of, but that's misleading. Really low end drums are made of what is commonly known as "plywood".

Plywood is a wood product made by taking very thin sheets of wood (generally pine but not always) and (this is important) placing each successive sheet's grain at a 90 degree angle from the previous one.

That makes plywood REALLY strong and ideal for building houses, or anything requiring strength.

Cheap drums sound cheap because their wood is made for strength instead of clean sound. All that grain overlap muffles the sound the drums would otherwise make.

The next level up is what is called Veneer (that's what Premier typically but not always used). Those are thicker strips of wood, also glued together, to make a drum shell. Those strips are (and this is important) generally grain aligned. That means the grains all go the same way. That makes all the difference for the sound it produces. Veneer is a much more expensive process because its less automated. Plus for a drum veneer, the sheets are typically staggered so the pieces are glued at different points around the drum.

Upside of Veneer is cost to sound ratio. Plus they tend to be way less prone to cracking and shrinking compared to the single board drum shells. So that makes them more durable.

I'm just saying.

Pete

Thanks Pete I'm a timber specialist.....

Many high end drums are made with cross-laminating techniques i.e. opposing grain direction.