I found another hidden gem at my son's school. It's a 1974 8-lug Primier Model 35. I installed an Evans Power Center Reverse Dot batter head and a Hazy 300 resonant head. I was able to keep the original New Era snare wires too.

It has a couple small dimples in the aluminum shell and has very little pitting. It looks like it was dropped at least once in it's lifetime, because the throw-off lever is bent, which reduces the travel when you engage the snares. If you give it a good rim shot, the lever disengages. As a quick temporary fix, I used a rubber band between the tension rod to the left and the throw-off arm. It's back at the school right now, so they can use it. Is this common with this type of Primier throw-off? Does anybody have an extra one that is for sale? I don't really want them to need a rubber band to make the drum function correctly.

I have attached some Before and After pictures.

- Tim