Hi All,

I was fortunate enough to come across my 3rd vintage Premier kit locally. I'm a big fan of these, and this newest acquisition looks like 1960's era. To my dismay, I tried changing the 16" floor tom head and it didn't fit! OH NO! Metric drums.

Doing a bit of searching here, I found that Remo makes a certain number of international sized models; Ambassadors, maybe Emperor, Pinstripe ... with the model numbers ending in "PR" (i.e. BA-0114PR" or something similar). Does anyone have a good online shop to find these? Or should I just visit my local shop? (support your local economy!)

For the record, two different USA-made heads did not fit my floor tom: both the Remo coated Ambassador and Ludwig clear batter were slightly too small.

Since I haven't tried the 12" or 20" drums yet, do you recommend that I buy all new international-sized heads for each? I have some heads already that I was hoping to use, but I have a feeling none will fit.

Sorry I have no pics yet, but will update this thread with them soon. Three drums I bought (with a 1971 Ludwig Supraphonic included - bonus!) were 12", 16", and 20" - black wrap. Unfortunately someone replaced all the rounded, slotted tuning lugs with traditional square-headed ones. Also one side of the bass drum had the L-handled tuning rods replaced by standard drum key long rods. Fortunately all the hoop hooks are original! I think all the rims and hoops are original too. Judging from the holes in the drums, these originally had the old style tom mount, where the tom attachment was near the bottom of the tom, and the bass drum mount had a triangular base.

I hope to restore all the tuning rods, the bass drum rods, and change all the heads soon. Any advice you have is welcome!!

Pics coming!